Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 Source: Daily Texan (TX Edu) Copyright: 2001 Daily Texan Volume: 101, No. 166 Contact: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/115 Author: Michael Taylor Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas) FREEDOM RIDE SCHEDULED FOR LATE JULY Groups Schedule Ride To Raise Awareness Of Alleged Injustices In Tulia To mark the two years that have passed since one of Texas' most infamous instances of racial targeting and to raise awareness about the perceived injustices of U.S. drug policy, a coalition of drug-policy reform groups on Monday announced the July 23 "Tulia Freedom Ride" from Austin to Tulia, Texas. The ride is scheduled to coincide with the second anniversary of a July 23, 1999 incident, in which the Swisher County Sheriff's Department arrested 43 citizens of the Panhandle town of Tulia. Forty of the suspects were black, and all were indicted based solely on the testimony of an undercover agent who critics say has a questionable past. Activists and reformers have labeled the bust and the subsequent trials at which most suspects were given harsh sentences "ethnic cleansing" of the city's black citizens. The American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP have filed a joint lawsuit against the undercover agent, the sheriff and the district attorney. The case, which has received national attention, is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Charles Kiker, a retired Baptist minister who lives in Tulia and grew up nearby on a farm, said his group, Friends of Justice, grew up in the aftermath of the arrests. "When I saw in the paper that 43 people in the little town of Tulia population approximately 5,000 had been arrested for selling powder cocaine, I thought, boy, we've got a big drug problem in this little town," Kiker said. "My wife is quite a bit smarter than I am and her remark was, 'If 43 people are selling drugs in Tulia who are the buyers?'" When he found out that 40 of the people arrested were from Tulia's black community, Kiker said the drug bust started to "smell bad." Not everyone in Tulia is angry about the arrests, Kiker said. The sheriff and the district attorney were re-elected the year after the bust and today things remain pretty quiet. Kiker said there was significant support in Swisher County for the harsh sentencing and arrests. "It's pretty quiet now, but it won't be on July 22," he said. William Harrell, executive director of the ACLU's Texas chapter, said the people of Tulia were victims of a failing war on drugs that needs to be re-examined. Harrell said that in the aftermath of the Tulia drug sting, at least eight more incidents of racial targeting were reported in Texas. "The struggle in Tulia is constant. There are still 20 people in jail who are innocent of the crimes they are accused of," Harrell said. "This is madness. Innocent people of color, who are poor, are being abused systematically." After the ride, participants will hold a "Never Again Rally" and a march to the Swisher County Courthouse in Tulia, organized by the NAACP, the ACLU and the Friends of Justice. The Texas Network of Reform Groups and the Democracy Coalition organized the Tulia Freedom Ride. The TNRG consists of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, hemp advocates, Austin Normal, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, Indy Media Austin and independent activists and reformers. - --- Related websites: Drug Policy Forum Of Texas: http://www.mapinc.org/DPFT/ Friends of Justice: http://www.drugsense.org/foj/ Indy Media Austin: http://austin.indymedia.org/ NAACP: www.naacp.org Students for a Sensible Drug Policy: http://www.ssdp.org/ Texas ACLU: http://www.aclutx.org/ Texas NORML: http://www.normltexas.org/ - --- MAP posted-by: GD