[robowombat]

I am afraid i am going to sound like a classic liberal whiner here. This community is mostly low income and significantly black. There have been, over the years, many arrests here for both drug charges and all the other sorts of felonies and misdemenors that happen in what are called hig crime (for Eugene anyway) areas. That said it is unlikely that the police would have conducted operations more suited to the IDF tackling a suspected terrorist cell than a drug bust if the venue had been a mostly wide upper middle class development. There are times when police agencies in the US do mirror the behavior of a colonial army of occupation. This is one such example.

[Karsus]

I give it 10 minutes before the 'if you are poor you do not have all the rights of middle-class people' poster show up.

[jackliberty]

...it is unlikely that the police would have conducted operations more suited to the IDF tackling a suspected terrorist cell than a drug bust if the venue had been a mostly wide upper middle class development.

It may or may not happen more often in poor neighborhoods. But it doesn't happen only in poor neighborhoods. Donald Scott, heir to the Scott Paper fortune, was killed in a "drug" raid because the L.A. County Sheriff wanted his $6 million house. Poor people can't supply the LEOs with the Jaguars, Vettes and Beemers they like so much.

In the mid 90s, USA Today had a weekly summary on Wednesdays of the "asset forfeitures" (no charges or guilty verdicts needed) by the feds. The average for the 3 or 4 weeks I kept track was over $16 million. Since then, more and more local, county and state agencies have joined the gravy train. (Witness LA's recent "anti-prostitution" decree.) Can't imagine what the weekly take is now.