Infowars.com
May 9, 2012

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety issued a press release today announcing the suspension of a drug recognition program conducted by the Minnesota State Patrol. The program was exposed earlier this month by activists and members of Communities United Against Police Brutality in Minneapolis.

Prior to the press release, Eric Roeske, a State Patrol public information officer, said, “there’s been no evidence or no information that has been presented to us that would substantiate any of the allegations,” City Pages reports today.

“Our investigation points to particular efforts to target and recruit youth,” ostensibly for a program designed to train police in detecting drivers under the influence of drugs, Infowars.com reported on May, 2012.

The Infowars.com article continues:

Further, law enforcement officers have been taped recruiting people from the Peavey Plaza area of Nicollet Mall and have dropped off a number of impaired individuals at Peavey Plaza. In some instances, Minneapolis police squad cars were present while DRE trainees recruited people at Peavey Plaza. After receiving drugs, some subjects were asked to snitch on the Occupy movement or asked about various people and activities of Occupy, they said. Given efforts by the Minneapolis city council to pass an ordinance designed to restrict access to Peavey Plaza by the Occupy movement, the conduct of DRE trainees points to the possibility that they are working hand-in-glove with Minneapolis police to discredit and disrupt the Occupy movement.

Following the publication of the story and an accompanying video (see below), Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman initiated “a criminal investigation into allegations that a Hutchinson police officer provided marijuana to a potential subject in Minnesota’s drug evaluation and classification (DEC) training program last week,” according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety press release (emphasis added).

“Training law enforcement officers to detect drug impairment helps to keep our roads safe, but we need to ensure that all participants follow guidelines and operate within the law,” Commissioner Dohman said. “I have suspended the drug recognition evaluator training pending the outcome of these investigations and until we revisit and review the curriculum for the program.”

Dohman did not address the allegation that the program was used to target Occupy Minnesota participants active in Peavey Plaza.

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