Clayton County, Georgia, just admitted its police ran an unconstitutional drug-interdiction program at the Atlanta airport — and paid two comedians $30,000 to settle the case — while the southern border stays wide open and fentanyl keeps killing Americans.
The security state has no trouble treating law-abiding citizens like suspects at the boarding gate, but it can't be bothered to stop the actual flow of drugs and cartel operatives across the southern border. That's the stake: your Fourth Amendment rights get trampled at Hartsfield-Jackson, while the border remains a sieve.
Comedians Eric André and Clayton English sued in October 2022, alleging Clayton County police racially profiled them and illegally stopped them on the jet bridge as they were about to board flights. Both men said officers singled them out because they were Black and grilled them about drugs while other passengers watched. André called the experience "dehumanizing and demoralizing" when the lawsuit was filed.
The county confirmed this week that it has ended the program and agreed to require body-worn cameras and constitutional-limit training for officers assigned to the airport. André called it "a major victory" in a press release. English said, "What happened to me was wrong, and I wasn't willing to let it happen to other people."
The numbers tell the real story. Police records cited in the lawsuit show that from August 2020 to April 2021, officers conducted 402 jet bridge stops. Of the 378 stops where race was recorded, 56 percent were Black passengers and 68 percent were people of color. The haul: three drug seizures — 10 grams of drugs, 26 grams of "suspected THC gummies," and six prescription pills without a prescription. Only two people were charged.
But the cash was the point. Those same 402 stops yielded more than $1 million in cash and money orders seized from 25 passengers. Almost all were allowed to board their flights. Only two — the ones who also had drugs — were charged. Eight of the 25 challenged the seizures, and Clayton County police settled every one of those cases, returning much of the money.
This wasn't drug interdiction. It was a shakedown — civil asset forfeiture dressed up as security theater, targeting Americans traveling inside their own country. The program's stated purpose was fighting drug trafficking, but the lawsuit said drugs were rarely found, charges seldom resulted, and seized cash provided a "financial windfall" for the department.
Both WDIV and the Associated Press reported the settlement facts identically. Neither outlet drew the obvious contrast: the same federal security apparatus that greenlights these airport programs can't — or won't — secure the actual border where fentanyl and cartel operatives enter this country by the ton.
Clayton County paid $15,000 to each comedian. The program is dead. But the question remains: why does the security state have the will to shake down American citizens at the gate — and not the will to shut the border?
