I'm watching this heartbreaking story about Tulia, Texas

[CatWoman]

over 60 poor Blacks were railroaded by this detective for being drug dealers.

These people lived in homes that didn't have electricity. The windows broken out, covered with plastic. The stucco falling off the walls.

And it took a local retired white man to crack open the case.

He put two and two together, and challenged the arrests.

Good people come in all colors.

[wicket]

1. I remember hearing about this on 60 minutes a few years ago...

It was a heartbreaking & infuriating story.

[Wickerman]

2. That was a horrid story

Didn't he submit drywall plaster as evidence?

[CatWoman]

6. don't know -- haven't come to that part yet

however, it's sad that a lot of those folks were intimidated by the justice system, and accepted plea deals -- even tho they were innocent.

[Wickerman]

11. NPR has run a few features on it over the last couple of years

Some pepole trying to make a name for themselves and out and out racial "thinning" of the neighborhood. :puke:

[demnan]

3. Hi, Catwoman!

Where did you see this story, I always love these "good triumphs over evil stories", they're so few and far between.

[CatWoman]

4. It's on right now

on Court TV.

[Wetzelbill]

5. I believe Bob Herbert wrote a series of columns on this a few years ago nt

[CatWoman]

7. he is one of the guest commentators.

[Dudley_DUright]

12. You are correct. He devoted several of his columns in the NYTimes

to this travesty.

[stevedeshazer]

24. I remember those

*flashback*

[bluestateguy]

8. I think the sheriff perjured himself

and of course the same people who bellowed with rage about Clinton perjuring himself about a blow job, turned a deaf ear in this case.

[Jane Austin]

9. Was Sen John Cornyn (R-Doofus) Attorney General of Texas then?

I wonder if he knew about the Tulia situation.

[CatWoman]

10. I don't know

however, I wouldn't be surprised.

This case is simply astounding.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Oh yes. Not only that, but

Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (now a US Senator) presented the award of Officer of the Year to Tom Coleman after the Tulia arrests.

Of course this shouldn't surprise anyone, should it?

[Jane Austin]

23. Oh, Beautiful.

And this guy got more votes than Ron Kirk in 2002?

I really don't think so.

[Mikimouse]

14. Some detective...

The guys name was Tom Coleman, and he never had any witnesses, wrote his notes on his arms, and was completely unqualified to do any of the type of work he was suppposedly doing. The convictions all came about because of his testimony. Later, it was found that he had some problems of his own, through stealing gas from the county for personal use. He has since been charged with a number of offenses. Racist trash at its best.

[Horse with no Name]

15. There is a book called "Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small

Texas Town".

What "TULIA" shows most compellingly is the extent to which racism, which Blakeslee shows is nowadays most often expressed in economic terms, lies just below the surface in the everyday assumptions of life in small southern towns. While the town's elite knows that the "N" word is no longer acceptable in polite society, they have found ways to enforce the old status quo with a new rhetorical spin. For instance, the head of the Tulia Chamber of Commerce, Lena Barnett, speaking resentfully about county tax money being spent on court appointed attorneys for the 39 African Americans nefariously accused of dealing drugs, says, "If you can't afford insurance, then you don't go to the doctor... If you can't afford to hire a lawyer, then you go without" (page 183). This says much about what towns like Tulia and states like Texas are willing to pay to balance the scales of justice.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158648219X/002-9567257-7595229?v=glance&n=283155

[Vinnie From Indy]

16. Senator Cornyn was AG of Texas during the Tulia trials

To give you an idea of Cornyn's dark side, he wanted the Tulia folks to sit in jail EVEN AFTER it had been proved that they were framed. If only we had let Mexico keep Texas!

[firefox]

17. I wish more people knew about Tulia, Texas

The saddest part is that Tom Coleman got Texas's Lawman of the Year in 1999 for this.

Anybody can do a Google search for Tulia, Texas and start reading. It all ends with pardons but only when they sign away their pursuit of real damages.

This article tells the story well and has a picture of the lying drug warrior, Tom Coleman, in all his macho glory- http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/02/1046540066770.html

[Horse with no Name]

19. There are more towns like Tulia

Make no mistake.
Not on this grand of a scale, but this goes on everyday in small towns.
One here, one there...and nobody notices.

[justabob]

18. Disgusting isn't it

Bob (?) Herbert at the NYT did a series of good columns about it.... if you have access to their archive.

[firefox]

20. MAP inc on Tulia, Texas

The Media Awareness Project is about collecting stories on the drug war. There is a media silence on discussion of the drug war and only when an effort is made to collect all reports can we have a media voice on the subject. This is mainly to present the existance of MAPinc.org so that you might bookmark it.

But here is an example of what their collection efforts can yield. This is the archive of MAPinc on Tulia, Texas- http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. This is a NAACP success story.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that they spent over 1 mil in pro bono work to straighten out this miscarriage of justice.

I wrote a research paper on the subject for my second B.A. My prof was shocked when she read it because the information was so current. I had to work off of newspaper articles because there was nothing else to find on the subject. My prof had just undergone a lawsuit from a black teacher so she had a bad taste in her mouth on all things pertinent to discrimination issues, but this thing woke her up. Maybe it changed her mind a little bit.

[CatWoman]

22. I'm mighty proud of you, BC

:hi: