While I applaud the intentions of Los Angeles lawmakers in attempting to prevent underage tobacco use, a ban on flavored cigarettes that includes menthol cigarettes will be counterproductive to this goal and detrimental to the society at large. The City Council should reconsider this ban.
As a retired sergeant and veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, having spent my entire 20-year career in patrol, I understand what policing looks like in our city. I oppose criminalizing menthol tobacco along with other flavored tobaccos because this ban would disproportionately affect Black and Brown people, further deteriorate police-community relations, and make tobacco easier for young people to access.
In theory, this provision seems race-neutral, but menthol cigarettes are favored by Black tobacco consumers, while most White tobacco consumers prefer unflavored tobacco. To draw up a ban – which could result in criminal consequences – only against products favored by people of color seems not only unjust but also remarkably insensitive in a city that has long strived to overcome gaping inequalities in its criminal enforcement.
Low-income communities and communities of color also tend to sell in open areas. People of color are already arrested, imprisoned, and otherwise more affected by the criminal justice system than their White, middle-class counterparts who use prohibited substances at similar rates.
The LA Times recently reported that more than 90 percent of drivers pulled over for pretextual stops – minor infractions such as a broken taillight (you can always find something) to justify pulling someone over – by the LAPD’s Metro Division are Black or Latino. This abuse has prompted an audit request by Mayor Garcetti of the Inspector General of what has been referred to as “stop and frisk in a car.”
Giving officers even more reason to detain and engage on the basis of a menthol tobacco ban would assuredly lead to encounters that are likely to escalate to the unnecessary use of force, arrests, and possibly deadly force as we saw with Eric Garner five years ago in New York.
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