2008 Woodie Awards
U.S. human rights violations compare with other countries
Josh Leon--The State Hornet (California State U.-Sacramento)
Issue date: 4/30/03 Section: Opinion
(U-WIRE) SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Last week Colin Powell and the Bush administration correctly reamed the eccentric communist holdover Fidel Castro for jailing 78 Cuban dissidents for as many as 28 years. Thank heaven arbitrary imprisonment couldn't happen in one of the world's most progressive democracies, the U.S.
Or could it?
Well, yes, but only for immigrant Muslims. That snafu aside, genuine U.S. citizens can sleep snug in their beds without fear of police barging in Castro-style and jailing them for crimes they didn't commit. That is, unless they are poor and black. Just ask the 13 Americans still jailed in Tulia, Texas for four Kafka-esque years.
The story is disturbingly un-American:
Mid-July 1999: White residents in this jerkwater panhandle town of 5,000 read a banner headline in the now defunct Tulia Sentinel delivering the good news: "Tulia's Streets Cleared of Garbage."
In spite of what the headline suggests, there was not a case of improved sanitation in this town with an average annual income of $9,000. Instead, the police had just arrested the town's 46 "known" drug dealers--all but six were black.
Our hero, Officer Tom Coleman, who conducted the "undercover investigation" all by himself, was awarded the state's "Lawman of the Year" award. Lee Hockstader of the Washington Post describes his efforts succinctly:
"Coleman worked alone, wore no wire, collected no video evidence, kept scant written records and produced little corroborating evidence at trials. He had little experience in undercover work and, in an interview broadcast on a Texas television station, acknowledged using racist terms in casual conversation. The convictions in the Tulia cases were based largely on his testimony."
Bob Herbert of the New York Times, one of the few columnists in the mainstream press to crusade on the issue, contends that Coleman did in fact record evidence by "scrawling important investigative information on his arms and legs."
Or could it?
Well, yes, but only for immigrant Muslims. That snafu aside, genuine U.S. citizens can sleep snug in their beds without fear of police barging in Castro-style and jailing them for crimes they didn't commit. That is, unless they are poor and black. Just ask the 13 Americans still jailed in Tulia, Texas for four Kafka-esque years.
The story is disturbingly un-American:
Mid-July 1999: White residents in this jerkwater panhandle town of 5,000 read a banner headline in the now defunct Tulia Sentinel delivering the good news: "Tulia's Streets Cleared of Garbage."
In spite of what the headline suggests, there was not a case of improved sanitation in this town with an average annual income of $9,000. Instead, the police had just arrested the town's 46 "known" drug dealers--all but six were black.
Our hero, Officer Tom Coleman, who conducted the "undercover investigation" all by himself, was awarded the state's "Lawman of the Year" award. Lee Hockstader of the Washington Post describes his efforts succinctly:
"Coleman worked alone, wore no wire, collected no video evidence, kept scant written records and produced little corroborating evidence at trials. He had little experience in undercover work and, in an interview broadcast on a Texas television station, acknowledged using racist terms in casual conversation. The convictions in the Tulia cases were based largely on his testimony."
Bob Herbert of the New York Times, one of the few columnists in the mainstream press to crusade on the issue, contends that Coleman did in fact record evidence by "scrawling important investigative information on his arms and legs."