By DAVID GREENE

This week we asked readers if proposed legislation changing NYPD policies (i.e. police requesting those stopped if they can be searched, no arrests for people carrying 25g or less of marijuana, and limiting chokeholds) will help or hurt their fight on crime and violence or police and community relations.

I believe that the police have many options, and if you stop one action, they have many more. I don’t think it will stop the cops from inventing something different. They’ll have options where they can come up to you, search you and throw something in your pocket.
Mortee Shannon Garrett
Kingsbridge

 

 

Personally, I don’t think it will have much of an effect. At the end of the day, people are going to smoke weed and cops are going to put people in chokeholds because they feel they have a need to sometimes. Making weed legal is cool for the people who smoke weed and it might be easier for the cops because they no longer have to arrest those people.
Cynthia Perez
Morris Park

 

 

Yes, they say you’re allowed to carry up to an ounce [of marijuana], but I’m still scared to walk with a bag in my pocket. But hopefully it will get better. Most of the people out here do it because they have issues. I do it and I have some issues and it helps to calm me down.
Sanjay Thirkapersaud
Middletown, NY

 

 

I do not like what they’re doing now because all they are thinking about are themselves. Meanwhile they are out here hurting people and thinking it’s okay. It’s not OK. Life is hard and times are bad. Half the people out here are smoking marijuana for a reason.
Ebenita Taylor
Parkchester

 

 

 

If a chokehold needs to be used, then use it, but a lot of these cops use excessive force and don’t know how to keep their self-control and they overdo everything. It will look more like the police are actually trying to help people rather than hurt them. It’s a complicated issue.
Fabian Pascal
West Farms