Say race gap baked into mayor pot-bust bid

A Queens City Councilman got blunt Monday, saying the mayor isn’t doing enough to reduce the racial disparity in marijuana arrests.

State figures for the first six months of 2018 show that 89% of all New Yorkers busted for smoking pot were either black or Hispanic, while just 7% were white.

“Predictably, the numbers show that the disparity in marijuana enforcement is going in the wrong direction,” Councilman Rory Lancman said. “Arrests are too high, and the disparity is unconscionable.”

Mayor De Blasio said Aug. 30 the NYPD’s new marijuana arrest policy would reduce the number of busts, but added he is “committed” to reducing the disparity.

“The highest form of reducing disparity is to reduce the overall number of arrests,” he said at the time. “And that’s what we’ve proceeded to do.”

But Lancman said the reduced-arrest policy will actually result in more targeting of blacks and Hispanics who already have had contact with the criminal justice system.

“People in my district are sucked into the criminal justice system and given records for things that my white constituents don’t have to worry about,” he said.