“Cops don’t smoke, but they sure drink and drive.”
Participants’ chant during Million Marijuana March, NYC, May 4, 2002.

Pig-headed Arrests Mar NYC MMM 2002 Event

Marching for Marijuana in New York City.

by Preston Peet- special to drugwar.com
(all photos unless otherwise noted by author)

May 5, 2002

The NYPD took a beautiful, sunny day, and turned it into an arrest-fest during Cures-Not-War’s annual New York City Million Marijuana March on Saturday, May 4, 2002. Police arrested 148 peaceful protesters and rally attendees, all for marijuana-related offenses. Held in conjuncture with nearly 200 other cities world-wide, the NYC event was a relative success in that arrest numbers were down compared to recent years’ events, and that most attendees enjoyed the day, other than for being too paranoid to enjoy a smoke in the sun so as to avoid arrest.

MMM organizer Dana Beal gets things started.

Are these pro-pot marchers under police
protection, or under guard?

Some marchers gathered at 11 AM near Washington Square Park for a pre-march ibogaine teach-in, then joined more protesters at Houston Street and Broadway for the march through downtown Manhattan along Broadway to Battery Park. Stretching for 3 blocks, the parade of marchers carried banners and signs, chanting, “No more fear, light it up here,” “the mayor smokes pot and he likes it a lot,” and “father Bush and the CIA brought crack onto the streets today.” The parade route down Broadway was once again lined with uniformed NYPD officers both on foot and on scooters, while plainclothes officers kept their eyes and noses peeled for open civil disobedience.

Why Do They Brave the Police Intimidation?

“We need some kind of system for legalization,” marcher Phillip Anderson of Phoenix, Arizona told drugwar.com. “This city has a lot more pressing problems than marijuana use. Legalizing and taxing it could bring the city a lot of income.”

“I’m out here to support the legalization of marijuana in general,” Bernardo V. of New Jersey told drugwar.com. “Think of all the benefits from marijuana. I’m out to support my love for freedom, to assert my right to freedom.”

At approximately the halfway point of the march, undercover officers moved in on one young man directly in front of the editor of drugwar.com, snatching him out of the march and dragging him off to the side. The other marchers watching this stopped the parade and began surrounding the officers chanting “let him go, let him go,” with one man jumping up and down inciting the crowd’s anger. Police massed quickly and aggressively began pushing people off the sidewalk, back into the one lane of Broadway allowed the march, all the while demanding the marchers “start moving.”

Drug War victim snatched from parade.

Victim's supporters being shut down.

“I was in the bank, and saw the parade and decided to jump in, because I smoke pot everyday, and hold a good job,” Patrick Christo, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, told drugwar.com. “Pot smokers have to take responsibility. If all the pot smokers in the US voted, pot would be legalized. The government makes it out to be a small issue, but we do have the numbers.”

Unfortunately, there were numerous narcs waiting
in Battery Park.

All the Makings of a Good Day

The crowd assembles in Battery Park.

Editor of drugwar.com points out some facts about
pot law enforcement. (photo- Vanessa Cleary)

With organizers estimating 5,000 to 6,000 people throughout the day, the rally was educational and entertaining. With not a cloud in the sky, warm but not oppressive weather, the afternoon had all the makings of a great event.

Marco Perduca says "legalize!"

Speakers included MMM event organizer and Cures-Not-Wars founder Dana Beal, Ed Rosenthal, prolific author and defendant in an ongoing federal marijuana case, Students for Sensible Drug Policy board members Dan Goldman and Valerie Vande Panne, Marco Perduca of the Transnational Radical Party, (who broadcast one minute live to Rome), and the editor of drugwar.com. There was some incredible music played by bands such as Pine Box, Electric Hill, and Kid Lucky, as well as a crafts fair set up selling assorted marijuana-related merchandise and foods.

Ed Rosenthal explains more facts about the
War on Pot.

Dan Goldman making things clear.

Guy Smylie, lead singer of pro-pot band Pine Box,
also making things clear.

Dan Goldman tries to make things clear for
John Stossel of ABCNews. Good thing Goldman was
there as Stossel couldn't get past the piecings on
drugwar.com's editor long enough to rationally
discuss the issues.

What Happened to the Desk Appearance Tickets?

An email alert sent out by Cures-Not-Wars the evening before reported an agreement having been reached between organizers and the NYPD, asserting that NYPD told Cures-Not-Wars that any NY residents 18 years or older with 2 identifications and no warrants would only receive a desk appearance ticket, rather than what has become the normal 1 to 3 day trip through the criminal court system for what is really only a ticketable civil offence in NYC.

'Undercover' narcotics officers waiting to pounce.
The two cops on the right walked around hand in
hand 'pretending love' while arresting pot smokers.

In that email, Beal was quoted saying, “This is a major victory. The NYPD are already agreeing to our main demand: ending the custodial arrests which subjected 70,000 people to imprisonment without judicial review during the final year of Giuliani's administration. It was like Alice in Wonderland: first jail, then trial!” Beal went on to say, “It remains to be seen if everyday marijuana arrests will be treated the same as arrests at a drug policy protest, but NORML's recent demand--that Bloomberg return to the status quo under Mayor Dinkins, when DATs were the norm--seems to have been won as far as our event is concerned. Let's see how they treat us the rest of the year. New York City can't afford to keep arresting tens of thousands of marijuana smokers while running up multibillion dollar deficits. Our next move is to talk to Bloomberg's people about the benefits of separating pot and hard drugs.”

How to waste tax dollars lesson number one

How to waste tax dollars lesson number two

How to waste tax dollars lesson number three

“They [NYPD] lied,” Beal told drugwar.com when asked about the obvious differences between what was said by an unidentified person at NYPD to Cures-Not-Wars and what was actually taking place at the rally. A spokesman at NYPD told drugwar.com the morning after the event that he couldn’t imagine NYPD telling anyone they’d only give desk appearance tickets for people caught smoking pot, and said the NYPD wasn’t giving out crowd estimates. Arrest numbers were down from the 193 arrested in 2001, and 312 in 2000.

"I'm not sorry your honor. I smoke marijuana"
(photo- Vanessa Cleary)

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