Black arrests for drug use among issues raised in council debate | Local News
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Tuesday’s debate over decriminalization of small quantities of marijuana in Indiana Borough had its complexities.
Some have been raised by Councilman Gerald Smith, who wished the main focus to be on decriminalization and never the legalization of the drug, which he and others known as a distinct situation.
“We’d like information on decriminalization,” he mentioned throughout an alternate with Indiana County District Legal professional Robert F. Manzi Jr.
Manzi’s concern in regards to the situation dates again to his Feb. 4 letter to borough council stating “it’s incumbent … to take time earlier than enacting such an ordinance to contemplate the entire collateral penalties.”
Smith’s concern over what could possibly be known as a kind of collateral points led him to submit a meme on Fb Wednesday illustrating the priority he raised Tuesday night time about how “native enforcement of marijuana legal guidelines affect our efforts to be a welcoming neighborhood.”
Because the councilman advised his colleagues, he doesn’t imagine the Indiana Borough Police Division is racist nor acts that manner.
“They’ve gone out of their option to be a particularly welcoming neighborhood,” Smith mentioned.
Even so, he mentioned in a aspect alternate with Councilman Luke DeBuyser, the info reveals a “disproportionate affect on individuals of coloration.”
Using 2018 Uniform Crime Reporting figures from the FBI, Smith factors to Indiana Borough’s African-American minority, six p.c of a inhabitants of over 14,000, and that for Indiana County as an entire, two p.c of a inhabitants of roughly 83,000.
He additionally factors to a 20 p.c Black inhabitants at Indiana College of Pennsylvania — then that 35 p.c of these arrested for marijuana possession are Black.
“That is regardless of nationwide information that reveals comparatively equal hashish use inside age teams,” Smith posted.
He went on to point out 2019 figures from state police in addition to IUP’s police division, once more from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting, that present blacks made up 16 p.c of these arrested for possession with intent to fabricate or promote medicine, 10 p.c of these arrested for different drug possession counts, and 31 p.c of these arrested for possession of marijuana.
For his half, Police Chief Justin Schawl mentioned he revered all opinions, recalling a message he issued when he was employed in 2019 about Indiana as a “welcoming and vibrant neighborhood.”
As Schawl put it in his first Gazette interview in 2019, “Optimistic relationships with everybody matter significantly to me, and I’m dedicated to constructing relationships essential to reaching success for Indiana Borough.”
As he mentioned extra just lately, in summing up the previous 12 months, Schawl’s division continued to embrace a partnership with Indiana College of Pennsylvania Cultural Anthropologist Dr. Abigail Adams. Schawl mentioned she gives IBPD a possibility “for private {and professional} development which makes us extra responsive and higher suited to offer excessive stage (service to) our numerous neighborhood.”
The chief continued, “range and inclusion coaching stays obligatory and can proceed to obtain precedence consideration all through my tenure as chief of police.”
Schawl additionally advised council that his expertise with the borough’s governing physique over the previous three years has been optimistic.
Schawl has his personal points about decriminalization, however mentioned he wished to order these ideas for “one other public event.”
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