The SLC Film Center is pleased to announce a four part documentary series THE WAR ON DRUG (POLICIES) with a special preview screening of TULIA, TEXAS presented in partnership with KUED 7  www.kued.org/diversevoices,

TULIA TEXAS

Innocent men are sentenced to prison, accusations are made of racial profiling and perjury, and a community is left divided.  Tulia Texas is the story of a small town’s search for justice and part of the price Americans pay for the war on drugs

On July 23, 1999, undercover narcotics officer Thomas Coleman executed one of the biggest drug stings in Texas history. By the end of the blazing summer day, Coleman and his drug task force had rounded up and arrested dozens of residents of the small farming town of Tulia. Thirty-nine of the 46 people accused of selling drugs to Coleman were African American. Almost immediately, accusations of racism and police misconduct were lodged.
 
Coleman, the son of a legendary Texas Ranger, worked the Tulia operation alone and never used surveillance equipment. But Coleman wasn't a lone rogue cop; he was hired and supervised by one of the nation's 600-plus regional drug task forces, a system in which widespread corruption has been found. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has reported more than 20 recent scandals in Texas alone, including incidents of drug task forces falsifying government records, tampering with witnesses, fabricating evidence, stealing drugs from evidence lockers, and large scale racial profiling. Drug task forces in other parts of the country have been implicated in at least a dozen other controversies since 1998. Are our nation’s police forces, stretched and under funded, unwhittingly buying into the US Drug Task Force for the federal funds offered?


TULIA TEXAS is directed by Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen and is a co production of Cassandra Herrman, Kelly Whalen and Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding provided by the corporation for public broadcasting. Running time 56:40

TULIA TEXAS is provided in courtesy of KUED 7’s Diverse Voices initiative and by ITVS Community Cinema in Utah.

TULIA, TEXAS (premiers) airs on KUED World Channel 7.2 on February 11, at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. This program also airs on KUED Channel 7 and KUED HD Channel 7.1 on February 17, at 11 p.m.