FAKE-DRUG CASES GIVE DALLAS A BAD NAME

Texas is getting plenty of publicity around the country - all of it bad -
because of renegade Dallas narcotics officers with a hatred for Hispanics
and no respect for the law.

Police Chief Terrell Bolton's inane claim that his officers arrested people
who were trying to peddle phony cocaine and methamphetamine doesn't pass
the smell test because anybody with an ounce of sense knows it would be
instant suicide to peddle Sheetrock to any serious drug dealer.

This case reminds a body of a similar Texas drug scandal where a narcotics
officer named Tom Coleman rounded up over 40 black citizens in Tulia and
sent them off to prison on his word alone.

It's time to re-evaluate victimless drug crimes where people can be sent to
prison on the mere words of crooked cops.

One can only wonder how many thousands of completely innocent people are
doing time for "drugs" in Texas prisons.

REDFORD GIVENS, San Francisco, Calif.