In the last year, Tulia's one-bench courthouse has hosted 11 drug trials, each one ending with a conviction, most without a single black on the jury. It's time to give them a major dose of chemotherapy behind bars. Buoyed by such sentiments, the county district attorney and sheriff have defended the drug raid and the aggressive prosecution. This is a community that's tough on drugs. And no one denies that Tulia has a drug problem.
Rural communities have the nation's fastest growing rate of cocaine and heroin use.
They don't want these kids in this town. And yet the defendants were charged with selling powder cocaine, a rich man's habit. Everybody in this town would have to be a drug user. Harrell has petitioned federal authorities to launch a criminal investigation. Thus it is clear that our drug laws, and their mandatory minimum punishments, are now a tool for racists - America's tool for ethnic cleansing.