The Alabama Justice Project acquired numerous documents detailing the involvement of many police officers, including a current Assistant Director of Homeland Security, in the planting of drugs and guns on over 1000 young African American men, many of whom had clean records.
We all understand that police-work is a very stressful job, and in the heat-of-the-moment, an officer may make a wrong call or a costly mistake. This isn't one of those times. Instead, what we have is a documented series of false arrests, drug and gun plants, wrongful felony convictions, and a cover-up of wrong doing that lasted almost 20 years. This didn't happen back in the 50's or 60's. This happened in the 90's, just a few short years ago. The officers involved are likely guilty of destroying over 1,000 lives.
According to the Henry County Report, "Beginning in early 1996, the Dothan Police Department received complaints from black victims that drugs and weapons were being planted. Specifically young black men who had clean records were targeted. Police Chief, John White, allegedly instructed senior officers to ignore the complaints and they willingly complied."
Among those involved were officers Lt. Steve Parrish and Sgt. Andy Hughes. According to one source, "Both men have risen in rank, with Parrish now Dothan police chief and Hughes the assistant director of Homeland Security for the state of Alabama."
Several officers, requesting anonymity, came forward and shared hundreds of files taken from the Internal Affairs investigation. "The officers believe that there are currently nearly a thousand wrongful convictions resulting in felonies from the 20th Judicial District that are tied to planted drugs and weapons and question whether a system that allows this can be allowed to continue to operate. "
Racism should be dead, but unfortunately, some people refuse to see past the color of a person's skin. It is a terrible thing when normal people discriminate, but when those with authority, those who should uphold the law and protect the innocent, when they use their power to break the lives on the innocent, it is a horror. It is little different from how the Nazi's originally treated their "undesirables."
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