Press TV – September 24, 2013
New figures show every 58 seconds one person is stopped and searched by the police in England and Wales for drugs, with blacks bearing the brunt of the practice.
According to findings by the London School of Economics published by the charity Release, minority groups, especially blacks and Asians, are disproportionately targeted by the police for drugs stop searches.
The study found there were over one million stop searches in 2011-2012 with half or more being related to drugs, especially for small amounts of narcotics such as cannabis.
According to the analysis on the figures for 2009-2010, overall search rate across England and Wales was 10 in 1,000 while it was 7 in 1,000 for whites, 18 per 1,000 for Asians and a shocking 45 per 1,000 for blacks, that is blacks were targeted 6.3 times more than white people.
This comes as Release said the rate of blacks using drugs was almost half of whites in 2010 (5.8 percent compared to 10.5 percent).
Release added the police discriminatory behavior toward blacks is also seen in treatment of people in possession of drugs.
The charity said in 2009-2010, 78 percent of black people, caught possessing cocaine, were arrested against 22 percent who received cautions while the rate was 44 percent against 56 percent for white offenders.
The charity said key disparities are also seen in the rate of black people subject to court proceedings for drugs possession and facing prison terms, compared to whites.
“Black people are more likely to get a criminal record than white people, are more likely to be taken to court and are more likely to be fined or imprisoned for drug offences because of the way in which they are policed, rather than because they are more likely to use drugs,” Michael Shiner, co-author of the report, said.
Meanwhile, the analysis showed a stunning 140,000 drugs stop searches were carried out on under-21s in 2009-2010 with 16,900 of them conducted on children aged 15 or below.
Related articles
- Half Ounce of Pot Gets Louisiana Man Twenty Years in Prison (dissidentvoice.org)