A new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) says that the New York Police Department intentionally targeted blacks and Hispanics in a campaign to crack down on minor marijuana crimes, Newsday reported April 29.

The report, "The Marijuana Arrest Crusade in New York City: Racial Bias in Police Policy, 1997-2007," says that misdemeanor marijuana arrests rose tenfold during the study period, even though the state decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 1977.

The authors say that police target young black and Hispanic men and stop them without cause, then trick or coerce them into taking marijuana out of their pockets. Once the drug is in plain sight, officers can charge offenders with misdemeanor possession, whereas marijuana found during a search would only lead to a ticket for a violation -- and the search could be challenged.

"The real issue here is that massive numbers of police officers are being deployed in communities of color -- poor communities of color -- and are staying outside schools waiting for kids to walk home, to go to the bodega, to go to their friend's houses, and searching them," said Robin Steinberg, director of the legal-aid group Bronx Defenders. "Those same police forces are not being deployed on the Upper East Side of Manhattan waiting outside privileged, overwhelmingly white private schools to have their backpacks searched and their children's pants gone through."

The NYPD charged that the NYCLU report contained "absurdly inflated numbers and false claims about bias," noting that overall marijuana arrests declined 25 percent between 2003 and 2006.