Joint effort
Corey, Sharpton press Blaz on pot nabs
THE REV. Al Sharpton and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson have high hopes.
The pair voiced cautious optimism on Saturday after Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD announced coming reforms meant to correct the city’s gaping racial disparity in marijuana arrests.
“This is an issue that cannot be emphasized enough,” Sharpton said. “It’s not about whether or not you agree with people smoking a joint. It’s about whether it should be criminalized.”
The NYPD can arrest people they find smoking marijuana in public — and 86% of the busts are of blacks and Latinos. Studies show people of all races use marijuana at similar rates.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. announced Tuesday that starting on Aug. 1 he will decline to prosecute marijuana possession and smoking cases. The change is expected to cut pot prosecutions in Manhattan from 5,000 a year to 200, a 96% drop.
Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez already declines to prosecute many marijuana cases and said Tuesday he will expand his policy in the coming weeks.
De Blasio pledged Tuesday that the NYPD would “overhaul and reform” its marijuana policies in the next 30 days, following a campaign spearheaded by Sharpton and Johnson.
Sharpton and Johnson, speaking at the National Action Network’s weekly rally in Harlem, vowed to continue to apply pressure on the mayor.
“He called me and Rev. Sharpton,” Johnson said. “We are already getting results, but we need to make sure this is handled in a just and fair way.”
He added that the City Hall press conference discussing the disproportionate arrests of black and Latino New Yorkers the duo hosted on Tuesday was not a “one-off deal.”
“It was the beginning of a sustained conversation and campaign for us to say we need to change policing,” Johnson said.
In the past, de Blasio has agreed with NYPD arguments that it makes arrests where it receives complaints.
But data highlighted by the Daily News and others called into question that idea — finding little overlap between the neighborhoods with the most arrests and the most complaints to police.
Johnson also took time Saturday to promote one of his priority items: discounted MetroCard fares for poor New Yorkers.
The “Fair Fares” program would give an estimated 800,000 city dwellers living below the poverty line half-price subway fare cards.
“We should not live in a city where each one of us walks into a subway station and someone is begging for a swipe because they’re trying to get to work or school,” Johnson said. “That’s not right.”
He called on de Blasio to back the subsidy, noting that other major metropolitan areas are already offering income-based fare discounts for mass transit.
“The mayor has said he wants New York City to be the fairest big city in America,” Johnson added. “‘Fair Fares’ will help make that possible.”