Ethnic Cleansing, Texas Style

by JRoyale

2000-10-16 01:24:13

An Ethologist's Notebook

I can't believe this country sometimes. It seems that some Texan sheriff in Tulia wanted to rid his town of drugs. So he brought in Tim Coleman to work uncover and discover all those "Bad People" selling drugs. At least that's the story the way the "Law" tells it.

It seems that good old Tim found 43 people will to sell him drug. Strangely, 41 of those 43 were black - which accounts for 17% for the black population Tulia. Nearly all of those that Tim accused of various drug offense were convicted by all white juries and given sentences that ranged from 20 years to over 400 years. 400 years for selling drugs!!! Has the freakn' world gone crazy??? OK, this is Texas and they have been known to execute any black person accused of killing a white person. But still, how can anyone justify a sentence like that?

Mind you, there wasn't any corroborating evidence to support Tim's accusations. No tapes, no other witnesses, no guns, no drug paraphernalia, no big wads of cash. Just Tim telling the jury, "He sold me those drugs." Oh, and one more thing which was never brought up in trial - right in the middle of the sting operation, the sheriff received a warrant from Tim's arrest from another county. Seems old Tim had been a very naughty deputy sheriff and skipped town ahead of the law before arriving in Tulia. Of course, the Sheriff of Tulia ignored the warrant for Tim's arrest as everyone knows that stopping drugs is far more important the obeying the law.

We seem to have a very determined Sheriff here. So determined that you have to wonder if getting rid of drugs was really his goal.

It's been commented that the Sheriff wasn't nearly as interested in ridding the town of drugs as he was of ridding the town of blacks. If in a certain village in Bosnia, the Serbs had made 17% of the towns Albanian disappear, the American press would be screaming "Ethnic Cleansing". Both the ACLU and the NAACP believe that the Sheriff has ulterior motives and have filed lawsuits alleging discrimination is at the root of this "investigation".

It seems that the "Law" in Tulia isn't about the law, it is whatever the Sheriff, the Prosecutor and the Mayor say it is. And I don't know about you dear Readers, but I find that more then just highly offensive. In fact, I find that their "crimes" against the civil rights of Americans, far more reprehensible then selling and using drugs. At least 10 times more reprehensible. So if a drug seller in Texas gets 400 years, I figure these bozos should spend the next 4000 in the maximum security wing at Huntsville.

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tunafish@pigdog.org