[CTRL] Drug War is Race War
-Caveat Lector- US customs agents search based on race, panel told By Christopher Wilson WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - After a rash of incidents involving what has come to be known as ``racial profiling,'' a House of Representatives panel on Thursday heard testimony from two women who said they had been subjected to humiliating body searches by U.S. customs officials because they are not white. The hearing showed a growing recognition on Capitol Hill, by the Justice Department and in state capitals around America that police, customs officials, immigration agents and other authorities may be using the ``profiling'' to target blacks and other minorities for checks, questioning and searches, only because of their race. The women -- Janneral Denson, who is black, and Amanda Buritica, a Colombian-born Hispanic -- gave a House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee separate accounts of how they were detained by customs agents while trying to reenter the United States at airports after travelling out of the country. The women detailed how they were held incommunicado for hours, made to undergo intrusive ``body cavity'' searches to determine whether they were carrying drugs and forced to drink laxatives to induce bowel movements. They were detained without charges, denied lawyers and not allowed to contact their families. Neither woman was found to be carrying any contraband and both were released by the Customs Service without apology. Customs Service Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the agency's policies did not allow officers to base decisions on who would be searched on race and defended body searches as necessary in the war on drugs. But he agreed the service had to be more considerate of the trauma such searches entail. ``That the government has such authority over its own citizens is troubling,'' said John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat whose past as a civil rights activist has made him a leading voice on race issues in Congress. ``That such authority may be exercised in a racially discriminatory manner is chilling.'' Denson, the mother of two children who was pregnant at the time, was handcuffed at one stage of her ordeal. She later suffered bleeding and diarrhoea and her third child was born prematurely by emergency caesarean section. ``At this point we do not know what permanent effects the premature birth will have on my son,'' she told lawmakers. ``What I and many other African-Americans have gone through points to a great failure in our country. Conduct such as this is both illegal and un-American and in the long run can only serve to drive a wedge between you, the government, and the citizens of our country.'' The House subcommittee heard that customs inspectors conducted 50,892 personal searches of airline passengers in 1998. Black or Hispanic people made up 43 percent of those searched yet those races make up only 24 percent of the U.S. population according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In trying to find a balance between protecting the rights of its citizens and the ``zero-tolerance'' doctrine widely practiced in law enforcement, America is being confronted increasingly with the dilemma of racial profiling. Highway police in different part of the country routinely use traffic stops for minor offences as a pretext to search motorists for drugs, weapons or evidence of any other criminal activity. Anecdotal and statistical evidence shows many more people of colour are targeted for these stops than whites. The black community calls this ``driving while black.'' Police and other law-enforcement agents maintain the practice does not reflect prejudice so much as a focus on high-crime groups. They point out that roughly half America's prison inmates are blacks, although blacks comprise just 12 percent of the overall population. Several state courts are hearing complaints about such cases involving law-enforcement authorities, but there is now a move afoot to compile national statistics on such cases. Last month President Bill Clinton's administration said it would take steps to stop the use of racial profiling and Attorney General Janet Reno said the Justice Department was investigating what could be done about law-enforcement agencies that appear to target black and Hispanic minorities. ACLU: Drug War Based on Race By DONNA DE LA CRUZ .c The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) -- Civil rights activists say a casualty from the war on drugs has been a sharp increase in the incidence of racial profiling by law officers patrolling highways across the country. ``Skin color has become a substitute for evidence in a way that really resembles Jim Crow justice on the nation's highways,'' Ira Glasser, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Wednesday as the group released its report on the controversial practice. The Drug Enforcement Administration's ``Operation Pipeline'' has trained at least 27,000 law enforcers to use race as a factor in spotting potential drug couriers, Glasser
Re: [CTRL] Drug War is Race War
-Caveat Lector- There's no question about it: the drug trade provides the NWO with an important source of revenue, and every American should read DOPE INC in order to gain an appreciation of the extent of the collusion between the American eastern elite and the drug cartel. Also, Beecham's book on the British opium trade is excellent. And McCoy's book on Heroin in Southeast Asia. Of course, most of us have formed our image of the drug trade from the media Look at the television program, COPS. We're always shown the bottom of the distribution chain...poor people living in substandard housing, trying to find a temporary chemical release from their lives of despair. And middle class audiences naturally, and one might add, rightfully, applaud the brave boys in blue as they charge through the doors of the crackhouses to arrest the baddies. But that's only part of the story. The media encourages us to believe that the drug trade is largely a product of the efforts of a ragtag group of street people, when the exact opposite is true. In order to insure that every American hamlet, medium-sized community and city is overflowing with a supply of drugs, complex and sophisticated networks of distribution exist, and like any legitimate business enterprise, DOPE INC must be kept well-financed, with state of the art technology, or their profits vanish. When Representative Maxine Waters asked for a Congressional investigation of the CIA's alleged role in the distribution of drugs on the streets of LA, what happened? She was ridiculed, and the investigation died on the vine. How many Republicans and Democrats supported her? On Thu, 3 Jun 1999, E Mael wrote: -Caveat Lector- [EMAIL PROTECTED],Internet writes: The "drug war isn't working any better than prohibition did. The government uses it to: 1. invalidate US citizens constitutional rights, and 2. To provide a framework for government black ops. abso freak'n lutely DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substancenot soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substancenot soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
