Please read this story from the ACLU
and another from DRCNET regarding a town in Texas. Please any Texas residents who know more, I’d be greatful for links.
Does someone want to offer there opinions as to what’s happening here?
To me this is outrageous!
P.S. I also tried to give a link to the ACLUs presss release on it but for some reason it disappears when I hit review. So if it’s not above, go to ACLU.org, click “News”, then use your browsers find command, and search for “Tunia”.
stuffinb, I took the liberty of fixing those links for you. Hope you don’t mind.
I give this thread two hours before it ends up in the Pit.
Thanks!
exactly what about it do you find outrageous? the fact that mostly blacks were arrested, or the fact that people are mad about that fact?
The fact that people were given ridiculous sentences for crimes they might not have committed based on no physical evidence of any kind and the testimony of a proven liar is cause for outrage.
Thanx, RickJay, I was going to ask muppetsoup to go back and reread the “evidence”. Then you have the outrageous sentencing, it’s unbelievable. I was hoping someone knew if they had a local paper online, I have no idea where Tulia is in realtion to the rest of Texas. I’ve only spent time in the San Antonio area.
** RickJay ** I believe that you’re leaving out the outrage that well, there isn’t more outrage. this didn’t happen last week, right?
well, i read the aclu link, and get get to the other one, blocked by the proxy here. i think we can expect the story on aclu to be biased towards their pov. i did read about the story somewhere else though (who knows where). i don’t recall anything about out outrageous sentences or proven liars, but i could be wrong on these points. regardless, a story like this can easily be twisted on paper to favor any view you hold, and from what i read about it, the town (mostly) didn’t have a problem with the arrests, and yes that includes african american residents. i will look around some more for a more ‘even handed’ article, because i think clearly more info is needed to jump to the ‘racist’ conclusion.
Here’s a AP story on the same thing. Also mentioning the “officers word” being the only “evidence”.
apparently written without the ACLUs bias :rolleyes:
I question the phrase “ACLU bias” (not your use of it, stuffinb). As far as I know, they stick up for all kinds of individuals and groups. Their only “bias,” as far as I know, is to uphold American civil liberties.
435 years in jail seems sorta cruel/unusual to me . . . but maybe it’s crueler to the people who’ll have to share a jail cell with the corpse.
Well, I think the problem here it deep, and it smells to me like a crooked/insane cop just plugged right into the right grouping.
While it may be true that certain ethnic groups are statistically more likely to be arrested, it doesn’t make it right, or fair.
To me, there are several repurcussions that will be bad… the biggest one being that fact that, out of that many folks arrested for drug charges, the odds are good that at least one is legit… but it will be tossed with the rest of them. I understand why, but it doesn’t make it taste any better.
The other problem will be a rise in the level of distrust of the powers that be in that area.
Also, I think that Muppetsoup was refering to the fact that the ACLU is an extreme orginization.
I like the ACLU, but I worry sometimes that they tend to view any gov’t. or civil group as automatically wrong.
Tulia is halfway between Amarillo and Lubbock, what better place for a hick town. Racism still exists in Texas; it’s more rampant in rural areas. The same could be said about most of the United States.
The local alternative did an article earlier this summer. I didn’t reread the article, but IIRC, the white powers that be in Tulia pretty much decided to have a witch hunt across the tracks. To this end, they hired a junkie/snitch… uh, er, undercover agent who (probably) made a few deals and apparently made up the rest. In the end, they made a lot of bullshit busts, racism helped make them stick, and they’re getting called on them now.
cornflakes thanks for the article, precisely the kind of info I was looking for.
Tristan I agree with you, there does appear to be at least one person who was guilty.
FWIW, the story made my Saturday Trib, here in Oakland. I’ve also recived an e-mail that it’s making it’s way through the Texas’ justice department also.