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That is absolutely terrifying to read! The striking thing about the footage is, again, the utter mundanity of the raid. A family was just violently raided

That is absolutely terrifying to read! The striking thing about the footage is, again, the utter mundanity of the raid. A family was just violently raided over an unmeasurable amount of pot. A man was arrested over that pot. The money he needed for his business was taken from him. Yet there’s no shame or embarrassment from the officers. There’s no panic that the whole thing was captured on video. That’s when it hits you. They don’t think they’ve made a mistake. This is what they do. The lead officers later tells the camera, matter-of-factly, that the raid turned up “a personal use amount of marijuana.” Perhaps realizing that he was also on camera back at the police station promising a much larger stash of drugs, he adds, “It happens. Drug warrants are, you know, 50-50.” If they raid a home on the pretense that he has a large stash and is selling, fine. But when it turns out to not be true, they better pay for damage - no matter what else they find.

pjc50 10y ago
I wondered what the ethnicity of the person raided was, and of course he's black. That's why there's no shame or embarrassment from the officers. That's why the Black Lives Matter campaign exists: the police have, in this case, done a substantial amount of damage to someone's life but not killed them. And there's not even an acknowledgement of that.
- wfunction 10y ago
  > That's why there's no shame or embarrassment from the officers. Is there shame and embarrassment when they do it to white people? Or do they just not do it to white people?
  - minikites 10y ago
    They just don't do it to white people: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/war-on-drugs-racist-minorities http://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/war-on-drugs-racist-mino... >White and black people report using drugs at similar rates, according to the latest data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. >A 2009 report from Human Rights Watch found black people are much more likely to be arrested for drugs. In 2007, black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than white people. >Human Rights Watch found more than four in five arrests in the war on drugs are for mere possession, while the rest are for sales. That suggests police are targeting drug users, not traffickers. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/opinion/oe-ayres23 http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/opinion/oe-ayres23 >For every 10,000 residents, about 3,400 more black people are stopped than whites, and 360 more Latinos are stopped than whites. Stopped blacks are 127% more likely to be frisked -- and stopped Latinos are 43% more likely to be frisked -- than stopped whites. >Now consider this: Although stopped blacks were 127% more likely to be frisked than stopped whites, they were 42.3% less likely to be found with a weapon after they were frisked, 25% less likely to be found with drugs and 33% less likely to be found with other contraband.
    - activ3e 10y ago
      Aren't the poor side of cities mainly black ? If that's the case then that's just a consequence but it kinda makes sens. If police patrols more in those sides of the cities, the probability for someone black to be arrested then goes higher. The real problem would be that the poor side of the city is mainly black and that it is trapped in a vicious circle where they have less education and are then more likely to turn to crime and not succeed in life.
      - loup-vaillant 10y ago
        Still, being less likely to be found with contraband and such heavily suggests blacks/poors are being frisked more often than nescessary --at the very least, there's some unjustified bias.
    - hueving 10y ago
      >They just don't do it to white people: That statement directly contradicts your evidence: >black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than white people. Please don't exaggerate, particularly when it comes to politically heated topics like this. Otherwise rational people disengage because it's clear you have some kind of axe to grind and the only people that push back are other axe grinders. Also, as the other poster pointed out, it's not clear if any of this data has been correctly normalized for income level. This same lazy tactic is used by racists to associate crime with black people, so it's very counterproductive to perpetuate stats that don't adjust for income.
      - minikites 10y ago
        How does that directly contradict my statement? Also, you left out the very important context, which is that while they are 3.6x as likely to be arrested, black people use drugs at the same rate as white people, so what justifies the 3.6x increase? And, how does income affect stop-and-frisk or drug possession arrests? Do cops have some sort of x-ray vision where they can see a suspect's W-2?
        10y ago
  - jshevek 10y ago
    They do it to white people, and they do it without shame, just as they do to black people.
- kefka 10y ago
  This whole clusterfuck is thanks to Reagans (Nancy and Reagan). Prior to the 80's "War On Drugs", it was only an offence to MAKE drugs. In Prohibition, only those who made alcohol were violating the law. You could still possess and drink it. That's why Speakeasys were a thing. Fast-forward to the Drug war. And now, even a single pill is enough for a felony. Sure makes sorting out "undesirables" easier. And Harry Anslinger back in the late 30's put a fine point on it. _______________________ " “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.” “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.” “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” “Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing” “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.” “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”" _______________________ Crazy, I say! These negroes think they're somehow equal to us whites! All I can do is shake my head, and wonder why such an obvious racial discrimination with regards to culture is still banned today. We got rid of the "colored water fountains"....
  - rangibaby 10y ago
    The genesis of the War on Drugs was Richard Nixon wanting a way to harass blacks and hippies
    - Symmetry 10y ago
      More as a way to appear to be doing something about increasing crime rates. Hitting people he didn't like was just icing.
      - warfangle 10y ago
        > “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under Nixon. http://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/ http://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
- BurningFrog 10y ago
  Whether the core problem is (1) unchecked police power or (2) racism is an important question that deserves to be figured out seriously. If you try to fix one problem when in reality it is the other, you will spend decades making failed reforms while the problem continues unaddressed. In that context, I think that this... > I wondered what the ethnicity of the person raided was, and of course he's black. That's why there's no shame or embarrassment from the officers. ...is not good analysis. You're basing a strong opinion on a sample size of 1, that's been selected by a film maker for best effect.
  - tangent128 10y ago
    There's no reason we can't try to reform both at once.
- JPKab 10y ago
  I'd hate to burst your bubble, but this shit happens to white people all the time. Just not the white people that HN folks are surrounded by (urban, upper class, educated). I grew up in a poor, rural area of Appalachia, and this shit is routine. Your assumption that the race of the victim is the reason the cops are cool with it is based on zero evidence other than your own preconceived notions. I've had my car seats slashed open in a vain search for drugs after I'd already been handcuffed and laid on the pavement with zero fucking apologies, and I'm not black. Just because you live in a sphere of the world where white people are all rich and privileged doesn't mean that it's like that in the rest of (most of) America.
  - mrgoldenbrown 10y ago
    I doubt you'll find anyone saying this stuff doesn't happen to white folks at all. The issue is that given the same set of circumstances, a black person is more likely to be searched/shot/whatever than a white person. In the case of police shootings, yes some white dudes have been shot as well as black dudes. But if you look at all the cases of police shootings in the FBI database and compare the cases of white dudes waving knives at cops vs the sample of black dudes waving knives at cops, the police are N times more likely to shoot and kill the the black dudes. (I can't recall exactly what N is but I think it was 5 or 6). If you're going to "burst bubbles" when talking about privilege, I encourage you to learn about intersectionality first. Otherwise you're bursting a straw man version of the concept, which doesn't achieve anything. Privilege exists on multiple axes, and you still have white privilege even if you're poor and don't have class privilege.
    - kbenson 10y ago
      If the premise of the GP is that it's a class/wealth problem, not a race problem, and police disproportionately use excessive force or degrading tactics against the poor, you haven't really provided a counter example. Since black people are more likely to be poor (and racism, institutional and otherwise, likely plays a role in this), you would see more cases of excessive force used against them under this premise. It's entirely possible, and I think quite likely, that both are occurring. The question then arises as to which is a stronger factor. I suspect that they are close enough in strength that it may change from region to region, city to city.
- bigtex 10y ago
  I have seen instances with no knock raids on white families homes and the police did damage that they didn't pay for.
- jshevek 10y ago
  It sounds like you've bought into a narrative unsupported by facts.
wcummings 10y ago
> If they raid a home on the pretense that he has a large stash and is selling, fine If you ask the police, anyone who owns a scale (which lots of users do, to verify the weight of what they're buying) is a "drug dealer" with intent to distribute.
rhizome 10y ago
In many jurisdictions the police do have to pay for damage during a search/raid. You do have to file a claim, though.

pjc50 10y ago

I wondered what the ethnicity of the person raided was, and of course he's black. That's why there's no shame or embarrassment from the officers. That's why the Black Lives Matter campaign exists: the police have, in this case, done a substantial amount of damage to someone's life but not killed them. And there's not even an acknowledgement of that.

wfunction 10y ago
> That's why there's no shame or embarrassment from the officers. Is there shame and embarrassment when they do it to white people? Or do they just not do it to white people?
- minikites 10y ago
  They just don't do it to white people: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/war-on-drugs-racist-minorities http://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5850830/war-on-drugs-racist-mino... >White and black people report using drugs at similar rates, according to the latest data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. >A 2009 report from Human Rights Watch found black people are much more likely to be arrested for drugs. In 2007, black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than white people. >Human Rights Watch found more than four in five arrests in the war on drugs are for mere possession, while the rest are for sales. That suggests police are targeting drug users, not traffickers. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/opinion/oe-ayres23 http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/opinion/oe-ayres23 >For every 10,000 residents, about 3,400 more black people are stopped than whites, and 360 more Latinos are stopped than whites. Stopped blacks are 127% more likely to be frisked -- and stopped Latinos are 43% more likely to be frisked -- than stopped whites. >Now consider this: Although stopped blacks were 127% more likely to be frisked than stopped whites, they were 42.3% less likely to be found with a weapon after they were frisked, 25% less likely to be found with drugs and 33% less likely to be found with other contraband.
  - activ3e 10y ago
    Aren't the poor side of cities mainly black ? If that's the case then that's just a consequence but it kinda makes sens. If police patrols more in those sides of the cities, the probability for someone black to be arrested then goes higher. The real problem would be that the poor side of the city is mainly black and that it is trapped in a vicious circle where they have less education and are then more likely to turn to crime and not succeed in life.
    - loup-vaillant 10y ago
      Still, being less likely to be found with contraband and such heavily suggests blacks/poors are being frisked more often than nescessary --at the very least, there's some unjustified bias.
  - hueving 10y ago
    >They just don't do it to white people: That statement directly contradicts your evidence: >black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than white people. Please don't exaggerate, particularly when it comes to politically heated topics like this. Otherwise rational people disengage because it's clear you have some kind of axe to grind and the only people that push back are other axe grinders. Also, as the other poster pointed out, it's not clear if any of this data has been correctly normalized for income level. This same lazy tactic is used by racists to associate crime with black people, so it's very counterproductive to perpetuate stats that don't adjust for income.
    - minikites 10y ago
      How does that directly contradict my statement? Also, you left out the very important context, which is that while they are 3.6x as likely to be arrested, black people use drugs at the same rate as white people, so what justifies the 3.6x increase? And, how does income affect stop-and-frisk or drug possession arrests? Do cops have some sort of x-ray vision where they can see a suspect's W-2?
      - 10y ago
- jshevek 10y ago
  They do it to white people, and they do it without shame, just as they do to black people.
kefka 10y ago
This whole clusterfuck is thanks to Reagans (Nancy and Reagan). Prior to the 80's "War On Drugs", it was only an offence to MAKE drugs. In Prohibition, only those who made alcohol were violating the law. You could still possess and drink it. That's why Speakeasys were a thing. Fast-forward to the Drug war. And now, even a single pill is enough for a felony. Sure makes sorting out "undesirables" easier. And Harry Anslinger back in the late 30's put a fine point on it. _______________________ " “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.” “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.” “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” “Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing” “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.” “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”" _______________________ Crazy, I say! These negroes think they're somehow equal to us whites! All I can do is shake my head, and wonder why such an obvious racial discrimination with regards to culture is still banned today. We got rid of the "colored water fountains"....
- rangibaby 10y ago
  The genesis of the War on Drugs was Richard Nixon wanting a way to harass blacks and hippies
  - Symmetry 10y ago
    More as a way to appear to be doing something about increasing crime rates. Hitting people he didn't like was just icing.
    - warfangle 10y ago
      > “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under Nixon. http://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/ http://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
BurningFrog 10y ago
Whether the core problem is (1) unchecked police power or (2) racism is an important question that deserves to be figured out seriously. If you try to fix one problem when in reality it is the other, you will spend decades making failed reforms while the problem continues unaddressed. In that context, I think that this... > I wondered what the ethnicity of the person raided was, and of course he's black. That's why there's no shame or embarrassment from the officers. ...is not good analysis. You're basing a strong opinion on a sample size of 1, that's been selected by a film maker for best effect.
- tangent128 10y ago
  There's no reason we can't try to reform both at once.
JPKab 10y ago
I'd hate to burst your bubble, but this shit happens to white people all the time. Just not the white people that HN folks are surrounded by (urban, upper class, educated). I grew up in a poor, rural area of Appalachia, and this shit is routine. Your assumption that the race of the victim is the reason the cops are cool with it is based on zero evidence other than your own preconceived notions. I've had my car seats slashed open in a vain search for drugs after I'd already been handcuffed and laid on the pavement with zero fucking apologies, and I'm not black. Just because you live in a sphere of the world where white people are all rich and privileged doesn't mean that it's like that in the rest of (most of) America.
- mrgoldenbrown 10y ago
  I doubt you'll find anyone saying this stuff doesn't happen to white folks at all. The issue is that given the same set of circumstances, a black person is more likely to be searched/shot/whatever than a white person. In the case of police shootings, yes some white dudes have been shot as well as black dudes. But if you look at all the cases of police shootings in the FBI database and compare the cases of white dudes waving knives at cops vs the sample of black dudes waving knives at cops, the police are N times more likely to shoot and kill the the black dudes. (I can't recall exactly what N is but I think it was 5 or 6). If you're going to "burst bubbles" when talking about privilege, I encourage you to learn about intersectionality first. Otherwise you're bursting a straw man version of the concept, which doesn't achieve anything. Privilege exists on multiple axes, and you still have white privilege even if you're poor and don't have class privilege.
  - kbenson 10y ago
    If the premise of the GP is that it's a class/wealth problem, not a race problem, and police disproportionately use excessive force or degrading tactics against the poor, you haven't really provided a counter example. Since black people are more likely to be poor (and racism, institutional and otherwise, likely plays a role in this), you would see more cases of excessive force used against them under this premise. It's entirely possible, and I think quite likely, that both are occurring. The question then arises as to which is a stronger factor. I suspect that they are close enough in strength that it may change from region to region, city to city.
bigtex 10y ago
I have seen instances with no knock raids on white families homes and the police did damage that they didn't pay for.
jshevek 10y ago
It sounds like you've bought into a narrative unsupported by facts.

wcummings 10y ago

> If they raid a home on the pretense that he has a large stash and is selling, fine If you ask the police, anyone who owns a scale (which lots of users do, to verify the weight of what they're buying) is a "drug dealer" with intent to distribute.

rhizome 10y ago

In many jurisdictions the police do have to pay for damage during a search/raid. You do have to file a claim, though.