Notes from MAP: A high quality photo of the protest is at:
http://home.flash.net/~rmz/Images/Aust000929-5.jpg
Cited: Journey for Justice: http://www.JourneyForJustice.org/
Drug Policy Forum of Texas: http://www.dpft.org/
Updates: From the Journey are at: http://www.dpft.org/txj4jj.html and
http://www.csdp.org/j4jtexas/
Bookmarks: MAP's link to Texas articles is: http://www.mapinc.org/states/tx
For Journey for Justice Protest news items: http://www.mapinc.org/journey.htm

ACLU: TULIA BUST RACIALLY MOTIVATED

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Friday against law
enforcement officials in the West Texas town of Tulia for their alleged
role in a highly criticized undercover drug bust that resulted in the
arrest of one in 10 of the town's entire black population.

The lawsuit, which targeted the sheriff of Swisher County, a deputy and
the district attorney, illustrates how the nation's war on drugs really
is a war on blacks, an ACLU lawyer said Friday.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Amarillo on Friday, was
prompted by a 1998 undercover drug operation that resulted in the
arrest of 43 people for allegedly selling cocaine in Tulia, a town of
about 5,000 people south of Amarillo.

Thirty-nine of those arrested were African Americans. Only 350 -- or 7
percent -- of the town's total population are African Americans. That
means more than 10 percent of the town's African Americans were
arrested, a ratio that the ACLU said suggests that they were targeted.

"What happened in Tulia is the latest example of a policy gone awry. It
is a symptom of a deeper illness in our society," said William Harrell,
executive director of the ACLU of Texas. "It's basic, fundamental,
selective law enforcement on the characteristic of race. It's
unconstitutional, it's illegal, and it's immoral."

The lawsuit filed Friday was on behalf of one man who was arrested and
later released because of what Harrell called mistaken identity. It did
not specify how much money is being sought.

Harrell denounced the raid at a noon news conference on the south steps
of the Capitol during a rally that ended a weeklong march that began in
Houston. Participants in the march, named the Journey for Justice, were
calling attention to what they said is the hypocrisy of the campaigns
of Vice President Al Gore and Gov. George W. Bush as they relate to
drug policy.

A crowd of more than 100 cheered Harrell. Many of them were holding
posters deriding the drug war. Some were dressed in black- and white-
striped clothing resembling prison garb. Overhead, a plane circled the
Capitol, dragging a banner that read: "Just say no to the drug war."

The protest group, conducting its fourth march, the last of which was
in Florida, held vigils at a number of correctional facilities along
the route. The caravan also stopped at neighborhoods that have seen the
war on drugs firsthand.

One truck in the caravan pulled a fake jail cell filled with protesters
holding posters with slogans such as "honk for medical marijuana."

Some of the drug war protesters met with representatives for Bush
before the conference, said Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense for
Drug Policy. Zeese said he hopes it will initiate a prompt dialogue
with Bush, especially as the presidential election nears.