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BY LYNDSEY GARZA
ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO
Get busted now in Chicago for possession of a small amount of pot and you could serve
six months in jail and/or be fined $1,500. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed a plan that
would change that. He says it would free up valuable police time and jail space. WFLD
has the decriminalization details.
“The mayor’s plan would allow cops to ticket people between $100 and $500 for having
15 grams or less of marijuana.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his support for decriminalization last week.
The Chicago Reader reports that in New York and Chicago 78 percent of those arrested and
92 percent of those convicted for possession of small amounts of pot are African-American.
“Chicago police have long practiced their own version of stop and frisk: they approach
those they deem suspicious to conduct a ‘field interview,’ and in a remarkable number of
instances the suspects abruptly throw baggies of pot to the ground... [This] manages to
remove the question of whether searching the subject was legal.”
Police made more than 18,000 arrests last year in Chicago for possession of less than
10 grams of marijuana. Chicago’s Police Superintendent tells Chicago’s NBC for every
arrest, four officers are required for detaining and transporting the perpetrator.
“The new ordinance nearly cuts that time in half, which equals an approximate $1 million
in savings, while freeing up cops to address more serious crime.”
The Chicago Sun-Times reports 9 out of 10 misdemeanor cases have been dropped between
2006 and 2010, which demonstrates how costly the current laws are for the judicial system.
A change in the way cannabis is regulated, argues the Times, could reduce costs law enforcement
but...
“I don’t believe the mayor or the police chief in Chicago finds it acceptable for people
to stand on Michigan Avenue or State Street and smoke pot. But it would be good if this
gives the impression that the government views marijuana as innocuous.”
The Chicago City Council is expected to vote on the proposal June 27.