No, the town in question has more white people in than black, although the numbers are close, Shreveport is almost even between the two races, and Houston is predominant white. If they were stopping random people just to extort money then you would think the the numbers between races would be even, if not more whites then blacks being stopped, given the geographic makeup of the surrounding areas.
maybe more blacks are on that route. do you have data indicating the race of the people who travel that specific road?
No but I doubt 97.5% of the people who drive along any highway in the U.S. are black, especially given the racial makeup of Tenaha and the surrounding areas.
but you can't prove that. you also can't prove that these were the only victims, only the ones that happened to be selected.
This reminds me of what happened in Tulia, Texas just a few years ago. Dozens of people, all African-American, were convicted of drug charges and sentenced to years, sometimes decades, in prison. 10% of the black population of the town. All on the word of one (white) cop. The cop was honored and received awards. But it finally turned out he invented the whole thing. A couple of the victims had unbreakable alibis. For example, one woman was in Oklahoma, and at the very time the cop said she was trying to sell him drugs, she was in a bank cashing a check. Because it was out of state, a manager had to co-sign. The transaction was date and time stamped. While too many court appointed attorneys said just make a deal, her attorney fought for her and brought in two absolutely independent witnesses and physical evidence (stamped check) to prove she could not have been doing the drug deal. Finally it began to smell a bit too much. The cop is now doing time and the victims released (I think all are out of prison now).
What amazes me is that people put up with this for so long. I can tell you if I had that happen to me, and the law wasn't going to do anything about it, and if I had a bunch of money stolen from me, (Thousands of dollars) I would go learn how to shoot real good, and take care of it....
I agree. They couldn't rob everyone and expect to get away with it, so they likely targeted a group of people they were prejudiced against.
