Pubdate: Fri, 21 May 2004 Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX) Copyright: 2004 Amarillo Globe-News Contact: http://amarillonet.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/13 Author: David Maas Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas) TULIA BLACKMAIL SETS BAD PRECEDENT The residents of the Texas Panhandle counties having to pay people in Tulia for the botched drug bust is nothing more than blackmail. The hardest part is that some of those arrested in Tulia probably were guilty of drug charges. Now towns that had nothing to do with this except having their names on the task force are shelling out thousands, even millions, of dollars to these people. I agree that the bust was wrongly executed, but did any of the suspects have a history of drug use and or selling? Now, thanks to the efforts of attorney Jeff Blackburn, even the ones who were guilty are being rewarded for it. And due to the Tulia fiasco, the first words out of the mouths of some of the people involved in the recent Hamlet Park incident were, "I'm calling Blackburn. I'm gonna sue the police." Thanks, Jeff. Now more people who probably don't deserve a dime will make a mint off people who probably didn't cause any trouble. David Maas Dumas - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder