Police Commissioner Bill Bratton took matters into his own hands when he spotted a woman smoking marijuana on a city street.
Speaking at New York Law School Friday, Bratton said he was downtown Thursday morning when he smelled marijuana smoke and came upon an unsuspecting young woman enjoying a quick high.
"All of a sudden, there it is, that smell. And I said, ‘What the hell? It’s 8:30 on Wall Street,'" recalled Bratton.
"Directly in front of me is this young woman happily puffing away. She's got her earphones in and her schoolbag -- on her way to one of the local schools. So my security officer came up on one side, I came up on the other and tapped her on the shoulder. And she looked over and I wish I had a photograph of that face, cause she instantly recognized me. So we politely removed the marijuana, threw it into the local sewer and just suggested she might have a better academic day without the influence of that on the way to school."
He made the remarks in response to a question from an audience member who said she was from Occupy Weed Street, a marijuana legalization group.
Bratton emphasized that he is an advocate for controlled use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, but against its full legalization.