Seattle and New York City are about as far apart as two American cities can be. But it is not the geographical distance that so separates the two cities; rather, it is the the way their two governments choose to address drug crime.

On Friday, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, exceedingly butthurt about a federal judge’s ruling on his police department’s Stop-and-Frisk program, took to the radio to up the ante: the billionaire mayor floated the idea of biometrically registering all of his city’s public housing residents with an unprecedented (in America) plan to create a vast fingerprint database of New York’s poorest citizens. His banker friends, whose actions constituted the biggest heist in US history, would be free to snort their cocaine in peace and anonymity.

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READ OUR BREAKDOWN OF MAYOR BLOOMBERG'S COMMENTS
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Meanwhile, Seattle hosted this weekend the 22nd annual Hempfest, a “protestival” for advocates of marijuana legalization. This was a monumental Hempfest, as it is the first to occur since last November’s passage of a ballot initiative legalizing pot for recreational use. Needing to inform festival-goers of the ins and outs of the new pot law, the Seattle Police Department opted against pamphlets and instead handed out a thousand bags of Doritos, each with a sticker informing munchy-ravaged citizens about how the cops and smokers might cooperate and make things go as smoothly as possible.

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READ OUR BREAKDOWN OF SEATTLE'S DORITOS-FOR-SMOKERS PROGRAM

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New York City, on the other hand, has had since the 90s a “zero tolerance” policy on drug possession: the cops prowl with an arrest-first mentality on drug possession. Even the most nonviolent possessors of marijuana are considered targets for arrest and prosecution. The stats are staggering: The New York Times notes that in 2011 "50,000 people — one every 10 minutes — were arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana."

And the much-loathed Stop-and-Frisk program, begun during Bloomberg’s tenure, mandates that police officers randomly (but not randomly) stop citizens and search their belongings, pockets, socks, etc. — an unwarranted patdown. A federal judge ruled against the program last week, finding its racial targeting of black and brown New Yorkers to be in violation of the Constitution. From 2002 to 2011, black and Latino New Yorkers made up nearly 90% of those stopped and frisked. Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner both contend that that extreme disproportionality is fair since crime statistics show black and Latino citizens responsible for roughly that percentage of crimes. Yet almost 90% of the stops find the accosted citizen fully innocent of any crime. In other words, the NYPD stops innocent people because of the color of their skin.

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READ OUR BREAKDOWN OF THE FEDERAL JUDGE'S RULING ON STOP-AND-FRISK
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Last year 18-year-old Bronx resident Rahmarley Graham was shot and killed by the NYPD in his grandmother’s home after cops followed him back to the house and entered in pursuit. Graham’s crime was the alleged possession of a small amount of marijuana. He was shot point-blank in the chest in the upstairs bathroom just feet from his grandmother. Over a pinch of pot.
Back to Seattle, city government and cops have made great strides to foster cooperation with citizens after passage of Washington’s pot legalization. New York’s policies have, according to the federal judge ruling on Stop-and-Frisk, cultivated “resentment” among citizens who grow to be “distrustful” of the cops. In addition to the considerable human toll among citizens, the program stands to make policing more difficult by dissolving the basic foundation of trust that must exist in civil society.

Seattle is proceeding with the American project of civil libertarianism and the progressive advancement of freedoms. New York is experimenting with policies and programs suitable to fascist regimes. NYC’s militarized police hunt and prowl and choose their victims based on skin color. Black and brown means “criminal.” Now Bloomberg seeks to register citizens biometrically in anticipation of their criminality. Yet arguably the most famous New Yorker, Jay Z, warns that there’s “going to be a problem that no amount of police can solve,” if the underlying problems are only dealt with with harsher and harsher police oppression. “It’s inevitable that something is going to happen.” It’s not inevitable, though. Seattle is showing us how police can act as fellow citizens, still necessary and appreciated in their role in keeping everyone safe, but not as armed occupiers of neighborhoods, assuming criminality and quick to pull triggers.