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How my congressional race in #TX10 relates to the most notorious incident of racist Texas law enforcement in the last 20 years, a THREAD:
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= @courthouselover on Flickr)
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= @courthouselover on Flickr)
Early in the morning of July 23rd, 1999 in #Tulia, a town of roughly 5,000 in the Texas panhandle south of Amarillo, law enforcement officers arrested 46 people, of which 39 were Black, on charges of dealing cocaine.
Over 10% of #Tuliaâs Black population was handcuffed & paraded out of their homes in front of tipped-off TV camera crews. Many defendants werenât even allowed to get dressed. A local newspaper headline read âTuliaâs Streets Cleared of Garbage.â
The evidence? Only the sole-testimony of a racist & completely disgraced undercover cop named Tom Coleman who had no additional corroborating evidence, despite claiming he kept track of case notes *written on his legs*.
No drugs, no money, & no weapons. Colemanâs case landed 38 convictions with sentences up to 90 years, which grossly incentivized these already-terrorized defendants to plead guilty for lesser sentences. (= Andrew Lichtenstein)
= Andrew Lichtenstein)
That year, Coleman was awarded âLawman of the Yearâ by @JohnCornyn, the same year @repmccaul went to work for Cornyn at the Texas Attorney Generalâs office as Deputy AG. #TX10
In July 2000, an article by @Nate_Blakeslee in the @TexasObserver exposed the #Tulia travesty. It was subsequently covered in @nytimes, @latimes, @thenation, @inthesetimesmag, @washingtonpost, @salon, @Harpers, @ap, @reuters, @democracynow & more https://www.texasobserver.org/611-the-color-of-justice/
Then in October, the @ACLU, @NAACP & the William Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice pushed the US Department of Justice to open a probe into the Panhandle Task Force. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/naacp-aclu-chargeethnic-cleansing-mass-arrests-black-residents-tulia-texas
Unfortunately, soon after George W. Bush stole the 2000 election, the John Ashcoft-led DOJ effectively buried the #Tulia investigation.
In response to calls for state-level action, @repmccaul told @ACLU on Aug 1st, 2001 that any investigation by the Texas AG office would be âduplicativeâ of the DOJ. The ACLU called out the AG as âshirking his responsibility in the most shameless manner.â
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/FilesPDFs/harrell_statement.pdf
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/FilesPDFs/harrell_statement.pdf
The @ACLU rejected @repmccaulâs excuse noting:
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/FilesPDFs/harrell_statement.pdf
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/FilesPDFs/harrell_statement.pdf
It wasnât until @vanitaguptaCR at @NAACP_LDF got the attention of @BenHerbert at @nytimes that sufficient national attention finally materialized. Herbert began writing nearly a dozen articles on the case, starting with âKafka in Tuliaâ in July of 2002. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/29/opinion/kafka-in-tulia.html
As several of the #Tulia cases began falling apart, new pressure mounted for the AGâs office to investigate, especially considering the DOJ produced nothing. @ACLU also petitioned about identical narcotics task force abuses happening all over TX, including Fayette Co. in #TX10
In his August 12th, 2002 piece âJustice Goes Into Hidingâ @BenHerbert noted:
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/12/opinion/justice-goes-into-hiding.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/12/opinion/justice-goes-into-hiding.html
In an August 15th, 2002 House Judicial Affairs Committee meeting in the Texas legislature, McCaul claimed it was state law that prohibited the AG from investigating anything unless they were requested to do so by a local District Attorney.
Questioning from committee chairwoman @Senfronia4Texas led @repmccaul to admit no such statute existed, & Thompson pointed out how DAs across Texas had complained to her that @JohnCornynâs office had intervened in their cases without being asked.
. @Senfronia4Texas noted âTulia probably would not have been something we would have been talking about if [McCaul] hadn't been so evasive.â https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2002-09-06/101775/
Facing months of public pressure from civil rights groups, state & national media, & also the factor of running for US Senate versus @RonaldKirk16, @JohnCornyn finally cracked & opened an AG investigation. https://www.myplainview.com/news/article/Kirk-and-Cornyn-clash-on-Tulia-8813210.php
The @AustinChronicle aptly distilled the moment with the headline âTulia, Too Late.â
After @JohnCornyn won his election, the probe was quietly ended in April 2003 by none other than @GregAbbott_TX. Although the AG report was never made public, leaks showed the investigation concluded that racism was NOT a factor in the arrests!
On @60Minutes with Ed Bradley in 2003, @NAACP_LDF President Elaine Jones summarized the affair: âAll of the law enforcement officers in Texas, who knew of Colemanâs checkered past, said & did nothing at the time of these trials & pleasâŠâ
âItâs an indictment of the war on drugs, itâs the way the war on drugs is being fought. Washington is passing out money, & nobody is supervising how it's being spent applying the standards to these undercover operations.â
In April 2003, a Dallas Judge threw out all 38 convictions, & the final 12 defendants were released that June. A $6M settlement was reached -- a paltry sum for families ruined by years wrongfully locked behind bars. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/02/us/texas-court-acts-to-clear-38-in-town-splitting-drug-case.html
Judge Ron Chapman concluded Coleman âwas the most devious, non-responsive law enforcement witness this court has witnessed in 25 years on the bench in Texas." Coleman got off with a lone perjury charge w/ 10 months probation & he was barred from law enforcement.
For YEARS, drug warrior @repmccaul actively delayed justice by COVERING UP for a racist cop who destroyed dozens of families. McCaul went to Congress to export drug wars internationally & co-architect the Muslim ban & family separation policy. #TX10 https://twitter.com/RepMcCaul/status/1083851585720066054?s=20
Thanks to leadership from @repmccaul, @johncornyn, & @gregabbott_tx, racist policing continues unabated, fueling this New Jim Crow era of mass incarceration that has brought our country to a boiling point. Sadly, #Tulia was just one part of a wider story of systemic rot.
As @grits4breakfast noted in 2004, a âTulia-styleâ bust of 72 alleged âcrack dealersâ took place in Anderson County: https://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2004/10/72-charged-in-tulia-style-long-term.html
& weâre just now learning how #GeorgeFloyd was similarly targeted by a now-disgraced Houston cop: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/06/05/ogg-case-involving-george-floyd-was-among-goines-cases-being-reviewed-by-prosecutors/
& weâre just now learning how #GeorgeFloyd was similarly targeted by a now-disgraced Houston cop: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/06/05/ogg-case-involving-george-floyd-was-among-goines-cases-being-reviewed-by-prosecutors/
Our campaign is taking on Mike McCaul because #BlackLivesMatter 
& because undoing institutional racism is the task at hand in this historic moment. As a civil rights attorney, Iâve fought against racist police policies & won. Help us replace him this November. #TX10
& because undoing institutional racism is the task at hand in this historic moment. As a civil rights attorney, Iâve fought against racist police policies & won. Help us replace him this November. #TX10
