Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 Source: Tulia Herald Copyright: 2001 Tulia Herald Contact: (806) 995-3536 Mail: PO Box 87, Tulia, TX 79088-0087 Website: None Note: This newspaper - with a circulation of 3,000 - does not seem to be aware that the entire nation is aware of what happened there, as can be seen by clicking this link http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm The Friends of Justice http://www.drugsense.org/foj report that nobody from the newspaper contacted them about the Tulia Freedom Ride and Never Again Rally - probably don't know that all the details are on their website, either, to include this press release http://www.drugsense.org/foj/pressrelease.htm Perhaps they also have not seen the superb video at http://www.soros.org:8080/ramgen/tlc/tulia.rm CLAIMS OF RACIAL BIAS WILL BE VOICED The self-styled Friends of Justice will bring two busloads of people from Austin to demonstrate against law enforcement in Swisher County. The buses will arrive from Austin on Sunday and the demonstration will begin at 6 p.m., lasting into the early morning hours Monday. The group has joined with organizations working to legalize drugs, and attempting to stop enforcement of drug control laws. They say the laws are discriminatory against blacks. A civil suit has been filed against Swisher County law enforcement officers and others in relation to the July, 1999, arrest on drug charges of 43 people, of whom 40 were black. The suit is pending in federal district court in Amarillo. Deadline for parties to be ready for trial is February, but a trial date has not been set. Law enforcement officers could not comment because of the pending suit. District Attorney Terry McEachern was responsible for the prosecution of the cases resulting from the mass arrest in July, 1999. McEachern, who is not named in the suit, said, "I do not believe these arrests were racially motivated in any manner or by any means."