South Carolina Drug Laws
Jesse Jackson protests police drug raid in South Carolina - National Report - Brief Article The Rev. Jesse Jackson recently led more than 1,000 marchers in South Carolina to protest a police drug raid at Stratford High School in Goose Creek, near Charleston, a raid which Jackson charges was racially motivated.
Carrying signs and chanting slogans, Jackson and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition members, national ministers, community leaders and students decried the alleged use of excessive force by police in the Nov. 5 raid and called for equal justice, opportunity and shared economic security in the state.
"This type of dragnet approach appears to be motivated by race," said Jackson, who joined a lawsuit filed in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Black students alleging Constitutional violations of search and seizure and due process.
According to students, when they arrived on campus the entryway was locked, causing them to enter the school through an alternate entrance. Shortly after, police swarmed the hallway, occupied by mostly Black students. Surveillance camera video showed police ordering students to the floor while officers with guns and drug-sniffing dogs searched them. About 100 students were searched, but no illegal drugs were found and no one was arrested.
Police, who denied any racial profiling, said the aggressive tactics were needed to ensure the safety of the officers and other students. State and federal officials are investigating whether any criminal laws were broken by police.
"Severe suffering has been unleashed on these children," said Sharon Smalls, mother of a Black student searched in the raid. "School is supposed to be a safe haven, not a place where students are violated and humiliated."
COPYRIGHT 2004 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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