Black and brown people accounted for 86.5 percent of New York City s misdemeanor arrests, during the first three months of 2016.According to the most recent statistics from the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP) between January 1 and March 31 of this year the NYPD arrested 46,600 citizens for misdemeanor crimes.Out of those 46,600 arrests, more than 43,300 were people of color.The population of New York City is at least 44 percent white, according to the most recent data from the 2010 Census. In spite of the population demographics, less than 14 percent of misdemeanor arrests have involved a white person.Those numbers are staggering.If that s not enough, it appears that the disproportionate rate of misdemeanor arrests involving people of color is getting worse.During the same three month time period in 2014, people of color made up 84.5 percent of NYPD misdemeanor arrests. In 2015 the percentage of minority arrests increased to 85.4 percent. In 2016 the number rose again, to where it now stands at 86.5 percent.During an interview with New York Daily News, Robert Gangi of PROP said  the statistics that stand out for us involve arrests for misdemeanor marijuana offenses. As New York Daily News reports here:On Nov. 11, 2014, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that people caught with less than 25 grams of marijuana would no longer be arrested, effective immediately. Instead, they were to be issued a noncriminal violation in the form of a summons. Repeat offenders would get a fine. Anyone caught smoking on the street, however, would still wind up in jail.Initially the number of marijuana arrests declined throughout the city, following the announcement.As the most recent data shows, the number of people arrested for marijuana has been inching its way back up since the announced 2014 policy change.During the first three months of 2016, 4,225 people were arrested for pot possession. That s a big increase over the same period last year, when 2,960 people were arrested on the same charge.The disparity in the rate of misdemeanor arrests is only the tip of the iceberg.According to their website,  from June 3, 2014 through August 11, 2015, PROP recorded information on 1351 cases presented in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens criminal courts. During that time period the organization monitored 1351 cases. The group reports that of those cases 1247, or 92.3 percent, of defendants were people of color.As stated in the group s latest court monitoring report: Everyday New York s district attorneys aggressively prosecute cases against black and brown people for engaging in mainly innocent or innocuous activities. Everyday our city s courts devote considerable resources to the administration of injustice, applying sanctions in hundreds, if not thousands, of cases where the charges involves, at worst, petty infractions and where the defendants are almost always people of color, some of whom live on the margins of society. Image credit: Marionzetta via flickr