The grassroots organization Decriminalize Denton spearheaded a movement to decriminalize low-level weed offenses in the North Texas college city. Last November, some 71% of Denton voters cast a ballot in favor of Proposition B, which would do just that.
There's a slight problem: Certain local officials have refused to play ball, arguing that the ordinance contradicts state law.
But on Tuesday evening, Denton City Council is scheduled to vote on implementing Prop B. Decriminalize Denton will hold a rally starting at 5:30 p.m. outside Denton City Hall ahead of the vote.
Decriminalize Denton member Deb Armintor, who’s also a former Denton City Council member, told the Observer via email that she expects to see a 4-3 vote in support of Prop B. She said despite the mayor’s argument that it would run afoul of state law, there is no legal precedent or ruling to back that claim.
“I am cautiously optimistic about this vote but still tense because you never know what new tricks and gaslighting techniques the opposition will pull at the last minute,” she said. “I'll be on pins and needles until after the vote.”
The past several months have seen tension between anti-Prop B officials and pro-Prop B voters. It led to the May recall and replacement of an incumbent council member who’d argued against implementing the ordinance.
Decriminalize Denton alleges that despite Prop B’s November passage, the city has continued to disproportionately target people of color over marijuana. Armintor said she’s angry but unsurprised to see the “gross racial disparity in cannabis-related paraphernalia citations under a police chief who refuses to implement Prop B.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, just 11.5% of Denton residents are Black and 23.4% Hispanic or Latino. Nearly 71% are white.
Yet over a roughly three-month time period, most of the city’s marijuana-related incidents involved people of color.
A staggering 67% of cannabis-related citations and arrests issued by Denton police under Chief Shoemaker's leadership since the passage of Prop B have been issued to Black and Brown people possessing less than a single ounce of possible cannabis, typically well under 10 grams.
— Decriminalize Denton (@DecrimDenton) May 22, 2023
A spokesperson for the Denton Police Department pointed the Observer to a May city news release. Police Chief Doug Shoemaker said three possession arrests were made from Nov. 9 of last year through Feb. 17. Each case had other factors involved, including alleged stalking, driving while intoxicated and possession of “multiple illicit substances.”
“I believe this displays that the intent behind the women and men of the Denton Police Department, as they are conducting these investigations, is not to crack down on petty marijuana use,” Shoemaker’s statement continued. “At the end of the day, their goal, and mine, is to protect all members of our community.”“Our hope is that we continue to fight ... and that [Prop B] will be enforced.” – Nick Stevens, Decriminalize Denton
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Decriminalize Denton’s Nick Stevens said he hopes that at Tuesday’s council meeting the voice of the city’s voters will finally be recognized. He wants to see the conversation change from “whether” Prop B can be implemented to “how.”
Stevens believes he speaks for many Dentonites when he says the fight over Prop B has been emotionally draining. The way he sees it, the battle is emblematic of the current state of the democratic process.
It also represents why so few are politically engaged, he added: They feel like their voice doesn’t matter.
“And I think that that's where nations or democracies get into trouble, is when institutions begin to show themselves for what they are, which is just a shill of a process,” Stevens said. “Our hope is that we continue to fight and prove that theory wrong, and that [Prop B] will be enforced.”
Looking ahead, Decriminalize Denton wants Shoemaker to be fired. They claim the chief reversed course on his commitment to implement Prop B after he was hired, and that he lied about officers using the so-called smell test as the justification for search or seizure. (The city’s May news release states that the smell test isn’t ever used on its own as probable cause for an arrest.)
Armintor points out that Shoemaker worked in the weed-legal state of Colorado prior to landing the job in Denton, “only to end up fighting against a local decriminalization ordinance here.
“Maybe he was hoping to escape all those Colorado civil liberties and had this Cop City/Wild West fantasy that Texas would be the total opposite of that,” she continued. “Clearly he didn't know Denton.”
