The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Police face profiling allegations
Area NAACP members concerned the police are ‘targeting people of color’
Residents concerned about racial disparity in marijuana arrests recently joined area NAACP representatives to address the issue before Plymouth Township Council.
In a statement read to council members, Greater Norristown NAACP President John Milligan expressed concern that the Plymouth Township Police Department is “targeting people of color” by unequally enforcing marijuana laws.
The issue was brought to light in an Oct. 7 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about rising arrests rates for marijuana in the suburbs since the city essentially decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot in 2014.
A ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that same year allowing officers to search vehicles without a warrant if there is a reasonable probable cause — like smelling marijuana — ostensibly added to the uptick in arrests.
Despite studies showing relatively equal marijuana usage rates between blacks and whites and blacks making up about 12 percent of the population, Mulligan said, blacks accounted for more than 60 percent of marijuana arrests in Plymouth Township in 2017 according to the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System.
Last year also marked a sharp increase in marijuana possession arrests across the board in Plymouth, with the number of whites arrested nearly doubling (from 14 in 2016 to 27 in 2017) while the number of blacks arrested for marijuana possession more than quadrupled (from 13 in 2016 to 54 in 2017). PAUCR records show 26 white people and 53 black people have been arrested for marijuana possession in Plymouth Township thus far in 2018.
Milligan noted that the dramatic increase in arrests followed the 2016 election, which he said, “deepened the racial divide in America.”
Plymouth Police Chief Joseph Lawrence, who was out of town during the meeting, said part of the reason for the surge in arrests stems from vehicle stops of more cars out of Philadelphia without proper inspection and registration — violations which he said are enforced more in Montgomery County — and the additional traffic created by the new Wawa on Ridge Pike.
“For a small amount of marijuana, the majority of the time, officers write nontraffic citations for disorderly conduct,” Lawrence said.
“Officers act at their own discretion for someone smoking marijuana. We don’t look at a person’s skin color and say, ‘let’s arrest that person today and not this one.’ It doesn’t happen that way. I don’t care what the numbers say. I don’t care what anybody may think. It doesn’t happen that way,” he said.
“I’m not a racist, and for somebody to say that is ignorant,” continued Lawrence, who recently spoke at a healing and solidarity vigil following the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, “Maybe that person should look in the mirror. Because that’s exactly what a racist is. You have an opinion of somebody before you even meet them.”
No one called Lawrence a racist at the meeting, but Milligan pointed out several quotes from Lawrence in the Inquirer and posts on Lawrence’s Facebook page to substantiate the group’s other concern: that the Plymouth Township Police Department has a culture “that finds it acceptable to demean people of color.”
Lawrence, who also serves as the head of the Montgomery County Chiefs of Police Association, denies the allegation. He says the quotes in the Inquirer were taken out of context.
He said a quote referring to younger, more aggressive officers as wanting “to get their hands dirty” meant “they want to get involved, just like in construction.”
And he defended saying most of the increase in marijuana-related arrests in the township was probably due to traffic stops because unlike Norristown or Philadelphia, “we don’t have people sitting on their doorsteps smoking,” by explaining that it was a reference to the housing stock in areas where there are row homes with doorsteps, including Pottstown and Bridgeport.
“I grew up in Norristown and I lived in Bridgeport for 30 years, so I’m not putting anybody down. That’s my neighborhood,” Lawrence said.
Milligan also brought up a post on Lawrence’s Facebook page that shows a photo of then Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett celebrating a win in a locker room with teammates that was doctored to show the empty-handed defensive lineman holding a burning American Flag.
The photo is accompanied by a caption that reads, “This is was the Seattle Seahawks did in there (sic) locker room pass it around they didn’t want it to get out.”
When asked about the post, Lawrence said he did not know the photo was fake. He said his Facebook page is pro-military, and he takes offense to anyone burning the flag. “I saw it. I didn’t like it and I posted it,” said Lawrence.
Milligan asserted that the “clear intent” of the “Photoshopped” post, which originated on a “Vets for Trump” Facebook page was to “arouse emotions and anger the far right and racists,” and said the quotes in the article showed disregard for communities with large minority populations and an unacceptable lack of concern for whether his police officers are targeting blacks.”
After Mulligan’s remarks, the NAACP contingent presented council members with a list of requests, asking that they acknowledge and investigate the issue, take appropriate action and ask for a suspension of all pending prosecutions for marijuana arrests in the township until a racial profiling study has been conducted.
Councilman Christopher Manero said Council would welcome sitting down with all parties to discuss the group’s concerns in the near future.
Chief Montgomery County Public Defender Dean Beer, who was part of the group at the meeting, said Lawrence’s “get their hands dirty” comment was very concerning for his office in terms of how arrests of his clients are made.
“In this situation, these racial disparities are clearly bothersome,” he said. “It should be bothersome to anybody that cares about justice in this country.”