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Former DEA Agents Complain of Racism in Agency

"Trump stokes division with racism and rage – and the American oligarchy purrs"

By Crime and Justice News | 20 hours ago

Frustrated by Attorney General William Barr’s recent comments on police and racism, a group of more than 75 retired black Drug Enforcement Administration agents are speaking out about systemic racism in the agency. The former agents said DEA suffers from a dearth of black agents across the agency as well as in supervisory positions. They say a class-action lawsuit filed 40 years ago still is being litigated. “Systemic racism has ended aspirations, careers, and in some cases even lives. Unfortunately, it has taken the despicable killing of George Floyd to awaken the collective conscience of the American people,” according to the statement, reported by the Baltimore Sun .. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-black-dea-agents-racism-20200618-47ctxvzd7vebjiozh5jtoycnza-story.html?utm_medium=notification&utm_source=onesignal . “For the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the country to be blinded to this notion is inconceivable and will continue to have detrimental consequences.”

Barr told CBS this month, “There’s racism in the United States still, but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist.” The retired agents say that just eight percent of nearly 4,500 DEA agents as of last fall were black. Just four of 50 senior executives are black. Just last year, a federal judge ruled in the class action suit dating from 1977 that DEA needed to take more steps to cure systemic race bias in promotions. The former agents say that if DOJ “will not abolish the 40-plus years of racism in one of its component law enforcement agencies, how can they expect police departments to do the same?” A DEA spokesman said the agency is “committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting a workforce that reflects the diversity of our country and the people we serve.” Gary Tuggle, who ran DEA’s Baltimore field office, believes the problem has worsened. “The DEA hasn’t had an African-American female special agent in charge in years,” Tuggle said. “That’s ridiculous.”

https://thecrimereport.org/2020/06/19/former-dea-agents-complain-of-racism-in-agency/