cannabisnews.com: Panhandle Town's Drug War Reveals Racial Disparity





Panhandle Town's Drug War Reveals Racial Disparity
Posted by FoM on January 10, 2001 at 16:16:48 PT
By Susan Smith, Austin American-Statesman
Source: Austin American-Statesman
Cotton is scattered on the side of the road like abandoned snowflakes. Granaries decorate the flat landscape. A street sign points toward a Texas Department of Corrections facility. Welcome to Tulia, in the Texas Panhandle. The red sign on the door at the Tulia Chamber of Commerce reads ``Known Far and Wide for Our Hometown Pride.'' The sign is part of a public relations war to change the image of a town that is becoming famous for the excesses of the war on drugs. In Tulia, it appears to be a war on African Americans. 
In July 1999, 40 African Americans -- or 16 percent of the African American population of this town of about 5,000 -- were arrested by an undercover officer with a regional drug task force. Tom Coleman had neither wiretap nor video surveillance to back up the allegations against the defendants. And no money, guns or drugs were confiscated during the arrests. Tulia may be at the center of the controversy surrounding the war on drugs. But the town, where churchgoing is as much a part of the social fabric as the cotton and prison industries, is also at war with itself over its racial issues. Some of the sentences in the drug operation, which range from probation to hundreds of years, may have been too long, said Lana Barnett, president of the chamber of commerce. But she denies that race is a factor in the cases. ``There's never been a (racial) problem here,'' said Barnett, referring to two African Americans who recently received top awards from civic groups. But the statistics in the drug operation paint a different picture. Of the 43 people arrested, 40 were African American, two were Hispanic and one was white. A few had previous arrests for drugs and other things. Fearful of long sentences, many of the defendants pleaded out on charges of delivery of cocaine. Several are serving prison sentences. All had court-appointed lawyers. Last week, an appeals court in Amarillo, north of Tulia, dropped charges against one defendant. Austinites collected about $1,600 and donated it to the Friends of Justice, an interracial group that is raising money for the defendants' families. The arrests have touched most families in the African American community, which is about 5 percent of Tulia's population. I met Tamara Barrow outside of a store. Her husband, James, is on probation. At least two of his relatives are in prison as a result of the sting. ``Somebody has to make a stand. I'm not gonna let my kids grow up thinking they are less,'' Barrow said. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil rights lawsuit in September against Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart, who supervised Coleman, and District Attorney Terry McEachern on behalf of the Tulia residents. And the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the sting operation. This question deserves an answer: How could a town of 5,000 support 43 drug dealers of any race? Susan Smith's column appears Wednesday and Saturday. She can be reached at: ssmith statesman.comSource: Austin American-Statesman (TX)Author: Susan Smith, Austin American-StatesmanPublished: Wednesday, January 10, 2001Copyright: 2001 Austin American-StatesmanAddress: P. O. Box 670 Austin, Texas 78767Fax: 512-445-3679Contact: letters statesman.comWebsite: http://www.austin360.com/partners/aas/Related Articles & Web Site:A.C.L.U.http://www.aclu.org/Justice Department To Probe Tulia Bust http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7472.shtmlACLU Head Meets with Tulia Residentshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7413.shtmlDrug Bust Controversy Continues in Tulia http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7619.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on January 10, 2001 at 18:31:49 PT:
Stranger than Fiction
If you made this story up, no one would believe it. I see a potential Spike Lee movie from these events.
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