Ban White Cops and Prosecutors

Until this shit stops.

Andrew Wolfson at the Courier:

Blacks in Kentucky are six times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession — a greater disparity than in all but four states, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released this week.

The study, the first to examine arrest rates by race for all 50 states, found that nationally, blacks are nearly four times as likely to be arrested for possessing pot, even though blacks and white use the drug at roughly the same rate.

The report — “The War on Marijuana in Black and White” — was released by the American Civil Liberties Union and based on FBI uniform crime reports and census data.

The disparity was especially egregious in some Kentucky counties, the study showed. It found that blacks were 32 times more likely to be arrested for possessing marijuana than whites in Nelson County, 12 times more likely in Campbell County, 10 times more likely in Kenton County and 3.5 times more likely in Jefferson County.

State Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said the study shows that police are targeting blacks.

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:

Keith Humphreys points out that this is partly because marijuana laws have been loosened primarily in whiter areas of the country. At a guess, some of this might also be due to the use of possession charges as a plea bargain from more serious charges. Nonetheless, this accounts for only a fraction of the difference. The rest is most likely racially motivated, as the chart on the right makes clear. Black arrest rates are higher than white arrest rates—usually a lot higher—in every single one of the 25 biggest counties in the country.

More here from the ACLU study. The full report is here.