GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Suit
by TChris
As TalkLeft observed here, it was unfair of undercover officers to base arrests on their use of drug slang while purchasing legal products, like sudafed and charcoal, from Georgia convenience stores staffed by clerks from India who didn't understand that "cook" referred to "manufacturing methamphetamine," not "grilling burgers." The officers' tactics raised questions about the selective targeting of a minority population for a dubious criminal prosecution.
An ACLU investigation produced compelling evidence that the Indian clerks were targeted because they wouldn't understand the officers' drug slang, while white clerks selling the same products were ignored. The ACLU has filed suit on behalf of the clerks.
Documents filed by the A.C.L.U. yesterday include a sworn statement from an informant in the sting, saying that federal investigators sent informants only to Indian-owned stores, "because the Indians' English wasn't good." The informant said investigators ignored the informant's questions about why so many South-Asian-owned stores were visited in the sting.
Of the 49 people charged after the sting, 44 were Indian. Of the 24 stores that were targeted, 23 were operated by Indians. The ACLU discovered that stores operated by whites were given a pass.
Other filings said prosecutors had several tips that more than a dozen white-owned stores were selling the same ingredients, but failed to follow up on them. According to a sworn statement from a witness, law enforcement officials tipped off a white store owner about the investigation and recommended ways to avoid scrutiny. ...
Of 629 convenience stores in the six-county area in the sting, 80 percent are owned or operated by whites, according to the A.C.L.U.'s court filing, but fewer than 1 percent of the stores in the sting are white-owned or operated. The filing said the clerk at the only white-operated store was known widely as a methamphetamine addict whose husband was in prison for making the drug. None of the Indians charged are accused of using or making methamphetamine.
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