Posted by Michael Earl Patton

Photo courtesy of here.

I looked at the arrest statistics for the Cincinnati marijuana ordinance for the first 3 months of this year.  As the Beacon reported earlier, there is a vast difference in the numbers of arrests for African-Americans and Whites.

For the first 3 months, 795 Blacks were arrested under this ordinance while only 127 Whites—a difference of over 6 to 1.  There were also a handful of arrests of other races or where the race was not recorded.

Most of the arrests were in inner-city neighborhoods such as Over-the-Rhine, which are predominately Black neighborhoods, but the disparity extends to mixed and predominately White neighborhoods, too.  For example, there was 1 Black arrested in overwhelmingly White Hyde Park and no Whites arrested.  In Oakley there were 4 Blacks arrested and only 1 White.  In Cifton there were 16 Blacks arrested and only 6 Whites.  In Mt. Airy there were 25 Blacks arrested and only 1 White.

Various studies have shown that the marijuana usage rate for Blacks and Whites is about the same.  And Cincinnati’s population ratio is slightly weighted towards Whites.  In addition, many suburban Whites come to Cincinnati specifically in order to buy drugs.  So why the big difference in arrests?

Arrest data can be found in the statistics area of the Cincinnati Police Department page on the city’s website, http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov. 

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