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Wednesday, December 7, 2005

P-I: Carr Wishes He’d Checked His Pot Numbers

Posted by on December 7 at 9:00 AM

This morning, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer publishes its own story on a topic that I spilled a lot of virtual ink on yesterday: Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr’s hazy grasp of his own office’s marijuana-related prosecutions. From the P-I:

The dispute arose after a Nov. 23 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article about the effect of [Initiative 75, the measure that all but decriminalized adult marijuana possession in Seattle]. In the story, Carr said pot arrests had declined before the initiative and after its approval by voters, but not by much. In other words, Carr said, the initiative didn’t make much difference.

To prove his point, he claimed 74 people were arrested in 2002, before the measure was in effect, and then 59 the following year under the new law, a slight decrease.

Seeing the published figure, [pot activist Dominic] Holden countered that Carr’s number was incorrect, that the actual number of arrests in 2002 was 160 — validating his point that the initiative has more dramatically changed the Police Department’s priorities, as intended.

Twice, Carr stuck by his figure when asked about Holden’s contention. But when pressed on the matter again Monday by an ACLU representative who was involved in the I-75 campaign and by a reporter with The Stranger, Carr said he made a mistake in the 2002 figure.

“I should have checked my figures,” he said.

Like I said before, I hope Carr was just stoned when he gave out, and then twice stood by, those bad figures—and wasn’t intentionally trying to diminish the impact of I-75.

Meanwhile, more on this bit of stubborn defiance from Carr…

Even so, Carr maintained, his larger contention that the initiative was insignificant remains unchanged… “The arrests already were dropping,” Carr said. “The initiative didn’t do anything.”

People who claim a statistically significant drop as a result of the measure are “out of their minds,” he said. “They want to prove something that does not exist.”

…as soon as I figure out how to post a bar graph on the Slog.


CommentsRSS icon

Just an occassional stoner, but still.

Tom Carr is a liar. He refuses to admit that he was flat out wrong about I-75 before the vote, and he's doing his best to distract people from the fact that I-75 is working—AS THE VOTERS INTENDED IT TO—now that it is LAW, a law passed by Seattle voters over the objections of mainstream cowards like Carr. Carr knows the prohibition of marijuana doesn't work. I'll bet he has smoked pot himself. Does he think he should have been arrested when he smoked pot?

Asshole.

Carr most certainly is a pot head. Look at the evidence: He's thoughtful, he's a lefty, he intellecutually curious and has a shitty memory. He reminds me of my Dad: Big rope-head whose against the kids smoking pot. Yea, right pop. Your closet was a great place to hide your weed! Carr what's in that check box on the top shelf?

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