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Black, White and Green
AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE FAR MORE LIKELY TO BE ARRESTED ON MARIJUANA CHARGES
By Joshua Eaton news@flagpole.com
one incident, an officer smelled marijuana after
he stopped a car for running a stop sign. When he
searched the car, the officer found “a small bag of a green
leafy substance” and arrested the driver for possession.
In another, two officers patrolling in an unmarked car
noticed another car “attempting to avoid law enforcement.”
After frisking the driver and chasing down a passenger
who fled, the officers found a glass jar of marijuana on the
passenger seat and a digital scale in the driver’s-side door
pocket. The two men were arrested for possession with
intent to distribute—a felony that carries a mandatory
minimum of one year under Georgia law.
This is just a small window into over 1,400 arrests on
marijuana charges by the Athens-Clarke County police
detailed in documents obtained by Flagpole. An analysis of
this data found a large racial divide in how Athens-Clarke
County enforces state marijuana laws. African Americans
are nearly five times more likely to be arrested on a mari
juana charge, this investigation found. That gap was even
larger for one of the most serious possession charges. The
overall disparity has persisted for decades.
This racial divide is part of a national trend, according
to Art Way, senior director for national criminal justice
reform strategy at the Drug Policy Alliance. That’s despite
research showing that blacks and whites in the U.S. use
marijuana at about the same rate.
“This is a small slice of a widespread problem,” Way
told Flagpole in an email. “Racial disparities exist nation
wide at every step in the criminal justice system—stops,
searches, arrests, convictions and sentencing. The drug war
in general, and marijuana prohibition more specifically, is a
veneer to continue the historic disenfranchisement of the
poor and people of color.”
Only about 27 percent of Athens residents are black,
according to U.S. Census data. However, nearly 65 percent
of people the Athens-Clarke County Police Department
charged with a marijuana violation between 2012-2015
were black, according to data provided by the department.
Meanwhile, just 34 percent of those arrested on marijuana
charges were white, even though whites make up 65 per
cent of Athens’ population.These statistics show that blacks
are 4.7 times more likely to be charged with a marijuana
violation in Athens, whether alone or in the course of an
arrest for another charge.
“My gut reaction is, that’s messed up. That’s ugly,” com
munity activist and artist Lemuel “Life” LaRoche said when
presented with these statistics.
Those arrested on marijuana charges by ACC police have
been at least 54 percent black since at least 2000, accord
ing to a separate set of jail booking data provided by the
Clarke County Sheriff’s Office. That data also shows that
Athens police were responsible for about 66 percent of
Clarke County jail bookings on marijuana charges in 2014
and 2015. However, the large racial disparity in marijuana
arrests is present even when arrests by other agencies, like
the sheriff’s office and University of Georgia police, are
included.
Both sets of data count arrests, rather than people.
It’s likely the same individuals show up more than once.
However, that does little to account for the disproportion
ate number of charges against blacks versus whites.
Nearly three-fourths of those charges were for posses
sion of 1 ounce or less—a misdemeanor that can be pun
ished by up to a year in prison or a $1,000 fine, but usually
carries a penalty of probation and community service for
POPULATION ARRESTS
first-time offenders. Another quarter of the charges were
for possession with intent to distribute, a serious felony
that carries up to five years in prison and a one-year man
datory minimum. Possession of less than an ounce can also
become a felony when officers suspect intent to distribute.
That determination is up to the officer’s discretion, accord
ing to experts. Often, it hinges on how the marijuana is
packaged or whether the subject is carrying other items
associated with drug dealing, like cash, a scale or small plas
tic bags.
The largest racial disparity by far was in arrests for pos
session of marijuana with intent to distribute. Nearly 77
percent of those ACC police charged with intent to distrib
ute between 2012-2015 were black, while only 21 percent
were white, and less than 2 percent were either Asian or did
not have their race recorded by police.
The disparity in marijuana arrests has been growing
across the state and the country in recent years, according
to Maya Dillard Smith, executive director of the ACLU of
Georgia. African Americans make up 87 percent of arrests
for marijuana possession in Fulton County, Smith said,
while African Americans in rural Gordon County are 14.1
times more likely than whites to be arrested on a marijuana
charge, for example.
“Given Gov. Deal’s commitment to criminal justice
reform and reducing jail and prison populations to save
taxpayers money, we believe decriminalizing low-quantity
marijuana possession is a smart public policy that advances
the governor’s goals,” Smith told Flagpole by email. “Doing
so would necessarily reduce racial disparities in such
arrests.”
A 2013 report by the American Civil Liberties Union
found that blacks and whites use marijuana at roughly
the same rate. However, nationally, African Americans are
nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana
possession than whites, according to the report. And that
rate has grown dramatically since 2001.
In Athens, activists are pushing for local solutions. The
issue came up when Tim Denson, president of the advocacy
group Athens for Everyone, was campaigning for mayor in
2014. “There was a lot of fear based around it,” Denson said.
“There were definitely many, many people we spoke to who
felt like there was intentional bias being put into place.”
Dustin Kirby, a local lawyer who was running for the
ACC Commission, proposed a stopgap solution—a county
ordinance that would give police the option of issuing
people caught with marijuana a civil fine, similar to a park
ing ticket, rather than arresting the person on criminal
charges.
The commission initially rejected that idea after the
county’s attorney said it would conflict with state law.
However, Athens for Everyone plans to continue pursuing
the ordinance, Denson said. Both Kirby and Denson see it
as a temporary solution until marijuana can be decrimi
nalized, or even legalized, on the state level. “I definitely
think it’s something that Athens should lead on. I think
people here in Athens-Clarke County expect us to,”
Denson said of the ordinance.
For his part, LaRoche is tackling the issue from the
ground up. The youth organization he founded, Chess and
Community, sponsored a chess tournament between police
officers and young members of Athens’ black community
this past summer. He’s optimistic about the impact those
kinds of initiatives can have. “The solution is becoming a lot
more integrated with the police force,” LaRoche said. “And
I think a lot of those steps are being taken right now—
especially with the new chief, Scott Freeman.”
Pressed on what could account for the wide disparity in
his department’s marijuana arrests, Freeman said it would
be best for Flagpole to draw its own conclusions from the
documents his department provided.
Freeman took over as chief of the Athens-Clarke County
Police Department in June of last year, after 24 years in law
enforcement in Rockdale County. “I’ve undertaken a major
reorganization of the ACCPD, plan on implementing all new
policies this year that focus on and support constitutional
community policing and have launched an assessment of
the ACCPD based on President Obama’s Task Force on 21st
Century Policing,” he told Flagpole.
The department’s current bias policy bans profiling on
the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation,
religion, age or economic status. “A primary value of the
ACCPD is to respect the dignity and worth of each indi
vidual,” the policy states. ©
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8 FLAGPOLE.COM-APRIL 20, 2016