Blacks forced to sign over cash, other valubales to TX town

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Anima

Anima

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TENAHA — You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border 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 have allegedly 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: voluntarily 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.

Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled state highway connecting Houston with several popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking, and they call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state’s asset-forfeiture law.

That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.

"We try to enforce the law here," said George Bowers, mayor of the town of 1,046, where boarded-up businesses outnumber open ones and City Hall sports a broken window. "We’re not doing this to raise money. That’s all I’m going to say at this point."

But civil rights lawyers call Tenaha’s practice something else: highway robbery. The lawyers have filed a federal class-action lawsuit to stop what they contend is an unconstitutional perversion of the law’s intent, aimed primarily at African-Americans who have done nothing wrong.

Tenaha officials "have developed an illegal 'stop and seize’ practice of targeting, stopping, detaining, searching and often seizing property from apparently nonwhite citizens and those traveling with nonwhite citizens," asserts the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.
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http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1255818.html
 
Here's the actual quote: "many of them black".
 
maxiep said:
Here's the actual quote: "many of them black".
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Did you bother to read beyond that point? Those that were not black were travailing with someone who was or was biracial.
 
Anima said:
Did you bother to read beyond that point? Those that were not black were travailing with someone who was or was biracial.
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I see they pulled over many black people, but unless it says "exclusively" then I'll continue to believe it's more about money than racism.
 
Sweet. Wait until those responsible are in jail with people they used to lock up. Hope they brought lots of KY with em.
 
maxiep said:
Sure, but it's about corruption, not racism.
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Me thinks they need this guy. Simple, problem solved. :D

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I'm sure we all agree that this is probably a corrupting use of power, but what are these people doing with 4-6k in cash on them?

And if they have 6k in cash, doesn't it cost less than that to hire a lawyer to debunk false money laundering charges?

What am I missing here?
 
BrianFromWA said:
I'm sure we all agree that this is probably a corrupting use of power, but what are these people doing with 4-6k in cash on them?
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This particular town is only a few miles away from several casinos in Shreveport and runs between them and Houston
 
but they can only take if its drug related right?

i believe it though, been pulled over by Louisiana state trooper....its texas there but the mentality is different. bunch of good ol' boys.
 
maxiep said:
I see they pulled over many black people, but unless it says "exclusively" then I'll continue to believe it's more about money than racism.
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Then I guess it's just a coincidence that they only pulled over black people, people travailing with a black person in the car, and the occasional bi-racial person. :rolleyes:
 
Anima said:
Then I guess it's just a coincidence that they only pulled over black people, people travailing with a black person in the car, and the occasional bi-racial person. :rolleyes:
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Then I guess you just happen to believe everything you read. I'll ask again, show me where every single car that was pulled over had a black person in it.
 
maxiep said:
Then I guess you just happen to believe everything you read. I'll ask again, show me where every single car that was pulled over had a black person in it.
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Try reading the fucking article, the lawyer contacted 40 victims and all but one was black and that person might have been the white spouse of a black person.
 
The ironic thing to me is that if you're going to drop the racist card, wouldn't you think that targeting african-americans for extortion who are leaving casinos in the deep south is probably one of the stupider ways to make money?
 
Why don't you two tell me why the victims are so disproportionately black, besides that whole racism thing.
 
AgentDrazenPetrovic said:
maybe its a black area.
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No, the town in question has more white people in than black, although the numbers are close, Shreveport is almost even between the two races, and Houston is predominant white. If they were stopping random people just to extort money then you would think the the numbers between races would be even, if not more whites then blacks being stopped, given the geographic makeup of the surrounding areas.
 
maybe more blacks are on that route. do you have data indicating the race of the people who travel that specific road?
 
AgentDrazenPetrovic said:
maybe more blacks are on that route. do you have data indicating the race of the people who travel that specific road?
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No but I doubt 97.5% of the people who drive along any highway in the U.S. are black, especially given the racial makeup of Tenaha and the surrounding areas.
 
Anima said:
No but I doubt 97.5% of the people who drive along any highway in the U.S. are black, especially given the racial makeup of Tenaha and the surrounding areas.
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but you can't prove that. you also can't prove that these were the only victims, only the ones that happened to be selected.
 
This reminds me of what happened in Tulia, Texas just a few years ago. Dozens of people, all African-American, were convicted of drug charges and sentenced to years, sometimes decades, in prison. 10% of the black population of the town. All on the word of one (white) cop. The cop was honored and received awards. But it finally turned out he invented the whole thing. A couple of the victims had unbreakable alibis. For example, one woman was in Oklahoma, and at the very time the cop said she was trying to sell him drugs, she was in a bank cashing a check. Because it was out of state, a manager had to co-sign. The transaction was date and time stamped. While too many court appointed attorneys said just make a deal, her attorney fought for her and brought in two absolutely independent witnesses and physical evidence (stamped check) to prove she could not have been doing the drug deal. Finally it began to smell a bit too much. The cop is now doing time and the victims released (I think all are out of prison now).
 
What amazes me is that people put up with this for so long. I can tell you if I had that happen to me, and the law wasn't going to do anything about it, and if I had a bunch of money stolen from me, (Thousands of dollars) I would go learn how to shoot real good, and take care of it....
 
Masbee said:
Likely both.
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I agree. They couldn't rob everyone and expect to get away with it, so they likely targeted a group of people they were prejudiced against.
 
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