Residents, community organizations and politicians said they support a proposed Cook County ordinance that would not require some marijuana offenders to be arrested but receive a $200 ticket instead.
Residents, community organizations and politicians said they support a proposed Cook County ordinance that would not require some marijuana offenders to be arrested but receive a $200 ticket instead.
Cook County Commissioner Earlean Collins, D-1st Dist., sponsored the ordinance to, among other things, racially even the playing field.
“This ordinance is nothing new to law enforcement because whites are already being let go with a warning when caught with relatively small grams of marijuana on them,” Collins told the Defender. “You cannot tell me that Blacks use marijuana more than whites. It appears that way because most of the arrests are of Blacks.”
In 2008, the sheriff’s police made nearly 200 arrests for marijuana possession mostly in unincorporated Cook County, which is where the ordinance would predominately concentrate, Collins explained.
The commissioner, who is up for re-election in 2010, said that for too long Blacks have been arrested for marijuana possession while whites were let go with a warning by police.
“This ordinance will allow Blacks to have a better shot at equality when it comes to the criminal justice system,” she said. “If you visit any Juvenile Detention Center you will see most of the kids there are Black. And we know that Juvenile Detention Centers are the gateway to prison.”
Community organizations also support ticketing offenders caught with small quantities of marijuana rather than clogging up jails and courts.
“Too many times we see Black men standing on the corner wearing white T-shirts being arrested for petty crimes,” said Walter Davidson, executive director for Equality for All, a Chicago non-profit organization, which advocates for legalizing marijuana use. “Everyday people are walking down the street smoking cigars stuffed with marijuana (known as blunts) so people already are in possession of marijuana. But as long as they are not selling it but using it for recreational purposes, it shouldn’t be illegal.”
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