Opinion

Use your body as a notepad

Brandon Moeller
Opinion Columnist

In an effort to do my part in this whole state, local and federal budget mess, I've decided to stop using paper for my UH-related research and assignments.

Though my professors may throw a temper tantrum or a hissy fit, my actions would not be without precedent. 

And I'm not referring to the actions of radical save-the-Earthers, although the benefit to the environment would be a collateral perk. In fact, the idea came to me from an authority figure who became quite famous lately for using this tactic to solve the mystery of illegal drug usage in rural areas.

His name is Tom Coleman, and he managed to put the small Texas town of Tulia on the national map of shameful police practices in 1999. 

But unlike other, perhaps harder-working police investigators who document illegal activity using either cameras or audio recording devices, Coleman's note-taking of alleged undercover drug buys was all done in pen … on his legs.

Imagine the courthouse scene: The proof, your honor, is in my pasty white turkey legs.

As sad as it is, this is no laughing matter. Thirteen people, a Dallas Morning News columnist reported, still sit in jail based on Colemanis testimony. Of the 46 people arrested due to Coleman's so-called investigative work, 39 are black.

Tulia is a small town somewhere between Lubbock, Amarillo and nowhere. The drug busts affected more than 10 percent of Tulia's black population.

On top of Coleman's dubious records and evidence (or lack thereof) is his ex-wifeis claim that Coleman is a former Ku Klux Klan member. Coleman denies this claim.

Meanwhile, the judge, now in retirement, who presided over the Tulia cases said recently his decisions should be overruled and the Tulia victims of the drug war given new trials.

Officials in Tulia announced that even if pressured by the high appeals court in Texas to re-try these individuals they would refuse to do so. All this spells good news for Tulia, and good news for victims of police stupidity everywhere. 

It's too bad that then-Governor George W. Bush or current governor Rick Perry couldn't stand up for the bamboozled blacks and others who were duped in Tulia. But when was the last time you heard about leaders being leaders?

If Coleman's tactics can work outside of Tulia, imagine the humiliation and disgust certain to be felt by both parties when I turn in a 25-page history term paper written all over my body. Surely, my image and story would jump to the front page of The Daily Cougar faster than an incumbent SGA president getting pummeled by her own alleged political miscalculations. 

Moeller, a senior communication major, can be reached at brandonmoeller@hotmail.com.