Philly pot arrest maps: black people in black neighborhoods
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Eighty-three percent of the city's pot-possession arrests last year were of African-Americans. Still, Mayor Michael Nutter mocks marijuana decriminalization efforts.
Eighty-three percent of the 4,314 marijuana-possession arrests made by Philly police in 2013 were of African-Americans. Yet last week, Mayor Michael Nutter mocked supporters of City Council legislation to decriminalize marijuana.
"Suddenly, this is the great civil rights issue of our day — that black guys should be allowed to smoke as much dope as they want," said Nutter, who has not signed the legislation.
Our maps below below show exactly where every marijuana possession arrests in Philadelphia took place in recent years. Those arrested are overwhelmingly black (though there are many Latinos as well) and the arrests are concentrated in mainly black neighborhoods of North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and Southwest Philadelphia, and in areas with large black and Latino populations like Kensington.
"The guns are still out there, people still getting killed every day," a frustrated 28-year-old named Chris, in court after a marijuana arrest, told City Paper in February. "Weed is not killing anybody."
