Tulia

Reading about the outrageous drug bust in 1999 in Tulia, TX I found the utter absurdity somewhat interesting in it's brazen "what is this, 1899?"-ness:

The Texas Panhandle town of Tulia gained international notoriety in the summer of 1999 when Swisher County sheriff's deputies swooped down on the town's small black community, arresting 43 people as cocaine dealers and sending many of them into the Texas prison system for years or decades ... the bust led to convictions based on flimsy evidence: the uncorroborated testimony of the lone undercover agent, Tom Coleman, whose questionable past was barred from discussion during the trials. Court watchers say no drugs, money or weapons were seized in the roundup, and there is no information to back up the undercover agent's word that he bought drugs from the accused. Eleven of those arrested in Tulia were found guilty and another 17 accepted plea agreements.

"What happened in Tulia is a horrible embarrassment to my profession because this guy followed no procedures of a normal police officer," said former Michigan policeman Howard Wooldridge, 50, of Fort Worth, who attended the rally on his one-eyed horse, Misty. "Sloppy is being generous," continued Wooldridge describing Coleman. "A number of the accused shouldn't be in prison. It was racial profiling to the max."

Speaking for my own one-eyed horse, I also found out they're making a movie about this starring Halle Berry, so now I find the Trulia case VERY interesting!!