Victims of the Winless War

It's amazing how far our government will go to make it look like they're winning a war. No, not that one, this war has been going on much longer.

Now we have police departments along with those at the federal level who, are sworn to protect "Us from Ourselves", doing what looks like framing people. Story

“They only sent me to Indian stores…they wanted me to say things like ‘I need it to go cook’ or ‘Hurry up, I’ve got to get home and finish a cook’,” said an undercover informant in a sworn statement attached to the ACLU’s legal papers. “The officers told me that the Indians’ English wasn’t good, and they wouldn’t say a lot so it was important for me to make these kinds of statements.” The informant, listed as John Doe #2, must remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by law enforcement.

So, the officers knew their target (victim) probably had no clue what the informant was talking about. After all if a guy were buying aluminum foil, cooking fuel and matchbooks, I'd think he was having a barbeque. I could see the head lines now "SWAT Team Descends on Memorial Day Picnic at Disabled Vets Area. Dozens dead!!!" If you think that's a stretch the Free New York Blog posted some examples.


The ACLU broke it down as follows:

South-Asian-owned stores were nearly 100 times more likely to be targeted by Operation Meth Merchant than white-owned stores in the area.

By the time Operation Meth Merchant was completed, almost 20 percent of the South-Asian-owned stores in the area were indicted, compared to only 0.2 percent of stores owned by whites or other ethnic groups.

Operation Meth Merchant resulted in the arrest of 49 people, 44 of whom are South Asian, and 33 of whom have the last name Patel.

Operation Meth Merchant targeted 24 stores for investigation, 23 of which are owned by South Asians. This, despite the fact that approximately 80 percent of area stores are owned by whites or other ethnic groups, according to the ACLU’s investigation.

The officials directing Operation Meth Merchant had evidence that at least 16 white-owned stores in the area sold products used to manufacture methamphetamine, and yet failed to investigate any of them. These stores include Avaco, Bell's Smokeshop, Bi-Lo, Breezy Top, Citgo Quikmart, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Food Lion, Fred's, Home Depot, Jerrell's Food Mart, Lowe's, Sam's Club, and Wal-mart.

The officials directing Operation Meth Merchant have failed to disclose the existence of any evidence against the vast majority of the 23 South-Asian-owned stores prior to targeting them for investigation.

(more)

The hardest part about this is I don't care for the ACLU that much, kind selective in their defending the Constitution (Gee they could be Supreme Court Justices) but with the way things are going......

Are the officials involved with this just racist (doubt it), are they that focused they didn't see the big picture (doubt it), could it be Laziness (hmmmmm) or could it be that the War on Drugs has destroyed the Constitution to the point that if it's about drugs, law abiding citizens rights play second fiddle? Which brings up the question, where was the ACLU when private property was being confiscated during drug busts and not returned after charges being dropped?