In his private life, Justin Klitch of Payette, Idaho may be kind, personable, generous, and compulsively honest. While on the clock, however, he’s a professional thug – in the original sense of the expression.
The Thugs of India were a nomadic, secretive order of highway robbers notorious for gaining the confidence of travelers before ambushing, plundering, and sometimes killing them. Klitch plays a similar role as a patrol officer with the Idaho State Police, conducting pretext stops of drivers in order to search their vehicles for drugs or large amounts of cash. He does this in the tacit but provable hope of justifying the “forfeiture” – that is, the theft – of their vehicles and anything else of value he and his comrades can find. Continue reading “High Desert Highwaymen: More Scenes from the Drug War in Treasure Valley”