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Black folks have a million and one reasons to not ever give police or law enforcement the benefit of the doubt. We’ve seen too much. We know too much. We’ve been through too much. Police will do quite literally anything to make criminals or corpses out of Black bodies and there is historical proof of this fact.
Source: Pool / Getty
According to APNews, Broward County State Attorney Harold F. Pryor is looking to right some of the wrongs that law enforcement perpetrated over almost thirty years ago. Upon researching the criminal records of people from 1988 to 1990, Pryor’s office noticed that thousands of people still have drug charges on their record, charges that stem from an illegal and rather janky sting operation conducted by Broward County Sheriff’s Office. BCSO manufactured crack cocaine and sent undercover officers to sell to the community in order to make arrests. The AP notes that in 1993, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that no one could be arrested or charged for purchasing drugs that BCSO made and sold.
“They were arresting people not for selling, but for purchasing,” Ed Hoeg, a defense lawyer, told the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale. At the time, Hoeg was a public defender who represented Leon Williams, whose appeal led to the state Supreme Court outlawing the practice.
“They had detention deputies posing as dealers,” Hoeg said. “They would sell it, and these poor people who were addicts were buying it. And they were selling it within 1,000 feet of schools, so the penalties would be greater.”
We’re all fully aware that Florida is a piece of s**t state and here is another shining example of their well-earned reputation.
Pryor has made Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony aware that he plans to ask a judge to vacate the charges and clear the records of almost 2,600 people. Word is that Tony supports the effort and will not interfere.
Every Attorney General in every state needs to take measures to ensure that people ensnared in egregious police practices like these are able to have their records cleared.
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