Bill Bratton snatched a joint out of a student’s mouth and tossed it in the gutter on Thursday, October 8. “I wish I had a photograph of that face”, he said.
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NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton shared a amusing anecdote with reporters on Friday, October 9, about a memorable encounter he had with a college student the previous morning while making his rounds on Wall Street.
Directly in front of me is this young woman happily puffing away, Bratton said at an event at New York Law School. Only in New York.’Occupy Weed Street’s Lorna Shannon.
The culprit was a young woman, apparently enjoying a morning smoke on her way to class. Bratton approached her on one side while his security officer cornered her on the other, and the commissioner tapped her on the shoulder.
New York City’s top cop weeded out a pot smoker on the street this week.
Under current laws, smoking weed in public view can still be classified as a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail.
While Bratton technically could have arrested the young woman, but he said he let her go as an example to officers in the field.
The move to decriminalize possession of relatively small amounts of marijuana followed several years of intense criticism of police tactics. “If you’re smoking it in public, we will potentially arrest you, although we’re encouraging officers to use the scale that they are authorized to use of warning, admonition, summons, arrest if necessary”.
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‘His mindset is still completely archaic relying on scientifically debunked theories like Broken Windows policing and gateway drug theory.’NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.’I am a strong opponent of legalization of marijuana as I believe strongly that it is a gateway drug.
