DRUG SWEEP CALLED 'ETHNIC CLEANSING' OF TEXAS TOWN'S BLACKS

AUSTIN, Texas - A drug bust that prompted allegations of racial
discrimination in a small, predominantly white Texas farming town was
launched as a matter of "ethnic cleansing of young male blacks," two
civil rights groups said yesterday.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the
American Civil Liberties Union made the claim in a complaint filed
with the Justice Department, charging civil rights violations.

Forty-three people, 40 of them black, were rounded up in the
undercover operation July 23, 1999, in the northwest Texas town of
Tulia. The others were two whites and one Hispanic.

Fewer than 250 of the town's 5,000 residents are black.

"To have these numbers in a town of 246 African-Americans, to have 40
adults that have allegedly engaged in drug trafficking would suggest
something to you about Tulia that we know is not true," said Gary
Bledsoe, president of the NAACP of Texas. "We don't think Tulia is the
drug haven of the world."

The compliant alleges that Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and
other law enforcement officials targeted blacks in the sting operation
run by undercover agent Tom Coleman. The complaint says Coleman has no
evidence other than his word to support allegations that he bought
drugs, mainly cocaine, from those arrested.

"The result has been the ethnic cleansing of young male blacks of
Tulia," the compliant said. "Dozens of children have been left
parentless and are being raised by other family members."

Of those arrested in the drug sweep, 17 have pleaded guilty and 11
have been convicted.

Last month, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of Yul Bryant, who was
arrested in July 1999 for allegedly selling cocaine a few months earlier.

His case was dropped when Swisher County District Attorney Terry
McEachern found out that Coleman was not 100 percent sure that he had
purchased cocaine from Bryant.