In a meandering homage to Mother Nature, a challenge between competing press releases and promises with caveats and reality, the New York Times editorial applauds a new policy while noting that it doesn’t quite fix the problem:

A new policy Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday will lead to fewer people being arrested for smoking marijuana in public. But the new approach — in which officers would usually issue summonses instead of hauling people off to jail — does not address the core problem of racial inequality and poses new dangers.

The issuance of summonses rather than arrests is a step forward, though it doesn’t change who gets the summons, which will remain the black and brown guys uptown because that’s where the cops make their numbers. There’s no big mystery to it, even though it eludes so many New Yorkers. Cops don’t bust weed smokers in Sutton Place penthouses. Cops toss kids smoking reefer on the corner of 163rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. 

But the Times then includes this peculiar complaint:

The new policy, however, is less than ideal. For starters, summons court judges often issue warrants when people forget their court dates, which can lead to those people being fingerprinted and dragged through the criminal justice system. There is something patently unfair about letting a petty offense morph into a criminal record that dogs a person for the rest of his or her life.

New York City courts are designated by “Parts,” and summons (as opposed to desk appearance tickets) are returnable at what’s called the SAP part, SAP being an acronym for “Summons – All Purpose.” It covers all manner of ills, from building code violations to biking the wrong direction (while pissing off a cop) to public toking.

A summons is characterized as an “invitation” to appear in court. But unlike other invitations, you don’t get to decline. “Sorry, but can’t make it that day, have to wash my hair” is not an excuse. It’s an invitation or else. The summons may be filled out by hand, leaving the details such as when to appear a bit fuzzy. There is no requirement that a cop have good handwriting.

In general, however, it’s not terribly hard to figure out that you are required to get your butt down to the SAP part, which is in a different building than the rest of the criminal court parts. There are long lines, a packed courtroom, an often bored looking judge on a bench and a lot of confusion. It’s not the top of the line, state of the art, court. But it’s still a court.

And if you fail to appear on the date required, what’s the judge to do?

Warrant ordered.

Do “summons court judges,” who are otherwise known as criminal court judges, issue bench warrants when people “forget” to appear? Sure. And when people decide to blow it off as well. And when a person who forgot shows up the next day, they vacate the warrant. But what are they to do about people who “forget” and, well, never come back?

Is it unfair to be arrested for a pot offense? If you believe it’s unfair that marihuana (as the New York Penal Law delightfully spells the word) is illegal, then getting arrested for it is unfair as well. If you believe it’s unfair that the cops will bust a kid on Dyckman Place but not 59th Street, then it’s again unfair.

But is it unfair to issue a bench warrant when a person doesn’t appear in court as the summons requires? What would you have the judge do? Should he get off the bench, hop on the A Train and knock on his door to remind him that today is his court date?

There is some serious doubt any of this is serious, any of this will actually happen as the woke mayor says it will. The cops will still be tossing kids uptown and the baby ADAs will still be asking for bail on mothers being separated from their babies. But if they’re going to give out summonses, and people fail to show, they have no other tool but bench warrants to enforce the requirement of appearing. Or should the judge just shrug?

If that’s what the Times thinks is the right response to failure to appear in court, then it should say so. On the other hand, it’s not all that hard to remember when you have to go to court after the cop handed you a summons and avoid a bench warrant. People manage to remember all the time.