Racial profiling reared its ugly head in Northern California last week as U.S. Forest Service officers attempting to crack down on marijuana cultivation in the Mendocino National Forest were instructed to interrogate all Hispanics whose vehicles were stopped, even if marijuana was not discovered in the car.
Park officers were instructed via a memo to monitor all vehicles entering the forest between 8 p.m. and 10 a.m. will be monitored “to develop probable cause for stop…[and] if a vehicle stop is conducted and no marijuana is located and the vehicle has Hispanics inside, at a minimum we would like all individuals FI’d (field interrogated).”
Tim Crews, the publisher of the bi-weekly Sacramento Valley Mirror obtained the memo from a federal law enforcement officer. The forest service amended the wording of the memo after Crews questioned as to whether the directive was racially biased.
Mendocino National Forest spokesperson Phebe Brown called the directive an “unfortunate use of words” but not racial profiling. “The bottom line is that the Forest Service does not in any way condone the singling out of any persons by race.”
“Little wonder why Mendocino County has a strongly worded marijuana decriminalization initiative before the voters this year,” said Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director. “Overzealous law enforcement such as the annual paramilitary C.A.M.P. effort and racial profiling have eroded public support for the war on marijuana.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751.
