As one does, I was just reading the future in my Greek (née Turkish) coffee grounds, and I saw an interesting development.
[Cue swamy music] I see that the NYPD is going to start making fewer arrests for possession of marijuana this year starting right about now… I predict that in 2011, misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests in NYC are going to be down from 50,300 in 2010… and somewhat substantially… maybe a third fewer?… but now things are getting a little hazy.
How do I know? I don’t. That’s wall they call it a “prediction.” But I’m not just saying this because of the gypsy blood in me tells me so (even though I am 1/8th gypsy).
Remember to check back in a year or so. Cause I’d love to be the first to say, “I told you so!”
[Updatefrom the future: I was wrong.]
PMC,
Ah but did you drink your coffee Turkish style? And further, did said grounds also predict incoming class sizes increasing in the wake of NYPD's coming large retirements of the early 90's classes?
-Libby Hipster
I do (sometimes) drink my coffee Greek (or Turkish). How else to see the future?
The grounds tell me there will be more hiring, but not as much as needed.
They also say "we live in an interesting era." I'm still trying to make sense of that one.
So the amount of arrests the NYPD makes for a certain crime are predetermined, yet there are no quotas, right?
They're not predetermined. But they certainly can be influenced up or down by pressure from the top.