Tonight (9/28/03) on 60 Minutes - In Tulia, Texas: Guilty of being black?

[Wonk]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/60minutes/main575291.shtml

(snip)

(CBS)ÊTom Coleman tells Ed Bradley that he is no racist.

But the discredited, white undercover drug officer accused of targeting the black community in a drug sting authorities now call a sham had no hesitation using the ÒNÓ word in his interview with Bradley, who is black.

Coleman defends his work in the interview, his first major one for American television, which will be broadcast on the 36th season premiere of 60 Minutes, Sunday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Coleman says he used the ÒNÓ word among his white friends and also with the Tulia, Texas residents he investigated and helped convict for drug dealing. Forty out of 46 of those people were black, constituting 13 percent of the adult black population of Tulia. Gov. Rick Perry recently issued pardons for nearly all of those convicted in the investigation.

more...

[noiretextatique]

1. geez...this guy is a piece of work

"Coleman acknowledges that he wore no wire, had no partner to corroborate his testimony, collected no fingerprint evidence and had no surveillance video or still images to prove guilt. “ would have helped, but that’s not how the operation went,” Coleman tells Bradley"

:hi: bye, bye coleman...his prison stay should be intesting

[Kathy in Cambridge]

2. The fact that the authorities based a whole case solely on the word

of one racist cop indicts the whole Texas system.

What a piece of shit Coleman is. He is still PROUD of what he did in Tulia!

[JohnKleeb]

7. I was getting something to drink and I wasnt looking

and laugh at me lol please I thought it was Norm Coleman lol, you know MN's senator. It sure seemed racist to me.

[Wonk]

3. Time zone kick for west coast DUers

[Postman]

4. I'll bet Coleman is a "compassionate conservative" just like Bush....

is it any wonder the country is f**ked up with all these morans from Texas taking up all that good oxygen?

[Wonk]

5. mp3 for those who missed it

3 M

[Wonk]

10. quicktime vid

44 M

[TroubleMan]

6. This is an old story

As usual, the media has slept on it for a long time.

[candy331]

8. Did not see it

on TV but read it in the paper a while back. Did they say what will be done to him? Surely this will land him in the same prison he put them in won't it?

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

9. UK press and NYTimes' Bob Herbert kept the heat on Texas

Bob Herbert wrote at least 4 columns about the racist
Texas 'justice'.

The BBC had a prime time news report on Tulia.

The US news was forced to eventually report on it.
Took the Idiot TX Gov'nr a lonnnnnnng time to take any
corrective action.

----------------------------


Bob Herbert, The New York Times, December 26, 2002

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/26/opinion/26HERB.html

Some tentative, very preliminary steps are being taken to address one of
the great miscarriages of justice in the country - the roundup and
prosecution of dozens of black men and women on specious drug
trafficking charges in the Texas Panhandle town of Tulia.

There is no reason to believe that any of the people arrested in the
humiliating roundup on July 23, 1999, were guilty of trafficking. No
drugs, money or weapons were found. Several defendants have already been proved innocent. All were arrested solely on the word of a clownish undercover cop named Tom Coleman who had a penchant for making up
charges, throwing his "evidence" into the garbage, scrawling important
investigative information on his arms and legs, changing his testimony
from trial to trial, making false statements while under oath, referring to black people as "niggers," and stumbling into legal trouble himself.

On the uncorroborated, unsubstantiated testimony of this officer,
defendants arrested in Tulia on that shameful summer day were convicted
and given prison sentences of 20 years, 60 years, 90 years and more.
When the first astonishingly harsh sentences were handed down, the
remaining defendants quickly began agreeing to plead guilty in return
for more lenient punishment. Thirteen defendants remain in prison,
serving sentences of up to 99 years.

In the bleak and twisted world of criminal justice in Texas, this case
was considered cause for celebration. Mr. Coleman was hailed as a hero
and given the state's "Lawman of the Year" award.
Local officials had every reason to believe that no one would pay
attention to the terrible doings in Tulia. But the media spotlight has
remained on the fiasco and the case has become a Texas-sized
embarrassment. The offices of the U.S. attorney general, John Ashcroft, and the Texas attorney general, John Cornyn, have said they are investigating. But the investigations have been extremely quiet and sofar no developments have been reported.

more..................

[noiretextatique]

12. actually...60 Minutes did another story of this

a while ago. it focused on another man in the town who was outraged by the arrests. he was a bigot also, but he was appalled by what was happpening. an imperfect angel, but an angel nonetheless.

[imax2268]

11. I saw that...

he's an idiot...and a biggot...