Racial Profiling for Profit

The Justice Department launched a broad investigation Thursday into the police department in Ferguson, Missouri.The investigation, which is separate from an existing federal probe into the Aug. 9 shooting of Michel Brown, will look for patterns of discrimination within the predominantly white department and focus on how officers use force, search and arrest suspects, and treat inmates at the city jail.
Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of “highway interdiction” to departments across the country.One of those firms created a private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System that enabled police nationwide
There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800