THE RACE TO RACISM

Doesn't it bother anyone that Kareem Abdul Jabbar White, 24, a black man, is
going to prison for 60 years for purportedly selling a few grams of drugs to
an undercover officer whose credibility is in question?

Even if White is guilty, where is the proportionality of punishment
commanded by the Bible in Leviticus 24?

The citizens of Tulia should note that many murderers, rapists, child
molesters, armed robbers and burglars in Texas do not get 60-year sentences.
If the immorality of such excessive punishment doesn't bother them, perhaps
the fact that this particular prison sentence will cost $1.5 million to
carry out may arouse some reflection. That's enough to hire 35 new teachers
for the Swisher County school system.

If the taxpayers in Swisher County had to pay the prison bills, this single
conviction would add about 25 percent to the annual county property tax
assessment.

The fact that all but two of narcotics agent Tom Coleman's 43 drug busts
were blacks shows that Jim Crow racism is alive and well in Tulia.

REDFORD GIVENS, San Francisco