Remember Jena, Louisiana?

[CatWoman]

Drug bust or racist revenge?

While Jena Sheriff says he is trying to rid his community of drugs, critics accuse him of exacting revenge against Black residents.

At 4 a.m. on July 9, 2009, more than 150 officers from 10 different agencies gathered in a large barn just outside Jena, Louisiana. The day was the culmination of an investigation that Sheriff Scott Franklin said had been going on for nearly two years. Local media was invited, and a video of the Sheriff speaking to the rowdy gathering would later appear online.

The Sheriff called the mobilization "Operation Third Option," and he said it was about fighting drugs. However, community members say that Sheriff Franklin's actions are part of an orchestrated revenge for the local civil rights protests that won freedom for six Black high school students - known internationally as the Jena Six - who had been charged with attempted murder for a school fight.

One thing is clear: The Sheriff spent massive resources. Yet officers seized no contraband. Together with District Attorney Reed Walters, Sheriff Franklin has said he is seeking maximum penalties for people charged with small-time offenses. Further, in a parish that is 85 percent white, his actions have almost exclusively targeted African Americans.

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/news.php?viewStory=2801

[Oregone]

1. This isn't an isolated occurrence

I remember watching a documentary about the drug war that talked about a sheriff doing this in a small southern town within last few years

[CatWoman]

6. That was in a small town in Texas

right now I can't remember the name of the town......

[yella_dawg]

14. Tulia, Texas

In that case, an individual (undercover cop)was faking evidence for false charges. Local idiots became convinced they had a massive drug ring operating in town until somebody noticed that almost all the defendants were black. Took a while to get everybody out of jail. There was a six million dollar settlement, eventually.


The cop had a history of traveling from small town to small town, offering his services as a "specialist" for peanuts. Either he was making money through bribes, etc., or he was a complete sicko.

[Aristus]

2. I can't believe this shit is still going on!

It's like 1964 all over again down there. When are those old, white, racist, scumbag, good-ole-boys going to die off? Do they live forever or something?

[EFerrari]

13. SPLC says there are now twice as many active hate groups

as there were two years ago or so.

It's not only still going on, we're in an upswing right now.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. I am speechless. Really, I am.

I want to have something profound to say, but I have nothing. No words.

[joeybee12]

5. Alex, I'll take Racist Revenge for $200...n/t

[barbtries]

7. what a terrible story

what that sheriff is getting away with is criminal - is there no one to stand up and say so?

recommended. much more at the link.

[KamaAina]

8. Remember Tulia, Texas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulia#1999_drug_arrests

Tulia gained notoriety following a drug sting in July 1999 that rounded up 46 people, forty of whom were African Americans. The remaining detainees were White people known to have ties within the Black community, and in fact lived in the "Black" part of town. Nearly one in three of Tulia's Black males was arrested, about 15% of the town's Black population. All charges were based on the word of undercover officer Tom Coleman, a so called "gypsy cop" who made his living traveling through impoverished rural Texas offering to work undercover cheaply for short periods of time for underfunded police departments. Coleman claimed to have made over one hundred drug buys in the small town. He never recorded any of the sales, but claimed to have written painstaking notes on his leg under his shorts and upper arm under his shirt sleeve when nobody was looking.

During the roundup, no large sums of money, illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, or illegal weapons were found. The accused drug dealers showed no signs of having any income associated with selling drugs. The drugs Coleman claimed to have bought from the accused did not have the fingerprints of the accused on them or their baggies. No independent witnesses could corroborate Coleman's claims. In his testimony, Coleman gave inaccurate descriptions of the "dealers" he had allegedly bought cocaine from. One suspect had his charges dropped when he was able to prove he had been at work during the times he had supposedly sold Coleman cocaine. Another produced bank and phone records indicating she was in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at the time of her alleged crime. Many of the accused, however, seeing the long sentences dealt out by all-White juries in the earliest cases, pled guilty in return for lesser sentences, despite their proclaimed innocence. The remaining defendants were convicted solely on the basis of Coleman's testimony. John Cornyn, the state attorney general, awarded "Lawman of the Year" to Coleman.

Amarillo civil rights attorney Jeff Blackburn began investigating the Tulia defendants' cases along with civil rights organizations and a handful of attorneys from firms around the country. Eventually the case became a cause célèbre, and money was raised to legally challenge the cases. Many had already served several years in prison before this process gained momentum. By 2004, Blackburn and his team had freed most of the "Tulia 46" and a $6,000,000 collective settlement was reached to avoid further litigation in civil court. Local authorities remain defiant, promising their town will not become a "slot machine" in the face of a new lawsuit stemming from an alleged incident of police brutality during the sweep by a man who was not charged.

Same story, different state. I never knew that about Enron John, either. :eyes:

[CatWoman]

9. AHA!!! Thanks, Kama

that's the town we were talking about upthread!!

:hi:

[barbtries]

10. yeah

i was reminded of this incident. sigh.

[Oregone]

11. Yep, that was what I was thinking of

[EFerrari]

12. I remember Amy had on the former principal of the black school in Jena.

Iirc, he said when Jena had to comply with desegregation, they just shut the black school down.

That was it.