J.E.D
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- Jul 28, 2011
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Paul LePage Lied About The Race Of The Drug Dealers In His Mugshots Binder
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57ea97fae4b0c2407cd9af49
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) could not have been more wrong when he said last month he had a personal binder proving that more than 90 percent of drug dealers arrested in the state “are black and Hispanic people”.
Black and Latino people actually only made up 40 percent of those pictured in LePage’s binder, the newly released files show.
LePage made the wildly inaccurate claims during an August town hall in which he said he had collected pictures of every single drug dealer arrested in Maine since January. His office released the binder on Monday after public records requests from The Huffington Post, several other outlets and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.
He also claimed in August that people of color in his state were “the enemy” because they made up the “overwhelming majority” of those arrested for drug dealing.
According to an analysis by The Portland Press Herald, 37 of the 93 people pictured in the binder appear to be black or Latino. About 60 percent of those pictured were white. Maine is 95 percent white.
Just 47 percent of those pictured in the binder arrested for opioid-related charges appeared to be black or Latino, the Press Herald found. Fifty-three percent of those pictured appeared to be white.
Statistics on Maine arrests for making or selling all types of drugs in 2014, the last year for which FBI Criminal Justice Information Service data is available, show that only 14.1 percent of the 1,211 people charged were black. The Maine Department of Public Safety doesn’t include race when compiling and analyzing crime data, The Associated Press reported this month.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57ea97fae4b0c2407cd9af49
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) could not have been more wrong when he said last month he had a personal binder proving that more than 90 percent of drug dealers arrested in the state “are black and Hispanic people”.
Black and Latino people actually only made up 40 percent of those pictured in LePage’s binder, the newly released files show.
LePage made the wildly inaccurate claims during an August town hall in which he said he had collected pictures of every single drug dealer arrested in Maine since January. His office released the binder on Monday after public records requests from The Huffington Post, several other outlets and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.
He also claimed in August that people of color in his state were “the enemy” because they made up the “overwhelming majority” of those arrested for drug dealing.
According to an analysis by The Portland Press Herald, 37 of the 93 people pictured in the binder appear to be black or Latino. About 60 percent of those pictured were white. Maine is 95 percent white.
Just 47 percent of those pictured in the binder arrested for opioid-related charges appeared to be black or Latino, the Press Herald found. Fifty-three percent of those pictured appeared to be white.
Statistics on Maine arrests for making or selling all types of drugs in 2014, the last year for which FBI Criminal Justice Information Service data is available, show that only 14.1 percent of the 1,211 people charged were black. The Maine Department of Public Safety doesn’t include race when compiling and analyzing crime data, The Associated Press reported this month.
