[Peace-discuss] Re: [Discuss] Urbana City Council Passes Marijuana Ordinance 7-0

[Danielle Chynoweth]

Very disappointing.  It should be for all offenses, not just first time - or
at least the first 3 times.  It should be for 30 grams or less (a personal
bag or less).  And it should NOT include discretion!

This is one of those painful moments of not being on council to fight for
the right thing.

It is up to the COMMUNITY to fight for the right policies and not just a
watered down one that Champaign already has.  Now we will have to play cat
and mouse with the police department where they play with the statistics, if
they provide them at all.  Sigh.

- Danielle

On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 6:56 AM, Brian Dolinar <briandolinar at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Monday night, October 6, 2008, Urbana City Council passed an ordinance
> giving police officers the discretion to hand out $200 tickets for
> first-time offenders caught with less than 10 grams of marijuana (30 grams
> is an ounce - and a felony).
>
> Such an ordinance is already on the books in Champaign.
>
> A sticking point in the new policy was whether discretion would be mandated
> in attempt to prevent racial preferences.
> The worry is that, for example, students "with a future" would get a ticket
> for possession, while local black youth presumably "going nowhere" would go
> to jail.
> No such written policy was put on paper.
>
> Urbana City Council members Brandon Bowersox and David Gehrig said they
> would track statistics in the coming year to see if the ordinance is being
> fairly applied.
>
> BD
>
> --
> Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
> 303 W. Locust St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
> briandolinar at gmail.com
>
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>
>
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