THE MINORITY REPORT

In a disturbing example on just how relentless the expansion of the prison industrial complex has become, the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, more commonly known as the ATF, has been engaged heavily in what they refer to as “Home Invasion Stings.”

A home invasion sting works like this: When agents get the name of someone that they think is robbing drug dealers, they send an undercover agent to make contact with the robber. The undercover agent poses as a drug runner, or a security guard, for a big time drug trafficking organization. He presents a scheme to the robber to steal a big drug shipment. The undercover always says that there are more than five kilos involved because that is the amount that triggers mandatory sentences of more than ten years.

When the robber shows up to commit the robbery, he is arrested and charged with various federal crimes including conspiracy to sell the nonexistent cocaine.

These types of stings reflect a shift on law enforcements’ part from solving crimes to arresting those that they think may be criminals. In other words, they are creating crime to prevent crime and since 2003, the ATF use of these home invasion themes has quadrupled.

Besides the obvious issue of entrapment, home invasion themes are problematic on several different levels. For one, the stings give the ATF agents the ability to manipulate sentences however they see fit. If the undercover tells the suspected robber that there is twenty kilos in the drug house, then that’s the amount that they will charged with conspiring to sell.

What’s even more troubling is that in certain instances, the ATF even provided the suspects with the guns to commit the robbery, but the courts still do not consider this entrapment.

According to the government, these things don’t pressure in an innocent person to commit a crime, rather it just gives a person who is predisposed to crime the opportunity to commit one. It begs the question: What is the criteria that the government uses to determine if a person is predisposed to crime?

In one case, ATF informant David Villamonte testified that he targeted a man for a home invasion sting after parking next to the man at a gas station and having a conversation with him about prison tattoos. “By his demeanor, I could tell he was young and that he was involved in the elements,” Villamonte said.

Home invasion stings are just another way for the government to lock up those who it feels is the most expendable members of society: young Black males.

Since day one, Black men from the inner city have been the fuel that keeps the prison industrial complex running. Twenty years ago, the disparity in sentencing laws for crack and powder cocaine was used to fill up America’s prisons with young Black men, most of whom were non-violent low level drug dealers and drug addicts.

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REQUIEM FOR RODNEY

Rodney King, the man’s whose name is synonymous with the 1992 LA riots, passed away June 17, 2012, at his home in Southern California. He was found dead by his fiance in his swimming pool at his home. he apparently drowned.

In 1991, Rodney King was beaten by four white police officers. what made this beating different than the other countless episodes of police brutality was that it was caught on tape by amateur cameramen. He gave the tape to a local TV station and it was shown nation wide.

A lot of viewers, especially White ones were shocked by what they saw. while on the other hand, Black viewers who dealt with police brutality constantly were just satisfied that finally America could see what Black people had been dealing with for years.

About a year later, America was shocked again when, despite the video tape of the beating, the four officers were found not guilty by a jury in the predominantly White suburb of Simi Valley. Less than two hours after the verdict, all hell broke lose in South Central LA. When it was over six days later, the LA riots had left 63 people dead. In the midst of the violence, Rodney King made his famous and considered by some, infamous plea - “Can we all get along?”

Two of the four officers ended up doing two years in Federal Prison for the beating and Rodney King received a 3.8 million dollar settlement. But in reality, most Black people didn’t feel justice was served until 1995. That’s when OJ Simpson, a Black man most people considered guilty of murdering two white people, was found not guilty by a predominantly Black jury.

Rodney King wasn’t a civil rights leader or intellectual, but he was just as important. What happened to him revealed the sickness that afflict so many White police officers, the sickness that causes them to behave like slave catchers.  Martin Luther King had a dream, but sadly in America, Rodney King represented the reality.

Stay positive and be aware!

Marcel McDaniel