Taking A Stand: Profiling or just doing their jobs?
Was it profiling or simply enforcing the law in our county?
There’s been a lot of debate over the court’s ruling recently, dismissing drug charges against Bonneroo festival goers who were stopped by deputies near Morrison. Some said deputies were illegally targeting out-of-state vehicles and that their actions hurt the local economy because it painted a negative picture of our county to outsiders.
Others maintained that if festival goers were breaking the law, then they were no better than local citizens, who would be prosecuted for such actions.
I’ve got to admit, I was kind of going back and forth on the issue until I spoke with some officers who were actually taking part in the traffic stops. Since I was out of town at the time this happened, I didn’t have any first hand information about what had happened until I spoke with the officers.
One thing that really took me aback was the fact both locals and out-of-towners were stopped. If you will recall, all 24 suspects during the special day of court were from out of town, making it look rather obvious lawmen had been profiling. However, come to find out, there were several locals ticketed, but they weren’t brought up in court on the same day. Instead, Bonneroo people were set for a special day as a convenience to them.
Then, I talked to an officer who told me that if the officers had in fact been profiling, there were numerous buses and “hippie vans” that would have been pulled over. However, since the motorists were breaking no local speed or driving laws, there was no probable cause.
Granted, it is not normal for such stepped up law enforcement to occur in that part of the county, but you have to remember the traffic was much higher for those days, thereby meriting stepped up patrols and use of radar, which the sheriff announced he was planning to do in the paper even before it happened.
As a comparison, patrols are beefed up around Knoxville during Volunteer games and that’s not profiling, that’s just wise law enforcement given the added numbers of people on the road.
And since when do we ignore illegal drugs in our county? It’s a fact that a lot of drugs are used at Bonneroo. Of course not everyone uses them, but anyone who was there will likely tell you they saw people openly using and selling drugs. Funny they don’t really talk about that when they’re spouting about the festival on television.
Come on folks, you don’t get 100,000 people from around the country to come hear little-known bands without something else to draw them. It’s Woodstock all over baby, sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll.
Hey, if Coffee County wants to prostitute itself out for money and turn a blind eye to a three-day open air drug party, that’s their business. Just don’t ask us to join their brothel. We’ve got enough problems with methamphetamine here, without having a bunch of druggies bringing their stash through.
As for commerce, please, what are we going to sell to them here? A bag of Cheetos when they get the munchies from their reefer as they’re passing through? Maybe set up a head shop near the county line, offering an assortment of bongs? The ones who do stay here or buy here are generally the straight ones since the druggie faction is too busy popping the ‘shrooms to leave the sheltered environment of Bonneroo once they are there. The straight ones have nothing to fear.
(Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)