Welcome To Extortion, Texas.

[Fenian_Bastard]

And this, of course, is Not About Race.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-profiling11-2009mar11,0,507135.story

 

[Armchair_QB]

No, it's about race.

And money.

 

[kleeda]

So tell us the gist of the story, for those of us with blackberry's and thus not able yo get the link.

 

[GB-Hack]

Cops are shaking people down, with a high portion of the people being shook African-Americans.

You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana state line if you're African American, but you might not be able to drive out of it -- at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.

That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: Sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.

More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, Ohio, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with or convicted of any crime.

 

[93Devil]

I wonder how many of these yokels cheered for Emmitt Smith and Tony Dorsett?

 

[alleyallen]

I've been to and through Tenaha many times in my life. And I can say, with good authority, this is absolutely about race and money.

 

[JR]

Sounds like a 60 Minutes story waiting to happen.

 

[alleyallen]

Sounds like a 60 Minutes story waiting to happen.

There are disturbing shades of Tulia here.

 

[writing irish]

"MOST OF ALL...GOOD FOLKS."

Yeah, real salt-of-the earth people. Pricks.

 

[Armchair_QB]

East Texas is full of towns like this.

 

[I Digress]

Ah... 'real' America.

 

[finishthehat]

It's not a big deal, but this story has been reported in the Texas media for some months. I forget who broke it, but it wasn't the LA Times.

Not that there's anything wrong with them doing their own take on it, of course.

 

[JR]

Whose take are you talking about? The Texas media or the LA Times?

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Got some of the Texas links, FTH? Because this story fascinates me.

 

[Stoney]

Wow. I'm just stunned when I hear that **** like this still goes on in parts of this country, and that we have police that believe they can actually get away with this.

And no surprise that they used the assett forfeiture law intended for drug traffickers as the excuse. Just another example of how our "war on drugs" legislation enables police corruption and overreach.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Wow. I'm just stunned when I hear that **** like this still goes on in parts of this country, and that we have police that believe they can actually get away with this.

And no surprise that they used the assett forfeiture law intended for drug traffickers as the excuse. Just another example of how our "war on drugs" legislation enables police corruption and overreach.

This one goes even higher than the police though.

 

[JC]

This was the basis of an old Rockford Files epsiode I just watched.

 

[Ace]

The sheriff used to to this about 15-20 years ago in Daytona Beach (any minority with any money on the highway was assumed to be toting drug money) until the Supreme Court made them stop.

 

[kleeda]

Not shocked in the least, unfortunately. Reminds me a little of one of my favorite books, "Praying For Sheetrock."

 

[I Digress]

I have a cousin-by-marriage who uses the n-word and closes his little shop during Black Spring Break in Daytona because he can't stand to have blacks in his shop. Me, if I owned a shop, I'd only hate to have people with no money in it. So that doesn't surprise me that the yokels up there would do something like this.