31. Predatory Policing Meets Fed-Up War Veterans
At the end of WWII, American veterans were often welcomed home with parades and the warm embrace of a grateful nation. Not so the veterans of Athens, Tennessee. They returned to the nightmare of a corrupt local Sheriff, Paul Cantrell, head of a dirty political machine – venal even by the prevailing southern local governments – that rode roughshod over the locals.
Sheriff Cantrell’s income depended on the number of prisoners in his jail, so he used predatory policing to keep his jail full. People were routinely victimized by overbearing deputies, looking for any excuse to lock them up. If they were unable to find something, Cantrell and his deputies would simply beat up a victim, then toss him in jail for “resisting arrest”. When deputies subjected returning veterans to the same treatment, it backfired. Having recently crushed tyrannies overseas, the veterans were not about to submit to tyranny at home. They took up arms and went to war.
