During the past 3 decades, the so-called "War on Drugs" has (IMO) revived a return to the Jim Crow tactics used since the Civil War to legitimize racial profiling, millions of "stop and frisk" arrests, pretext traffic stops aka "fishing for drugs", police brutality, a racial caste system, and the rise of the Prison Industrial Complex.
So what has caused The United States of America to become "the greatest warden in the world"?
The history of these Nazi/ Jim Crow-like stops originated under the Ronald Reagan administration in 1984 with a law called "Operation Pipeline"...it is considered one of the most effective government drug programs.
This federal program (supported by the Supreme Court) has trained nearly 30,000 law enforcement personnel/ over 300 agencies in 48 states on how to use "pretext traffic stops" as a way to "fish for drugs".
This is exactly what was feared when the framers of the Constitution considered the Fourth Amendment...a program to target and search people without probable cause and without a warrant.
The training includes manuals that train officers who to look for/ profile:
- Traveling with luggage or traveling without luggage
- Driving an expensive car/ rental car or driving a very old car
- A calm or nervous driver
- "Mismatched" occupants
- Wearing fancy clothes/ jewelry or dressing casually
- Using large bills or using small bills
- Out of state license plates at a hotel (especially with fast food wrappers/ coffee)
- Obeying the speed limit and other traffic rules
The manual also gave explicit recommendations to stop anyone who looked Mexican, Black, or Jamaican...All this for stops that yield no drugs 95% of the time!
If you think this is all necessary for our so-called safety/ this doesn't affect me...can you say "Edward Snowden"?
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