The NYPD’s order to abandon marijuana buy-and-bust operations got a ringing endorsement on Wednesday from one of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s key advisers — the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“It’s the kind of reform people like me wanted to see,” Sharpton said of the change in police tactics aimed at reducing minority arrests. “This is a step in the right direction.”
Sharpton said he had no idea cops were reversing course on pot-sale busts before reading about it in The Post.
“People can deal with what they think the politics of this are. I’m more impressed with the policy,” he added.
NYPD Chief of Narcotics Brian McCarthy laid down the new law to borough commanders last week as part of the de Blasio administration’s attempt to regain support in minority communities.
But Professor Eugene O’Donnell, a former city cop, called the move “extremist,” saying that pot sales are “more problematic than mere possession, because the sellers attract onto the street significant amounts of cash, people with serious criminal histories, and weapons.”
“No matter how resistant you are about this enforcement, there may be compelling reasons to do enforcement in special circumstances for sure — by a school or a playground,” said O’Donnell, who teaches law and police studies at John Jay College.
An NYPD sergeant who supervised thousands of drug arrests since the 1990s called buy-and-busts important, adding: “It’s the little fish that lead to the big fish.”
A retired cop who served during the crack epidemic said the move was “reducing the best urban police department to the status of the Boy Scouts.”
NYPD officials insisted Wednesday there had been no policy change, but the department’s stance regarding pot busts was being “re-evaluated.”