If a house stinks because someone set a skunk loose inside and the skunk turned over a carton of milk that soured, or a can of garbage rotted because no one took the time to clean things up, it's no longer important which smell is the most offensive. It still stinks. This image comes to mind in the wake of an FBI report into the infamous 1999 Tulia drug sting, in which 46 residents of the tiny Panhandle town were arrested because of the questionable work of an undercover officer named Tom Coleman. [continues 467 words]
TULIA - The Statue of Liberty greets me as I drive into Tulia on U.S. 87. She doesn't know that Tulia scares me more than Jasper. Say the name Jasper, and the image of a screaming man being dragged to his death on a dark East Texas road is pulled across people's minds. Mention Tulia and it's likely to invoke little more than a furrowed brow and vacant gaze. If its significance is known, it's doubtful that anyone will associate it with the Statue of Liberty. Yet she salutes me with her torch. [continues 1422 words]
TULIA - Stepping outside his house on a recent gray morning, Freddie Brookins Jr. swept his neighborhood with a glance and said, "I can't believe I'm still here." Except for 3 1/2 years, the 26-year-old Brookins has lived in Tulia all of his life. But it's those 3 1/2 years spent in prison that have changed everything. On July 23, 2000, Brookins was one of 46 Tulians arrested in a predawn raid stemming from an 18-month narcotics sting operation by a now infamously discredited undercover agent named Tom Coleman, who had claimed to have bought cocaine from them. [continues 513 words]
AMARILLO -- The tiny town of Tulia, tucked in the Panhandle between Amarillo and Lubbock, was the site of an outrageous assault on the freedom of Americans. But an adobe-style house, nearly hidden behind a graffiti-painted wall on 16th Street in Amarillo, was the headquarters for the counterassault to challenge this abuse of power. The building is the law office of Jeff Blackburn, a gravelly voiced, 46-year-old attorney animated by the spirit of departed mentors such as Montgomery bus boycott leader E.D. Nixon and San Antonio lawyer and journalist Maury Maverick Jr. [continues 422 words]
AMARILLO - The tiny town of Tulia, tucked in the Panhandle between Amarillo and Lubbock, was the site of an outrageous assault on the freedom of Americans. But an adobe-style house, nearly hidden behind a graffiti-painted wall on 16th Street in Amarillo, was the headquarters for the counterassault to challenge this abuse of power. The building is the law office of Jeff Blackburn, a gravelly voiced, 46-year-old attorney animated by the spirit of departed mentors such as Montgomery bus boycott leader E.D. Nixon and San Antonio lawyer and journalist Maury Maverick Jr. [continues 422 words]
