A recent article on Slate discusses how the purpose of DARE was not just to "educate" children about drugs but rather to create an army of indoctrinated snitches who would be willing to turn in their friends, family, and parents. Police would ask children about their parents' drug use, often pretending to be friendly and telling them that nothing would happen to them. The police would even insinuate that their parents could be in endanger and even tell the children if they were not honest and did not cooperate that there could be consequences for them too.
For those not in from the US or not familiar, the DARE program was an anti-drug campaign where police gave lessons as "teachers" about the dangers of drugs, often exaggerating and lying. They would encourage children to come to them or let another adult know if they knew someone was involved with drugs. The police even set up drop-boxes in classrooms for the program.
It was an Orwellian experience and in hindsight I am actually surprised it was legal. FTFA: A judge commented on the practices used by law enforcement in a civil suit against the police: “The officer’s coercive extraction of indicting information from an 11-year-old girl about her parents was shocking to the conscience and unworthy of constitutional protection.”
It honestly doesn't surprise me now looking at it how devoted people are to the supposed authority of this country given how much propaganda we had shovelled down our throats in school. There were literally entire days of school lessons we lost because they thought us knowing their weird lore about drugs and "junkies" which was their favorite word for users.
It's really just one more reason why we should not be allowing police in our school. We have tens of thousands of police officers in schools, not a single one of them has stopped a school shooting. With states such as Florida cracking down on queer children—specifically transgender children—it would not be surprising if the state got police more involved. People are already having their families broken apart in these states and we know police love to go after minorities. We see it every week on the news. The DARE program should have been a red flag as to how dangerously unhinged these authoritarians were that they would use unwitting children who would have their lives turned upside-down in their War on Drugs.
Meanwhile the article points out these same DARE officers that come to instruct the children have been arrested for stealing prescription drugs, child pornography, and sexual assaults on minors because of course the morality police are always the real creeps.
