Minneapolis police to stop low-level marijuana stings
Police in Minneapolis will no longer conduct stings for low-level marijuana offenses after a report showed that nearly everyone arrested during the enforcement actions this year was black.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey ordered police to stop the stings after the Hennepin County public defender’s office reported in a court motion that of the 47 people arrested during them this year, 46 were black.
“We will discontinue specific, low-level marijuana enforcement, and I agree with the mayor’s decision,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. Frey has also told the department to stop undercover operations aimed specifically at marijuana sales.
The motion, written by Hennepin County public defender Jess Braverman in the case of a woman arrested in a sting, said that the police department has been seeking out black men during the stings.
“Officers have directly asked black men to facilitate drug deals with other black men, and have then requested that the facilitator be charged with sale,” Braverman wrote. “Officers are seeking out extremely low-level marijuana transactions with people of color and are then arresting and booking the sellers and submitting the cases for felony charging.”
The move comes as many cities are choosing not to charge low-level drug offenders or are decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana. Recreational use of the drug is legal in nine states and the District of Columbia, but not in Minnesota.
Minneapolis has reduced penalties for marijuana possession but has not decriminalized the drug. Frey said in a statement that marijuana should be a “lowest level enforcement priority” and that it should be legalized statewide.
“That support for full legalization, however, does not negate the need for our officers to make the necessary arrests to get guns off our streets and end the sale of lifethreatening narcotic drugs like heroin,” Frey said. “The fact that racial disparities are so common nationwide in the enforcement of marijuana laws is one of the reasons I support full legalization.”