Police Task Force is a Lee County issue
To the editor:
I hope that any discussion of the Police Task Force (PTF) will include the cities as well as the county officials. The PTF is at work in most for minority areas of the county.
The objective of the PTF is the same as that of the war on drugs, war on crime – mass incarceration .
The targets are African-Americans, Latinos, and poor whites. Numerous surveys and reviews of collected data shows how fallacious and unjust this is. Ninety-five percent of respondents to a survey will identify African-Americans as criminal, drug user or drug dealer; only 5 percent will identify another race. Studies show that African-Americans constitute only 15 percent of current drug users. The majority of drug users and dealers are white. However, three fourths of all imprisoned for drug offenses are African-American, Latino or poor white.
These groups are targeted by the law.
The judicial system, including the Supreme Court, has weighed in strongly to facilitate law enforcement in this war by weakening constitutional rights, and eliminating Fourth Amendment rights of victims.
The Three Strikes and Out Rule condemns young, innocent victims to prison for life because of an innocent offense (being in the wrong place – living on the wrong street). The victim pleads guilty (no attorney present) to an aggressive prosecutor just to get out of prison. Now he has a felony conviction. Strike two, he violates probation, and strike three he didn’t get a job soon enough. Now he has a life sentence.
The United Nations has repeatedly condemned us for human rights validations because of this.
No community discussion would be complete without including sociologists, economists, and legal scholars who are willing to discuss the true effects of these laws on our citizens.
I would suggest that we include the high income areas of Lee County and Fort Myers in the scope of action of the PTF. If poor and minorities are only 15 percent of drug users and dealers, why not target the other 85 percent and make this a real war?
Lewis Robinson
Fort Myers