Hizzoner’s Tokin’ Gesture: Letting the City Go to Pot
THE ISSUE: Mayor de Blasio’s plans for cops to issue tickets instead of making arrests for smoking pot in public.
Mayor de Blasio’s mindless pandering to the minority vote has been a hallmark of his tenure. But the logic behind his new policy for those caught toking is hard to follow (“High on Hypocrisy,” Editorial, June 20).
Apparently, if certain minority groups are arrested in numbers disproportionate to their percentage of the population, that is racist.
To avoid this, the police must reduce the penalty for breaking the existing law.
Following this logic, is it also racist to arrest and prosecute people for rape or murder if they belong to minority groups that are more frequently arrested for those crimes? Robert Mangi Westbury
I spent 28.5 years in police work in the ’60s, ’ 70s and ’80s. Five of those years were in the narcotics bureau.
People who smoke marijuana do stupid things because they can’t think straight. Letting people do whatever they want only leads to more lawlessness.
New York City voters have to change the way they vote, and keep guys like Mayor de Blasio out of office in the future. The city is going down the tubes. Pete Calogero Red Hook
De Blasio has decided to downgrade the penalty on people caught smoking marijuana from arrests to summonses.
It’s not the first time he’s decided not to enforce a law based on his own feeling.
I didn’t know that His Holiness was elected to alter and enforce laws at his will. But, of course, he knows what’s best for us, right? Saul Mishaan Brooklyn
First, Comrade de Blasio wanted to change the entry test for specialized high schools because black and Hispanic kids haven’t been passing the test at the same rate as other groups. Now we have to allow smoking marijuana on the street.
The consequences of marijuana smoke for asthmatics and young children apparently don’t matter to de Blasio. Samuel J. Mark Brooklyn
What’s going to happen in a year if the findings show that the majority of the summonses for marijuana smoking were issued to black and Hispanic people? Jake McNicholas Whitestone
De Blasio and his lapdog police commissioner, James O’Neill, will retrain cops on how not to enforce another law.
The training session should be short, just: “If you see something, do nothing,” and cops already got that message. Robert DeCandia New Hyde Park