We could just start by addressing the elephant in the room which is that black people are disproportionately arrested for marijuana despite using drugs at the same rate as white people [1].
Which, naturally, can cripple families for incredibly small amounts of possession.
>despite using drugs at the same rate as white people
This statistic does not accommodate for cultural differences in use. It's quite possible that black people are more likely to carry and/or use marijuana in public or while driving.
I thought that I sort of implied that in the root post, although I expect that there's more to it than your example.
It's easy these days to get arrested for minor deviltries (way easier than when I was a lad) so the police have that in their pocket.
So, you pick out the groups who are statistically most likely to commit real crimes, pick them up for any old thing, and warehouse them until they are more old and tired.
Like I said, it's not fair, but it appears to work to some extent.
Wouldn't surprise me if law abiding black people are the biggest beneficiaries of the way the system works. Imagine living in the ghetto if there was no policing.
> Imagine living in the ghetto if there was no policing.
There would be plenty of problems, but not being stopped and frisked constantly because of skin tone even though white people are more likely per capita to actually be a valid target of the frisking[1] would probably be nice.
