federal sting unfairly targets Patels...looks fishy to me

several months ago i blogged about a sting in north GA of convenience stores as part of a meth crackdown. the nytimes (article here) writes that ethnic bias steered the investigator. some interesting notes:

• in this part of the state, (six rural counties), 80% of stores are white-owned or operated
  
• in the sting, 24 out of 25 of the stores are indian-owned or operated
• in the string 44 out of 45 people charged are indian
• 32 of those charged share the last name patel, but are largely unrelated
  
• one witness' sworn testimony suggests that investigators purposely avoided prosecuting white-owned stores (from the nytimes article),"Other filings said prosecutors had several tips that more than a dozen white-owned stores were selling the same ingredients, but failed to follow up on them. According to a sworn statement from a witness, law enforcement officials tipped off a white store owner about the investigation and recommended ways to avoid scrutiny."

the sting aimed to clamp down on convenience store clerks who sell ingredients for meth, a major problem in rural areas. however, most of the clerks spoke limited english and claim to have understood the undercover informants who used street slang in the transaction.

thank god for the aclu. it has taken up the case and is challenging this completely bogus case.

as a patel, i can appreciate the it's likely the clerks dd not know what was happening. i have family members in the convenience store business. besides my cousin who owns the store (and speaks english well), the rest of the employees have very, very limited english skills beyond what it takes to complete a transaction.