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GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Suit

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 07:42:50 AM EST
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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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    GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Suit | 17 comments (17 topical)
    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#1)
    by aw on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 08:15:14 AM EST
    Despicable, pointless, a waste of public resources. Most likely no one will be held accountable.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#2)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 08:31:15 AM EST
    Can someone remind me why law enforcement is targeting convenience store clerks for selling legal products? Anyone? Is a housewares store clerk targeted for selling steak knives that may be used to stab somebody?

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#3)
    by squeaky on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 08:43:10 AM EST
    Looks like the FBI was doing a bit of cooking themselves and yes it was a barbecue. Career motives trump ethics, guess this is business as usual in the law enforcement racket. At least there are still some left to check and balance the sadly predictable misuse of power that goes on with alarming regularity. Time to make another donation to the ACLU.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#4)
    by Steven Sanderson on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 08:46:08 AM EST
    Many authorities are under intense pressure to demonstrate "success" in the war on drugs in order to keep the money flowing into their coffers. An easy way to do this is to manufacture "success" and if doing so creates more victims, then that's just too bad. Units of government, such as law enforcement agencies, can, and do, exhibit psychopathic behavior just like corporations do.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 09:27:06 AM EST
    I clerked at a liquor store for a short time, I can say from experience that store clerks pay no attention to what a customer says. It's all "wah wah wah" like Charlie Brown's teacher. You just wanna ring 'em up and get 'em out and get through your shift. Who knew ignoring customer's idle banter was a crime! How stupid. I swear our society is obsessed with putting people in chains, regardless if they are a threat to society or not.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#6)
    by Joe Bob on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 09:38:39 AM EST
    kdog, many states now have laws that limit the over-the-counter sale of meth precursors. For example, in Minnesota you can buy no more than 3 packages of cold medicine at a time and you can't buy it off the shelf, you have to get it from the pharmacist. That said, nothing in the linked articles indicate that this was the case in Georgia. Actually, I'm still not clear on what pretext the police used for charging the store owners with crimes.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#7)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 09:47:36 AM EST
    I hear ya Joe Bob...so much for the buy 3 Sudafeds get one free sales in those states! What about Costco/Sam's Club? They sell bulk packs of the stuff greater than the size of 3 small boxes. I wonder if they are forbidden from selling bulk packs of LEGAL over the counter cold remedies. This drug war is so unintentionally hilarious sometimes.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#8)
    by kdog on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 09:48:30 AM EST
    Unless it IS intentional...in which case the knuckleheaded legislators behind such laws should be writing for SNL instead of writing laws.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#9)
    by orionATL on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 10:24:30 AM EST
    tchris thanks for putting together in one place talk left's posts on this. talk left - on the mark and timely as always.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#10)
    by Pete Guither on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 10:56:39 AM EST
    Joe Bob, The pretext was based on a Georgia law that makes it illegal to sell certain items if you "know or should know" that they'll be used to make meth. So the undercover officers would buy a legal amount of sudafed and also some matches and aluminum foil and say they were "cooking" and that was supposed to be enough for "should have known." Interestingly, 32 of those arrested were named "Patel."

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 01:13:45 PM EST
    Ishmael,Patel and Singh, Fell foul of a despicable sting. Strange drug terms they did utter, These narco's from the gutter. Justice for brown folks, really! no kidding.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#12)
    by Sailor on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 01:34:00 PM EST
    Ahhh, a limerick from Limerick ... or close by;-)

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#13)
    by Joe Bob on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 01:38:08 PM EST
    Pete, I find that astonishing. The ingredients and tools for meth manufacturing are supposed to be common knowledge?

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 02:16:26 PM EST
    Joe Bob. It should not come as a surprise, given we all sit in front of the worlds largest encyclopedia. What might come as a surprise is the enterprise of the good old boys down Georgia way. "Light pole crank" a method of cooking a particular nasty form of meth by using the chemicals found in the insulators on light poles.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#15)
    by orionATL on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 03:54:19 PM EST
    joe bob (at 2:38) now that you mention it, i realisze i was reading these posts and only then came to know that cold remedies were cooked to make meth. i have a neighbor who is from bangladesh. he is a bartender downtown. we speak slowly to each other. his english is compentent, but i can't imagine if he were a store clerk he would know this info. his wife speaks no english. my sense of the indian community where i live is that the adults focus intently on their community and families. they listen to indian music, watch indian tv, and indian movies. only the school age children seem to have much grasp of the intricacies of american society. in any event, it may have been the gbi taking advantage of language deficiences but then again, this being georgia and the south, with a republican governeor in power, it would not surprise me a whit if there was not a back door to the governor's office on this, involving competitors of the indian stores.

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#16)
    by libdevil on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 11:12:24 PM EST
    Oh, come on. Who doesn't know that somebody who buys a bunch of charcoal and says they're going to be cooking with it is a criminal?

    Re: GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Sui (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 08, 2006 at 06:30:50 AM EST
    Posted by aw April 6, 2006 09:15 AM
    Despicable, pointless, a waste of public resources. Most likely no one will be held accountable.
    Most likely they'll get medals.

    GA Convenience Store Sting Results in ACLU Suit | 17 comments (17 topical)