It’s been 50 years since Godfrey Wade arrived to the United States from Jamaica at the age of 15 with his mother, moving to New York with a green card that granted him permanent residency.
The Black man enlisted in the U.S. Army a few years later, spending eight years in the service, where he was primarily stationed in Germany before he received an honorable discharge. He then began a civilian life in Georgia while raising a family, working as a fashion designer, master tailor, tennis coach and chef over the years while staying out of trouble.
That is, until September, when he was pulled over in Conyers, Georgia, for failing to use a turn signal, which was when police discovered he was driving without a license and arrested him.
. . . He has been incarcerated in overcrowded ICE detention centers since the arrest, a three-month ordeal where he was forced to sleep on a makeshift bed on the ground for the first 12 days, according to 11 Alive News.
In a telephone interview with local media from the Stewart Detention Center in Stewart County, Georgia, Wade said there are only two working urinals for an entire pod of 80 people.
“We don’t have any bunk space,” he told the news station. “We’re given what we call boats, and those are placed on the floor with a two-inch mat.”
“There’s sewage water flowing on the ground,” he said.
11 Alive News also reported that it had obtained records of the Office of Detention Oversight, a unit within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that oversees the federal detention centers, which revealed 12 deficiencies within the Stewart Detention Center related to health and safety, food service, phone access, use of force, and more.
“The agency also noted violations of the required 12-to-1 detainee-to-toilet ratio,” 11 Alive News reported, adding that the private for-profit company that runs the detention center, CoreCivic, has ignored various inquires by reporters seeking comment.
But the Trump administration has repeatedly demonstrated it believes it is above the law and the Constitution.
The headline implied the turn signal is the problem and he’s an angel besides that. It might have started the police interaction but it is not the whole thing. Anyone scanning the headline is going to only get a half truth.
Still don’t think driving without a license is deport worthy, but it’s a much bigger violation and the real heart.
NGL it is a problem, because who tf gets pulled over for failure to signal? It’s just an excuse to pull someone over for DWB.
Where I’m from (still in US) just about anyone, no matter race, will get pulled over for it. Especially near schools or hospitals. Now, are they doing it to fulfill there supposedly non-existent ticket quota? That I’d believe.
Gotcha. Around here (also US) it’s just an excuse to pull over certain people. It’s used very selectively. TBH I wish they would enforce it equitably, there is a ton of people in this area that never use their turn signal
Basically anyone in rural Georgia. Those cops don’t have a lot to do. That’s why whenever you’re passing through a small town you have to drive perfectly or you will get pulled over.
These small towns keep people posted on either side of town just to write tickets for minor infractions
Bless you for reading.
Turns out most people are so used to intentionally misleading headlines that they’ll actively defend them based on the “well technically” truths.
Victim blaming dog whistle detected.
Correct, so him “not being an angel” is irrelevant
Nope. Not at all.
While a more serious offense than the turn signal thing, it’s still not punishable by deportation in a sane society and as such an equally invalid excuse for deporting anyone.