A woman was headed to the ATM on East 85th Street at 7:30 p.m. on Monday February 25th. After she was finished, she went back to her car and sat inside. A black male, approximately 5’8 approached the car and stated “give me the money” while displaying a black handgun. The unknown man then took the $15 and fled. Police searched the area but with no results.

Bar Stool Burglary

On February 24th, a 56-year-old woman was sitting inside a bar on Second Avenue at 7:30 p.m. She had her handbag on the bar stool, and an unknown person removed her bag without permission. The victim then went to a friend’s house and canceled her cards, but she already saw a charge had been made on a taxi to Queens. In total: $3,621 in cash was stolen, as well as her purse, ID and cell phone. No arrests have yet been made

 Men Arrested for 20 Bags of Marijuana

Two perpetrators were observed inside a 2006 Chevy Impala vehicle on the corner of First Avenue and 92nd Street on February 23rd at 6:30 p.m. The first perpetrator had a gravity knife. They also were found to have 17 bags of marijuana on their possession. A further search inside the car revealed three other bags. The pair, a black man, aged 30, and another black man aged 25, were arrested for drug possession.

 Road Rage Taken to a New Level

Following a heated argument between two drivers on February 25th at 10 p.m. on East 81st Street, one of the drivers proceeded to follow the victim. The 26-year-old Hispanic man parked the car and got out. He proceeded to hit his victim in the face, causing him to lose balance and fall. The assailant fled the scene in his vehicle, and the victim ended up with lacerations on his face and head. The assailant is wanted for assault.

 Bank Robbery on 2nd Ave

Inside a 2nd Avenue bank on February 26th in the afternoon, two unknown people (one female, white, 42; and the other male, black 6’2) entered the bank. Both approached the teller and shoved identical notes under the window that said “no dye packs, no alarms, no GPS, all $100s, $50s and $10s in the bag- comply and no one gets hurt.” In total, the perpetrators were given $1,540. Police are still on the lookout for the individuals  responsible.

DISAPPEARING SCOOTER
An Upper East Side resident’s scooter disappeared on Friday when she parked it along Central Park. The 46-year-old arrived at West 64th Street around 8 p.m., then left the vehicle, a red Yamaha Vino, on the street to go about her business in the city. When she returned, the vehicle was gone. She reported the missing scooter to the police, but no nearby security cameras were available to give any clues to the theft.

UNFAIR FIGHT
A group of young girls ganged up on a woman outside her West 66th Street workplace last week to rob her. The woman walked out of her office at 5 p.m. on Friday and was approached by four strangers. One of the young girls began to accost her, then launched into an attack, punching her head and body. The other three girls quickly joined the melee. One grabbed the woman’s purse during the assault, then the four fled toward Columbus Avenue. The woman was left bruised and with cuts, but reported no serious injuries. Her purse contained a yellow metal ring, numerous credit cards and her passport.

GRAND LARCENY
Over $250,000 was stolen from a West 64th Street resident after she gave her personal information to a fake credit card worker. The theft began last month when the woman, 57, received a call from a stranger who claimed to work for American Express. The stranger told the woman the credit card company needed her personal identification number, and she gave it to the caller. The woman recently checked her bank account and realized that over a quarter of a million dollars was missing, charged throughout the month to expenses in the city and out of state.

DRUG BUST WITH A CHASE
Two young men were busted during a drug deal on Wednesday, Nov. 14, but one tried to get away. Cops saw the 24- and 25-year-olds exchanging marijuana and money on a street corner along West 59th Street at around 5 p.m. The officers approached the men and began to arrest them, but the 25-year-old lashed out, kicking his arresting officer in the shin and punching him in the head, then fleeing into oncoming traffic as the officer recovered. The cops on the scene could not pursue the perp, but he was apprehended just down the road by other officers as he attempted to escape.

I used to turn down pot so I could someday run for Congress

By Alan S. Chartock

When I was a young man, I refused to smoke marijuana when offered the opportunity. I thought that it might interfere with my future career—at the time, I thought I might like to run for Congress and that if you were caught, you were disqualified.

Of course, we now know that weed is a rite of passage. Presidents and presidential candidates freely admit to drug use. We also know that white middle-class kids and their parents are exempt—it’s tough to get caught smoking dope when you are on the 15th floor of a Park Avenue apartment. On the other hand, if you are a black or Latino kid on the streetcorner, it is very easy to get stopped and frisked and sent off to jail.

Right now there is a great debate on whether to make marijuana possession legal or almost legal. I have a doctor friend, one of the top addiction specialists in the country, who tells me that marijuana is what we might call a “gateway drug.” She says that if you start with weed, you often graduate to something stronger. I have great respect for this doctor, who has to deal with people who have been sucked into drug use, and I find it difficult to dismiss her concerns. Yet the inequalities I mentioned above are also of great concern.

Let there be no mistake about it: Alcohol is every bit as dangerous as marijuana. In fact, judging from the number of automobile accidents every year caused by alcohol abuse, strong drink is much more dangerous than marijuana.

Now that the Rockefeller drug laws have been modified, things have gotten more sensible. Fewer kids are being put into the system, but there is still a glut of arrests among our most disadvantaged citizens. Some distinguished lawmakers have suggested it is time to legalize marijuana and other much more deadly and heavy drugs. Some have suggested that if we legalize cannabis, the same arguments that lead to its legalization will be used for other drugs.

Such a debate is really above my pay grade; I certainly can see all the arguments for and against it. As long as there is poverty and a lack of hope, there will be drug use in this country.

The idea of making marijuana possession a violation, like a speeding ticket, is a step in the right direction. Jail or prison time is just not an answer. The only people who make out in that scenario are those who run our gigantic prison industry. We know that there are just too many people behind bars. I certainly think that if we are going to spend the money, we should spend it on giving people an economic chance and some hope—I am sure that would go further than consigning them to a life of hell sending them to jail. Even a history of a violation may well hurt someone’s chances in life.
We know that cannabis has helped people who are terminal cancer patients. Our congressional and legislative hearings are replete with such testimony from some very high-ranking people in this country, including judges and doctors.

It is hard to believe that there isn’t a simple majority, even among the Republicans in the state Senate, who haven’t used marijuana. That makes it rank hypocrisy to criminalize its use. Otherwise, I suggest that all those sitting in the upper House should turn themselves in. I mean, wouldn’t that be the right thing to do?

Sometimes in life, choices have to be made. We know that when we tried to criminalize the use of alcohol, the result was catastrophic; a black market resulted and criminals got rich. The same thing is true with the distribution of marijuana. The time has come to do the right thing and use available money to help people who have developed serious drug problems. Makes a lot more sense than what we are doing.

Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.

Photo by saebaryo. Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons.

Cuomo seeks to loosen marijuana policies, while some lawmakers call proposal too lenient

By Paul Bisceglio

Get caught with a joint hidden in your pocket in New York and you get a fine. Get caught with a joint tucked behind your ear or lit in your hand and you get arrested. Concealed possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana is a violation, while possession of the same amount in public view is a misdemeanor. Simple distinction, right?

Nope. Consider this: A cop stops you on the street and tells you to empty your pockets, and along with your wallet and keys, out into the open comes the small bag of pot you wanted to smoke at home. Because you followed the cop’s orders, and only because you followed the cop’s orders, you are now subject to a much more severe punishment than when you were whistling down the sidewalk with Mary Jane ensconced by your side.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo started a charge last week to erase this “loophole” in law enforcement, as many officials have called it, by proposing a change in state law that would reduce the penalty of visibly possessing 25 grams or less of marijuana in public to a violation with a fine of up to $100 for first-time violators.

Cuomo maintained that smoking in public should remain an arrestable misdemeanor, but argued that a reduced penalty for visible weed that’s not burning would combat the discriminatory police stop-and-frisk tactics that contributed to the arrest of over 50,000 New Yorkers for possession of small amounts of marijuana last year.

“This is an issue that disproportionately affects young people—they wind up with a permanent stain on their record for something that would otherwise be a violation,” he said when he announced the proposal. “The charge makes it more difficult for them to find a job. Together, we are making New York fairer and safer and ensuring that every New Yorker has access to a justice system that doesn’t discriminate based on age or color.”

The numbers are telling. Cuomo pointed out that 50 percent of those arrested last year were under 25, and less than 10 percent were ever convicted of a crime. 82 percent were either black or Hispanic. When compared to federal government data on drug use showing that whites use marijuana at higher rates than blacks or Hispanics, the likelihood of police discrimination becomes clear.

Supporters see Cuomo’s proposal as a necessary continuation of the decriminalization of concealed marijuana in 1977 that will not only protect unlawfully targeted youths from arrests that harm their education, job and housing prospects, but also free up significant police resources to concentrate on graver crimes.

“The over 50,000 arrests for low-level marijuana possession last year—one out of every seven arrests in New York City—cost the city and state of New York nearly $75 million in police and court costs,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, speaking in support of Cuomo’s announcement.

“The simple and fair change proposed by Governor Cuomo will help us redirect significant resources to the most violent criminals and serious crime problems and, frankly, is the right thing to do,” said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance.
Other officials who endorsed Cuomo’s proposal include City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and State Sen. Daniel Squadron. A major coalition of advocacy groups, including Color of Change, Drug Policy Alliance, VOCAL-NY and the Institute for Juvenile Justice Reform and Alternatives launched an online video campaign following the governor’s announcement in support of the change.

Opposed to the proposal is the State Senate’s Republican majority, headed by Dean Skelos, who argued that the change would be excessively lenient. “Being able to just walk around with 10 joints in each ear and only getting a violation, I think that’s wrong,” he told reporters. He said the proposal would not pass his chamber in its current form.

On the police’s manipulation of stop-and-frisk tactics to garner arrests, however, Skelos said, “That is wrong. It should be a violation. You’re following the policeman’s order.”

The 13-building complex, which stretches from West 61st to 65th streets, is near several schools, including Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Beacon High School and P.S. 191. In fact, law enforcement officials observed high school students being recruited and trained as lookouts and dealers during the nine-month probe into the drug operation. Three high school students were arrested in the drug bust.

The investigation was sparked by tenant complaints about heavy foot traffic in hallways and drug paraphernalia littering stairwells.