October 22nd Statement from Will Harrell
Executive Director, ACLU of Texas
October 22, 2000 Tulia, Texas: Those of you gathered to commemorate the fifth annual October 22 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation are painfully aware of the epidemic of police brutality and racially motivated police misconduct this country suffers. But I want to tell a story that for me symbolizes everything that we have come together on this day for the past five years to protest. It is a story of racism, and of the intoxicating arrogance of power and impunity. It is the story of Tulia, Texas. That is where I am commemorating the year 2000 October 22nd Day and from where I make this statement on this soulful, somber day. This story began in earnest when the Tulia school board voted in a policy of mandatory drug testing based on the testimony of one board member that he had seen his child talking to black children after school. In the midst of the hysteria, the police compiled a list of 60 "known drug dealers" in Tulia, population 5000, and approximately 246 African-Americans.
The local Sheriff Larry Stewart launched a war, Swisher County's first major drug sting, in January of 1998. Using funds from the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force, a federally funded entity administered by Governor George Bush's Criminal Justice Division and Narcotics Control Program, the sheriff hired an undercover agent by the name of Tom Coleman and gave him the list. Lieutenant Mike Amos, Project Director of the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force, retained supervisory authority over the undercover agent, Tom Coleman, at all times. Using the list, Coleman began attempting to make buys in and around Tulia. Over an 18-month period, the agent maintained his cover while allegedly making over 100 controlled buys of illegal narcotics, mostly cocaine. The arrests were conducted en masse on July 23, 1999. Although the arrest warrants were served at dawn, surprising most of the defendants in their beds, no drugs, money, or weapons were seized in the roundup. Only a few of the alleged dealers were able to raise the money to bond themselves out of jail. Many lived in public housing or trailer homes. Of more than 100 cases filed, only one involved delivery of an amount larger than an "eight-ball" (3.5 grams), about $200 worth of cocaine. African-Americans accounted for 40 of 43 arrest arising from this investigation, others were either whites or latinos dating blacks. The Sheriff explained that while whites in Tulia did cocaine, they did it in the privacy of their own homes.
But the race of the defendants is not the only troubling aspect of the Tulia drug bust. Agent Coleman did not wear a wire during any of the alleged transactions. No video surveillance was done, and no second officer was available to corroborate his reports. In most cases, there were no witnesses at all, other than Coleman himself. Testifying in the first few trials, Coleman claimed to have recorded names, dates, and other pertinent facts about the buys by writing on his leg. According to his own testimony, Coleman made contact with a community of low-income crack smokers, primarily young black men. But strangely, almost every buy Coleman made was of powdered cocaine. Coleman's testimony is suspect. One defendant was cleared by his employer and time card that show him to have been at work at the time of the alleged buy. Another has records showing her to have been out of state.where she currently resides. Another indicted hasn't lived in Tulia for several years. Plus there are several cases where Coleman failed to recognize the person from whom he claims to have purchased. But there is no doubt that Coleman lied on the stand on at least one occasion. Coleman testified that he had never been arrested or charged for anything more serious than a traffic ticket "way back when I was a kid." In fact, shortly after the first Tulia trial ended, a defense attorney discovered that Coleman had been under indictment for a theft charge in Cochran County by his former employer at the same time he was running the undercover operation in Tulia.
Neither Sheriff Stewart nor Lieutenant Mike Amos conducted a background check on Coleman. Each of his last two law enforcement assignments, as a deputy sheriff in Cochran County from 1994 to 1996, and as a deputy in Pecos County from 1989 to 1994, ended when Coleman abruptly left town, with no notice to his employer, leaving his patrol car parked at his house. In both cases, Coleman disappeared owing thousands of dollars' worth of delinquent bills. His most recent employer, former Cochran County Sheriff Kenneth Burke, wrote a letter to the state agency that licenses peace officers, following Coleman's departure, "It is my opinion that an officer should uphold the law. Mr. Coleman should not be in law enforcement if he is going to do people the way he did this town," he wrote. Another reliable informant, who wishes to remain anonymous in fear for her safety swears, Coleman often proudly displayed his membership card to the Klu Klux Klan.
The sheriff and Coleman selectively targeted the black community in this sting operation. Such conduct violates Equal Protection. More frightening is the realization that Coleman probably took the list of "known drug dealers" and some baggies of cocaine and simply invented most of the transactions. The result has been the ethnic cleansing of young male blacks from Tulia. Thirty three of Tulia's children have been left parentless and are being raised by other family members.
The ACLU of Texas and the NAACP have filed civil and criminal complaints. We have demanded that the Department of Justice completely defund the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force. We will be filing ethics complaints with the State Bar of Texas against the judges and the prosecutor implicated in this conspiracy. We will not rest until justice is served in Tulia. We urge you to join our struggle. Please continue to follow this story and educate yourselves and your community about what happened in Tulia and the struggle that continues today. Prepare yourself to mobilize if that becomes necessary--already community members, ACLU lawyers, and representatives of the William Moses Kunsler Fund for Racial Justice are under surveillance and we all expect the repression to escalate.
These villains have enjoyed a life of impunity until now. They will not give that up without a fight. They must know that THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!!! Please stand in solidarity with the people of Tulia, Texas until justice is served.
Will Harrell is the former executive director of the National Police Accountability Project of the National Lawyers Guild and a member of the national coordinating committee of the October 22nd Coalition. He is in Tulia, Texas today sharing with the community his experiences in previous October 22nd protest and distributing copies of Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement, 2nd Ed. Today he will convey the national and international solidarity building for their struggle.
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[posted 10/21/00]
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