Jenacide.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

I hope this makes your blood boil as much as it has mine.

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=183064

Last week in Detroit, the NAACP held a mock funeral for the N-word. But a chilling case in Louisiana shows us how far we have to go to bury racism. This story begins in the small, central Louisiana town of Jena. Last September, a black high-school student requested the school's permission to sit beneath a broad, leafy tree in the hot schoolyard. Until then, only white students sat there.

The next morning, three nooses were hanging from the tree. The black students responded en masse. Justin Purvis, the kid who first sat under the tree, told filmmaker Jacquie Soohen: "They said, 'Y'all want to go stand under the tree?' We said, 'Yeah.' They said, 'If you go, I'll go. If you go, I'll go.' One person went, the next person went, everybody else just went."

Then the police and the district attorney showed up. Substitute teacher Michelle Rogers recounts: "District Attorney Reed Walters proceeded to tell those kids that 'I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen.'"

It wouldn't happen for a few more months, but that is exactly what the district attorney is trying to do.

Jena, a community of 4,000, is about 85 percent white. While the black community gathered at a church to respond, others didn't see the significance. Soohen interviewed Jena town librarian Barbara Murphy, who reflected: "The nooses? I don't even know why they were there, what they were supposed to mean. There's pranks all the time, of one type or another, going on. And it just didn't seem to be racist to me." Tensions rose.

Robert Bailey, a black student, was beaten up at a white party. Then, a few nights later, Robert and two others were threatened by a white man with a sawed-off shotgun, at a convenience store. They wrestled the gun away and fled. Robert's mother, Caseptla Bailey, said: "I know they were in fear of their lives. They were afraid that this man was going to shoot them, you know, especially in the back, running away from the scene."

The next day, Dec. 4, 2006, a fight broke out at the school. A white student was injured, taken to the hospital and released. Robert Bailey and five other black students were charged ... with second-degree attempted murder. They each faced 100 years in prison. The black community was reeling.

Independent journalist Jordan Flaherty was the first to break the story nationally. He explained: "I'm sure it was a serious fight, and I'm sure it deserved real discipline within the school system, but he [the white student] was out later that day. He was smiling. He was with friends ... it was a serious school problem that came on the heels of a long series of other events ... as soon as black students were involved, that's when the hammer came down."

The African-American community began to call them the Jena Six. The first to be tried was Mychal Bell, 17 years old and a talented football player, looking forward to a university scholarship. Bell was offered a plea deal, but refused. His father, Marcus Jones, took a few minutes off from work to talk to me: "Here in LaSalle Parish, whenever a black man is offered a plea bargain, he is innocent. That's a dead giveaway here in the South."

Right before the trial, the charges of second-degree attempted murder were lowered to aggravated battery, which under Louisiana law requires a dangerous weapon. The weapon? Tennis shoes.

Mychal Bell was convicted by an all-white jury. His court-appointed defense attorney called no witnesses. Bell will be sentenced on July 31, facing a possible 22 years. The remaining five teens, several of whom were jailed for months, unable to make bail, still face second-degree attempted murder charges and a hundred years each in prison.

Flaherty, who grew up in New Orleans, sums up the case of the Jena Six: "I don't think there is anyone around that would doubt that if this had been a fight between black students or a fight of white students beating up a black student, you would never be seeing this. It's completely about race. It's completely about two systems of justice."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco gained national prominence during Hurricane Katrina. There's another hurricane that's devastating the lives of her constituents: racism. The families of the Jena Six are asking her to intervene. District Attorney Walters says he can end the boys' lives with his pen. But Gov. Blanco's pen is mightier. She should wield it, now, for justice for the Jena Six.

[Shishio]

What's even worse is that I am not shocked by this.

[Kaji]

"Here in LaSalle Parish, whenever a black man is offered a plea bargain, he is innocent. That's a dead giveaway here in the South."

Bullshit, and you need not look any further than the Wilson case for evidence thereof.

[Beowulf]

Bullshit, and you need not look any further than the Wilson case for evidence thereof.
Well you are the expert when it comes to racially charged southern judicial proceedings.

[Ceirnian]

Making broad statements like that = a no no. So I agree with Kaji since that statement was debunked in just one sentence.

[Beowulf]

Making broad statements like that = a no no. So I agree with Kaji since that statement was debunked in just one sentence.
What the hell are you talking about, Kaji was the one making broad statements. Kaji also chose to ignore the fact that the exception doesn't make the rule.

[Ceirnian]

"Here in LaSalle Parish, whenever a black man is offered a plea bargain, he is innocent. That's a dead giveaway here in the South."
vs
Bullshit, and you need not look any further than the Wilson case for evidence thereof.

Now looking at the two of these I'd say the top quote is the one making the generalization. The way I read what Kaji said, I got the impression that he was pointing out that there are exceptions to the so called rule. Since there are exceptions the statement crumbles since it is a true absolute.

[Chris]

That's a pretty terrible situation.

[japanat]

Does this situation disappoint me? Yes. Does it surprise me? Not really.

85% white, 15% black; not a problem in and of itself, but the student body sounds like it has always been polarized: "a black high-school student requested the school's permission to sit beneath a broad, leafy tree in the hot schoolyard. Until then, only white students sat there." The fact that he felt the need (and was polite enough) to ask if he could sit there, followed by the appearance of the nooses, is pretty strong circumstantial evidence that race is, and probably always has been, a factor in that town. Then things escalate.

But the fight at the school sounds like the slippery slope. 2nd degree murder charges? You'd have to be able to prove that the students involved had the intent of killing the other kid. The fact that the victim walked out of the hospital the same day does not sound like they tried to kill him, or at least not very hard (sarcasm).

I should think that the most severe charge they could make stick would be "assault with intent to cause bodily harm". Even then, they'd need to prove that the arrested students started the fight. If the 'victim' started the fight, then it's self-defense, and a school disciplinary issue not a criminal one. The fact that one of the accused was attacked once and threatened with a gun another time are also mitigating factors which could be argued to have made him fear for his life in the last fight. But if the 'Six' started the fight, then they do deserve prosecution for starting said fight, not 'attempted murder with a tennis shoe.'

[geesehoward4life]

Maybe if they all had acted like Bobby, the Whites would have been so gosh darned pleased, they'dve just thrown them a banana and called it a day.

Sigh, but alas?

No, one of them finally got tired of being treated like shit and finally showed that these "braves souls" are only as brave as the law can protect them to be. He must've watched Blazing Saddles the night before. Now, we must punish them to the fullest extent! 100 years! Never mind about whatever prompted this all to happen! Everyone knows that Blacks are emotionally driven, tempermental SAVAGES! Clearly, once the White students stopped using their influence to keep them calm, the niggers returned to their true form and are now about to removed from the community, so peace and harmony can return once more.

I have included all kinds of errors to make sure that no Whites are mildly aware that I may actually be able to spell or think, thus ruining a coonin good time for all.

I give credit to my ancestors who put up with a lotta shit like this, just so I could type this horrible post. :gloomy:

[Roxie]

Bullshit, and you need not look any further than the Wilson case for evidence thereof.
To be fair, no one is pleading Wilson's "innocence", rather than a misapplication of law. Other than that, I agree--a plea doesn't mean the person is always innocent.

It's amazing to me that the librarian cannot (or won't) see the signifigance of the nooses. Then again, I was also suprised by the ppl who went to see the Without Sanctuary (http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/) exhibit and had no idea about lynchings.

NPR covers this story. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12353776) BTW, the audio version has much more detail and quotes from Jena residents
All Things Considered, July 30, 2007 · As at hundreds of other high schools across America, black and white students at Jena High School in Jena, La., rarely sit together. The white students gather under a big shade tree in the courtyard, while black students congregate near the auditorium.

But last year, a few days into the first semester, a new student, a freshman African American, asked the principal at an assembly, if he, too, could sit under the tree. He was told he could sit anywhere he liked.

Three white boys on the rodeo team apparently disagreed. The next morning, there were three nooses hanging from the shade tree in the courtyard.

Anthony Jackson is one of two black teachers at Jena High School. He laughs ruefully, as he recalls watching the nooses swaying in the tree.

"I jokingly said to another teacher, 'One's for you, one's for me. Who's the other one for?'"

Many in Jena's black community wanted the three white students expelled. But when the white superintendent and other school administrators investigated, they decided the nooses were a prank. Instead of expulsion or arrest, the three received in-school suspension.

Blacks called the punishment a double standard.

"White students can do things and receive a slap on the hand," Jackson says. But authorities "want to throw the book at blacks," he adds.

An Incident Escalates

A few of the black athletes, the stars of the football team, took the lead in resisting. The day after the nooses were hung, they reportedly organized a silent protest under the tree.

The school called an assembly and summoned the police and the district attorney. Black students sat on one side, whites on the other. District Attorney Reed Walters warned the students he could be their friend or their worst enemy. He lifted his fountain pen and said, "With one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear."

That evening, black students told their parents that the DA was looking right at them. Walters denies that. Billy Fowler, a member of the school board, doesn't believe it, either.

"He said some pretty strong things," says Fowler, "but I don't think he was directing it to anyone in particular. I think he just wanted people to calm it down."

But things didn't calm down. Some whites felt triumphant; some blacks were resentful. Fights began to break out at the high school. But that year, the football team was having an unusually good season and the black athletes were a major reason why. So while there were fights throughout the fall, nobody wanted to take any action that would hurt the team.

When the season was over, so was the truce. On Nov. 30, somebody burned down Jena High. Whites thought blacks were responsible, blacks thought the opposite.

Charges and Public Outrage

The next night, 16-year-old Robert Bailey and a few black friends tried to enter a party attended mostly by whites. When Bailey got inside, he was attacked and beaten. The next day, tensions escalated at a local convenience store. Bailey exchanged words with a white student who had been at the party. The white boy ran back to his truck and pulled out a pistol grip shotgun. Bailey ran after him and wrestled him for the gun.

After some scuffling, Bailey and his friends took the gun away and brought it home. Bailey was eventually charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all.

The following Monday, Dec.4, a white student named Justin Barker was loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night. When Barker walked into the courtyard, he was attacked by a group of black students. The first punch knocked Barker out and he was kicked several times in the head. But the injuries turned out to be superficial. Barker was examined by doctors and released; he went out to a social function later that evening.

Six black students were arrested and charged with aggravated assault. But District Attorney Reed Walters increased the charges to attempted second-degree murder. That provoked a storm of black outrage.

"Jena has always been a racist town," says Bailey's mother, Caseptla Bailey. "We've understood that….It has been that way since I've lived here."

But school board member Billy Fowler disagrees.

As far as racial problems, our community is no different than any other community," Fowler says.

Fowler is one of the few leaders with the school administration or local law enforcement willing to talk to the media. The principal, the school superintendent and the district attorney all declined repeated calls for comment.

Fowler says he is appalled at reports by outside media outlets that he claims portray Jena as a racist community. But he and many other white leaders agree that the charges are unfair.

"I think it's safe to say some punishment has not been passed out fairly and evenly," Fowler says. "I think probably blacks may have gotten a little tougher discipline through the years.

"Our town is not a bunch of bigots. They're Christian, law-abiding citizens that wouldn't mistreat anybody."

But the black students and their families feel mistreated. The first to go to court was Mychal Bell, the team's star running and defensive back. Bell's court-appointed lawyer refused to mount any defense at all, instead resting his case immediately after two days of government presentation. An all-white jury found Bell guilty.

A talented athlete, Bell had a real shot at a Division I football scholarship. He now faces up to 22 years in prison. The other five black students await trial on attempted murder charges.

Over the weekend, Jena High School had the big shade tree in the courtyard chopped into firewood.
Way to deal with it

[Jetsetlemming]

Why was all 6 kids involved in a fight seemingly with only one adversary? That's not worthy of attempted murder, but it is certainly worthy of criminal proceedings if 6 kids all piled up on the one guy, and put him in the hospital. Aggravated assault at least.
Also, this story was kinda confusing, WHY was the district attorney involved in black kids sitting under a tree?

[Pierrot le Fou]

Errr, aggravated assault and attempted murder are interchangeable, or close to, in many (most?) situations.

[Jetsetlemming]

I wasn't aware assault could get you 100 years in prison.

[Pierrot le Fou]

I wasn't aware assault could get you 100 years in prison.
Assault (generally) cannot. Aggravated Assault may be able to be depending on the circumstances and the laws where the crime is committed.

[erbiumfiber]

Wait- someone BURNED DOWN the high school? And then a few days later they are in the school hallway? Did I miss something here?

And only a few days of in-school suspension for the nooses? That's messed up. I thought (before I read this post) that they didn't know who put up the nooses.

This town does not come up smelling like a rose...

[Jetsetlemming]

Aha, I didn't notice Roxie's NPR article at first (Skimmed over everyone's replies).
"The following Monday, Dec.4, a white student named Justin Barker was loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night. When Barker walked into the courtyard, he was attacked by a group of black students. The first punch knocked Barker out and he was kicked several times in the head. But the injuries turned out to be superficial. Barker was examined by doctors and released; he went out to a social function later that evening.

Six black students were arrested and charged with aggravated assault. But District Attorney Reed Walters increased the charges to attempted second-degree murder. That provoked a storm of black outrage."
That's a very different story. All the white guy did was talk, and not TO these guys in particular. They deserve their criminal charges. Maybe not attempted murder, maybe, but they certainly deserve the aggravated assault. You don't kick someone several times in the fucking head just to teach him a lesson or make a point.
The NPR article as a whole paints a far more balanced picture of a town where both sides are hot under the collar and anxious for a fight...
I'm also wondering about the "school burnt down" thing. O_o How did they have a fight in the hall afterwards?
And overall, WTF IS IN THE DRINKING WATER IN JENA? :boggled:

[Roxie]

Yeah, there's definitely heat on both sides...but if the wounds were superficial did 6 ppl attack him? AND if the wounds are superficial, attempted second-degree murder seems, excuse the pun, overkill. Nothing is as it seems in this story.

[h2orowe]

People in this thread were saying they weren't surprised. O_o I for sure am surprised. I am as disillusioned with America as the next 17 year old want-to-be-writer/poet, but Jesus Christ! I had no idea shit like this went on still. Or at least in a COMPLETE town. What the fuck? Why isn't this more on the news? (Or is it, I don't watch TV very often.) Why isn't some really famous black politician or someone intervening to bring this to the media's attention? Hell, white politician, Asian politician, Latino politician, Martian politician doesn't fucking matter.

Ugh, that's so disgusting. How the fuck can that still go on in what's supposed to be a civilized country?

[Roxie]

well, to be fair http://www.1025atlanta.com/home.asp carries some black hosted talk shows..and Warren Ballentine and Sharpton have been talking about this for about week and a half, two weeks.

[geesehoward4life]

h2orowe? You honestly think that this is unusual? Pfft, my Black classmates won't watch Battle Royale because the only difference between our high school experience and the movie was that everybody on both sides of the line, White and Black, pulled up before DEATH OCCURED!

Nothing like going to a predominately White boarding school for BOYS in the middle of nowhere! Where nobody... can hear you scream! LOL! Dude, it was ugly! Then we had Black students from South Africa, DURING THE FINAL YEARS OF APARTHEID!!!! West Africans, people from Brooklyn and Philadelphia, LA! Versus BIG ASS REDNECKS FROM TEXAS, ALABAMA AND CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA!!!! FIGHT!!!! Check out the original intro's to the Transformers and that was pretty much our school! We of course, were the Evil Black Decepticons! I was MEGATRON!!!! Evil Black Decepticon Leader!!!! LOL! I laugh now because I survived it and some of the White teachers and I look at each other like "Fuck were we thinking?" But all of us knew what was going on. The school had been operating that way for years! And it is an OLDDDDDD school. The colors are Maroon and Grey, which they eventually fessed up represented the South, Grey, and a Maroon is the term for; escaped slave. Ironically, the term is not in today's dictionaries.

My high school experience has been one reason why Black people I know now are like "You have nerves of steel! How can you tolerate this, that and this!?!?" "Because in reality, those things are minor in comparison to, this here." "Ohhhh" "Yeah, you should focus more on this here, than the petty complaining about things that are questionable."

Oh and the lack of real press is because it is frightening AND look where this is at. It is very close to another hot-blooded fiasco about race, New Orleans and Katrina. Better to go around it and pretend, no need to stir up a hornet's nest that is actually always buzzing... people are just immune to it now from all the back-and-forth about race.

-Autobots wage their battles to destroy the evil forces offfff... the Decepticons-

[Chris]

Ugh, that's so disgusting. How the fuck can that still go on in what's supposed to be a civilized country?

Hate to say it, but humans everywhere are pretty close in their basic instincts and such, and all over the world we've shown we're pretty damn good at hating one another. So the fact that what's happening in Africa, or the kind of tought that dominated the south in the 1800's, or Germany in the 1930's and 1940's would appear in Texas (or anywhere in the US) shouldn't be all that surprising.


(no, this is not intended to defend these people)

[Roxie]

I got sent this video about the Jena Six
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2h0pIpn4SA

[Roxie]

Thie story is breaking into more and more blogs everyday. I found this link (http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-34/118799519790760.xml&storylist=louisiana)from feministe

Bail denied for "Jena Six" defendant
8/24/2007, 5:30 p.m. CT
The Associated Press

JENA, La. (AP) — A state judge on Friday denied a request to reduce bond for Mychal Bell, the teenager convicted of beating a student at Jena High School.

Bell was one of six black students to be arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with the December 2006 incident in which Justin Barker, who is white, was left unconscious, bleeding and suffering facial injuries.

After the fight, the six students were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy, sparking outrage in the black community, drawing attention from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is now monitoring the case, and civil rights leaders who contend the youths have been treated unfairly by the justice system.

Bell, who was 16 at the time of the assault, was tried as an adult in June and an all-white jury convicted him of reduced charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. He remains in jail, unable to raise a $90,000 bond.

District Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. rejected the request to lower the bail after authorities revealed four other crimes of violence in the boy's past. Details of the crimes were not immediately available.

Bell faces up to 22 years in prison when sentenced on Sept. 20.

The other students — Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unnamed juvenile — are awaiting trial on the original charges.

And here's a blog (http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/blog/) that seems to be focused on this case. I say "seems" cause I'm not sure if it's just something they're covering now or if this is the reason why they're around.

Anyone find any other news?

[Hatsumomo]

http://www.groupnewsblog.net/2007/09/do-you-understand-where-you-are.html

Very eloquent post.

[Roxie]

Another noose on another campus (http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3580350&page=1)

[Roxie]

Bill Maher, Cornell West, and Mos Def discuss Jena 6. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2QkqEQoB8o)

didn't know that was supposed to be the "tree of knowledge"

[Kaji]

Wasn't going to dignify it with a response, though I couldn't help noting that the OJ section at the end is gold.

[Roxie]

From NPR.
Also, 3 interviews on this page (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14238568)

The town of Jena, La., is coping with a case of racially motivated violence, even as court proceedings against those involved move forward. The case, centering on a tree at a high school campus that was a favorite meeting place for white students, has exposed racial tensions in the small town.

Earlier this week, a judge threw out one of the two charges against the first black student tried for beating up a white student at Jena High School, saying juveniles cannot be charged with conspiracy in adult court.

But Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. rejected arguments that, for the same reason, he should throw out the aggravated second-degree battery charge on which Mychal Bell also was convicted. The judge's decision means Bell will face at most 15 years in prison, rather than 22.5, when he is sentenced Sept. 20.

The case's beginnings can be traced to a day when black students at Jena High sat under a tree that was known traditionally as a white student hangout. Shortly afterward, three nooses were found hanging from the tree.

That sparked a series of racially charged events, culminating in a schoolyard attack of a white student and the arrest of six black teenagers for the crime.

"The mood of Jena is very, very bad," said the Rev. Brian Moran, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Jena.

Noting that the black students who sat under the tree had asked the principal's permission to do so, Moran said that immediately after they sat there, the nooses appeared.

"It really confuses me why anybody would say that this is not a racist situation," Moran said.

Students accused of placing the nooses on the tree were suspended from school for a short period.

Pastor Eddie Thompson of the Sanctuary Family Worship Center in Jena said national news coverage of the case has led many other white ministers to avoid speaking to the media.

"Their small Southern town has kind of been offered up as a sacrifice for America's national sin," Thompson said.

He said he believes prejudice and bigotry exists in his community and elsewhere in the United States, but "the people are seeing their town portrayed in a way in the national media that is foreign to them, completely."

Moran and Thompson agree that the community's ministers should have maintained a sense of unity regarding the case. Instead, as details of the case emerged and opinions became more enflamed, an initial attempt at an alliance failed.

"Until the trials are settled, there's not going to be much of an opportunity for us to move forward," Thompson said.

The Jena school case drew protests after five of the six teens, dubbed the "Jena Six," were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, carrying sentences of up to 80 years in prison. The sixth was charged in juvenile court.

The beating victim, Justin Barker, 18, was treated for injuries at a hospital and released the same day, and a motive for the alleged Dec. 4 attack at the high school was never established.

Bell was the first of six teens to go to trial. The attempted murder charges were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, and Bell was convicted.

But Mauffray threw out the conspiracy conviction Tuesday, saying juveniles could not be charged with conspiracy in adult court.

Both sides said they would appeal. Bell's attorneys want the battery charge throw out, as well, and the case returned to juvenile court.

The charges against two of the other teens, Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw, also were reduced Tuesday from attempted second-degree murder to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. Robert Bailey Jr. and Bryant Purvis still face attempted murder charges, and the unidentified juvenile has yet to go to trial.

[Roxie]

got this in an e-mail

The Michael Baisden Show:

The Baddest Man on radio is putting action behind his words. On September 20th Michael Baisden along with comedian George Wilborn, national celebrities, and thousands of loyal listeners will March on the Jena Courthouse to demand justice for Mychal Bell, one of the black teenagers awaiting sentencing in the Jena 6 Case. Mychal Bell could receive up to 22 years in prison for what amounted to nothing more then a fist fight between black and white high school students.

Michael will need all the support he can get to show the prosecutors, the Judge, and the entire nation that we will not stand by while they steal the lives of our children. Time for talk is over, it's time to act.

The unjust trial of 6 black teens in Jena, LA

Link to Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuoiZnr4jLY
Link to Complete Article: http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/11397/1/141/

In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all-white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial about a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by Black students.

The fight was the culmination of a series of racial incidents starting when whites responded to Black students sitting under the “white tree” at their school by hanging three nooses from the tree. The white jury and white prosecutor and all white supporters of the white victim were all on one side of the courtroom. The Black defendant, 17-year-old Mychal Bell, and his supporters were on the other.

The jury quickly convicted Mychal Bell of two felonies — aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bell, who was a 16-year-old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested, faces up to 22 years in prison. Five other Black youths await similar trials on attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy charges.

The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have been holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fund — the Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the NAACP, the Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice.

[Jetsetlemming]

Mychal Bell, one of the black teenagers awaiting sentencing in the Jena 6 Case. Mychal Bell could receive up to 22 years in prison for what amounted to nothing more then a fist fight between black and white high school students.
There's enough spin there to make you dizzy. 6 people stomping on 1 is "A fist fight between black and white students"? All 6 of them deserve whatever they're convicted of. That IS justice.
And his maximum sentence is 15, not 22, since the conspiracy charge was dropped.

[Beowulf]

Also if they get a good lawyer they could even get the sentence reduced based on age, justifiability, and other factors.

[Roxie]

There's enough spin there to make you dizzy. 6 people stomping on 1 is "A fist fight between black and white students"? All 6 of them deserve whatever they're convicted of. That IS justice.
And his maximum sentence is 15, not 22, since the conspiracy charge was dropped.
you should also remember the victim was treated, released, and attended a party that same night.

[Jetsetlemming]

Failing at an attempted act generally doesn't get you off the hook for it. These 6 still stood around one lone guy, beating the shit out of him, and put him in the hospital. Because they didn't exactly make him bedridden isn't an excuse.

[Kaji]

If you'll pardon the pun, it seems to me that the e-mail is trying to "whitewash" the case. Didn't the original articles on the incident state that it was 6 black teens knocking the white kid to the floor and kicking him in the head? That's pretty clearly battery, at the very least.

[Roxie]

The first article says The next day, Dec. 4, 2006, a fight broke out at the school. A white student was injured, taken to the hospital and released. Robert Bailey and five other black students were charged ... with second-degree attempted murder. They each faced 100 years in prison. The black community was reeling.

Independent journalist Jordan Flaherty was the first to break the story nationally. He explained: "I'm sure it was a serious fight, and I'm sure it deserved real discipline within the school system, but he [the white student] was out later that day. He was smiling. He was with friends ... it was a serious school problem that came on the heels of a long series of other events ... as soon as black students were involved, that's when the hammer came down."

NPR article says

The following Monday, Dec.4, a white student named Justin Barker was loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night. When Barker walked into the courtyard, he was attacked by a group of black students. The first punch knocked Barker out and he was kicked several times in the head. But the injuries turned out to be superficial. Barker was examined by doctors and released; he went out to a social function later that evening.

NPR article also says
The next night, 16-year-old Robert Bailey and a few black friends tried to enter a party attended mostly by whites. When Bailey got inside, he was attacked and beaten. The next day, tensions escalated at a local convenience store. Bailey exchanged words with a white student who had been at the party. The white boy ran back to his truck and pulled out a pistol grip shotgun. Bailey ran after him and wrestled him for the gun.

After some scuffling, Bailey and his friends took the gun away and brought it home. Bailey was eventually charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all.
I wonder what happened to the people who attacked Bailey? And what about the charges of theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace? Any why do Robert Bailey Jr. and Bryant Purvis still face attempted murder charges?

[belladonna]

this saddens me to no end, especially having grown up in the south, where it is still incredibly racist. why can't people just get over themselves and get along for a change?

[Hatsumomo]

Why isn't the white kid getting judicially bitchslapped over pulling a gun and threatening the black kids? Or for putting the nooses up? Where I'm from, that's a crime.*

*In the state of Virginia, having a noose is considered a weapon and possession is a crime (can't remember if it was a misdemeanor or felony). Learned that training for EMS/Firefighting when learning rope knots.*

[Roxie]

cause the principal decided it was a prank...I guess they can't press charges?

[Urameshi YuSooKey]

Why isn't the white kid getting judicially bitchslapped over pulling a gun and threatening the black kids? Or for putting the nooses up? Where I'm from, that's a crime.*

*In the state of Virginia, having a noose is considered a weapon and possession is a crime (can't remember if it was a misdemeanor or felony). Learned that training for EMS/Firefighting when learning rope knots.*

It's a good thing this case isn't in Virginia. If it were, the defendants might never live to see a trial beacause of retaliation. That has happened quite often in rural Virginia counties.

[belladonna]

in tennessee, well memphis at least, the white population is the minority, so you'd have to go into the county schools for this to be an issue and there everyone just kind of co-exists without problem. at my school it was all gang wars and really nothing else

[Roxie]

Published: September 14. 2007 7:52PM

By Janet Mcconnaughey
Associated Press

A state appeals court Friday tossed out the aggravated battery conviction that could have sent a black teenager to prison for 15 years in last year's beating of a white classmate in the racially tense north Louisiana town of Jena.

Mychal Bell, who was 16 at the time of the December beating, should not have been tried as an adult on the battery charge, the state Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles said in a five-sentence, three-paragraph ruling.

"There is no substitute for victory. Giddy is the right word," said defense attorney Bob Noel, announcing the decision at a news conference in Monroe.

Bell is one of six black Jena High School students charged in an attack on fellow student Justin Barker, and one of five originally charged as adults with attempted second-degree murder.

The charges brought widespread criticism that blacks were being treated more harshly than whites after racial confrontations and fights at their school.

In a statement delivered to the weekly Jena Times, District Attorney Reed Walters said he will appeal the ruling to the Louisiana Supreme Court "after I review the decision thoroughly."

He has two weeks to appeal. Bell, whose bond was set at $90,000, cannot be released from the LaSalle Parish jail unless Walters lets that period lapse without an appeal or the Louisiana Supreme Court rules in Bell's favor, Sheriff Carl Smith said.

Bell had been scheduled for sentencing Thursday in a case that has brought international attention to Jena. Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, have been planning a rally in support of the teens that day.

"Although there will not be a court hearing, we still intend to have a major rally for the Jena Six and now hopefully Mychal Bell will join us," Sharpton said in an e-mailed statement.

"Mychal Bell's parents will still join me in Chicago tomorrow and we will still continue mobilization on this miscarriage of justice."

Jackson said, "The pressure must continue until all six boys are set free and sent to school, not to jail."

Jena is a mostly white town where racial animosity flared about a year ago when a black student sat under a tree that was a traditional gathering place for whites. A day later, three nooses were found hanging from the tree, evoking for some the image of lynchings in the old South. There followed reports of racial fights and confrontations at the school, culminating in the December attack on Barker.

"I think this is a great day in Louisiana justice. In American justice," said attorney George Tucker of Hammond, who represented one of Bell's co-defendants until Friday. He applauded "the courage displayed by these parents and these children to refuse to take all these public defenders' advice to take a plea, and go ahead and fight for what they believe in."

He said the reversal of Bell's conviction will not affect four other teenagers also charged as adults, because they were 17 years old at the time of the fight and, legally, no longer juveniles in Louisiana.

Bell was 16 at the time of the fight, making him a juvenile under Louisiana law.

Tucker, who had represented Theo Shaw, said the boy whose case is in juvenile court will benefit, and Bell will be tried by a judge in juvenile court.

Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr., who heard Bell's case, noted that the district attorney also could recharge the youth.

Tucker said he believed the only way Walter could return the case to adult court would be to charge Bell again with attempted murder, "which would defy logic."

Mauffray had thrown out a conspiracy conviction on which Bell also was convicted, saying it was not a charge on which a juvenile may be tried as an adult. But he had let the battery conviction stand, saying Bell could be tried in adult court because the charge was among lesser charges included in the original attempted murder charge against him.

He was wrong, the Third Circuit ruled.

While teenagers can be tried as adults in Louisiana for some violent crimes, including attempted murder, aggravated battery is not one of those crimes. Defense lawyers had argued that the aggravated battery case should not have been tried in adult court once the attempted murder charge was reduced.

"The defendant was not tried on an offense which could have subjected him to the jurisdiction of the criminal court," the three-paragraph ruling said.

The case "remains exclusively in juvenile court," the Third Circuit ruled.

"I think the wheels of justice are starting to turn. And the longer this goes, the faster they're turning," Tucker said. "I think these kids will be vindicated."

About 90 minutes before the Third Circuit ruled, Walter had given the Jena Times a longer written statement defending the charges against Bell and the other teens and the decision not to charge the white students who hung the nooses.

Federal prosecutors found nothing to charge those students with, he said, and he found nothing in state law that would apply.

Louisiana's hate crime law covers a multitude of violent crimes as well as criminal damage to property and "institutional vandalism." His statement did not explain why the nooses would not be considered vandalism.

He also wrote that race was never considered, and the fight was not "just a schoolyard fight," as the boys' defenders have called it. "The victim was `sucker punched' and knocked immediately unconscious before being stomped and kicked," he wrote. "There was no credible evidence before or during the trial that the victim had provoked the attack by word or gesture. The evidence showed that this was an attack, not a fight."

---

Associated Press reporters Kevin McGill and Todd Lewan contributed to this report.

---

News conference information from KNOE-TV http://www.knoe.com.

[Roxie]

BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, September 18th 2007, 9:14 AM

The black teen at the center of a furor over legal racism remained behind bars - though charges against him were thrown out Friday - because the judge and prosecutor didn't come to a bail hearing yesterday, his lawyer said.

"We showed up. There was nobody there," said Bob Noel, lawyer for 17-year-old Mychal Bell of Jena, La. "No DA, no judge."

A woman who answered the phone at District Attorney Reed Walters' office said he had no bail procedure on his calendar.

A massive protest is planned for Thursday in tiny, rural Jena on behalf of Bell and five co-defendants who are known as the Jena 6. Other rallies that day include one outside Brooklyn Borough Hall.

"To imagine that in 2006, 2007, we're still fighting these fights is just incomprehensible," said Assemblyman Darryl Towns (D-Brooklyn) at a Jena 6 rally at City Hall yesterday.

An appeals court on Friday threw out the conviction of Bell, who was charged as an adult with attempted murder last year for punching a white classmate in a schoolyard scuffle.

The charges were later reduced to aggravated battery, a charge the appeals court said should have been dealt with in juvenile court.

Noel had filed a motion to have Bell released - or his $90,000 bail reduced - while the prosecutor mulls whether to appeal the overturning of Bell's conviction. He has two weeks to decide.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Washington should step in.

"We needed federal intervention to get into school in Little Rock [in the 1950s] and we need federal intervention now," he said.

All six black Jena football players were hit with heavy charges after a white student was punched and kicked at Jena High School on Dec. 4, one of a series of racial dustups that began when white students hung nooses in a school tree.

White students involved in similar fistfights were shown leniency.

Bell is the only one who has been tried. The other blacks still face trial on charges that are widely seen as overly harsh.

Organizers say at least 10,000 demonstrators will flood the mostly white town of 3,000 people.

Councilman Albert Vann (D-Brooklyn) organized yesterday's New York rally to keep the pressure on Louisiana prosecutors and set the stage for Thursday.

"There's a national spotlight now on Jena," he said.

I also heard Jena's DA on the radio today telling the people who are coming down on tomorrow (esitmated between 5,000-40,000 [not my numbers. that's a big ol' estimate!]) to not come stating that they coudln't really know what was going on.

[Roxie]

By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
JENA, La. — In some ways, this town is still the same rural community it was a half-century ago, before integration pushed blacks and whites together in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.
African-Americans, who are a little more than a tenth of the town's nearly 3,000 people, still live mostly in the two areas that have always been the black sections of town. They worship separately from white churchgoers. When they die, they are buried in the black cemetery.

Jena's residents, black and white, say such separation is typical of small towns — and some big cities — in the South. They say it doesn't justify a portrait of a town awash in racial hate, the portrait they think black activists and the news media have sent worldwide after a tense year that ended with six black teens charged with attempted murder for beating a white classmate in December.

Now Jena (pronounced JEEN-uh), which never experienced the marches of the 1960s civil rights movement, is about to see a replay of that movement. Tens of thousands of demonstrators, rallied by bloggers, newspapers and black radio hosts, are on buses heading for Jena from across the country. With leaders including Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King III, and hip-hop artist Mos Def, they'll rally at the courthouse steps Thursday on behalf of the teens who have come to be known as the "Jena Six."

The case has been overblown, some people say.

"I work with blacks and whites," says Linda McCartney, 41, a white second-grade teacher who has lived here all her life. "The majority of people get along."

Carol Brown, 35, a black home health aide, says, "Jena is a good place to live and call home. … There are some people who are prejudiced, but those who are not outnumber the ones who are."

Jena at one time was known as the home of some of Louisiana's largest sawmills. It has been struggling since the mills began to close in the 1950s.

Now Jena is known for the Jena Six. The charges followed a series of incidents that began at the start of school in 2006, when nooses were hung from a tree, a traditional gathering place for white students, after a black student asked to sit under it.

Last week, an appeals court overturned the first conviction. Mychal Bell, 17, had been scheduled for sentencing on Thursday. The prosecutor, Reed Walters, will appeal. Charges for three others have been reduced to aggravated battery.

Now, on the eve of a rally that organizers say may bring 40,000 people from across the country, Jena is mired in misunderstanding and distrust.

"A lot of people are frustrated," says Eddie Thompson, 46, Pentecostal pastor of the Sanctuary Family Worship Center. He is white. "Basically, it's the story of another town. You can understand someone watching TV and hearing different reports about a town so blindly racist, with trees for whites only and such, joining a march. I would join that march, too."

Residents black and white worry about the sheer numbers of people expected.

"We're scared to death" that violence may break out, says Billy Fowler, 68, a white school board member, as he drives through the town's only two stoplights. He says schools are closing because of worries about traffic backups.

Around the courthouse, a gift shop, diner and other businesses have posted signs to say they will be closed Thursday.

Brian Moran, 25, the acting president of Jena's newly formed NAACP chapter, says the rally will be peaceful and will call attention to how the Jena Six have been treated.

Jena has come a long way from the days when blacks couldn't live outside of certain sections and the Ku Klux Klan was active, says Harry "Cuz" Roberts, the white owner of LaSalle Florist.

Some blacks in Jena, though, say racism is a part of daily life.

Jim Douglas, 65, a black retired electrical engineer who returned to Jena 17 years ago after living in Las Vegas, says race relations have not changed much since he marched in Baton Rouge in the 1960s.

He lives in the Tall Timber Quarters, where poor blacks who worked for the mills used to live. The section, a mix of ramshackle trailers and well-kept homes, is still predominantly black.

"You still have the sense of the old deep South," he says. "They still have the good ol' boy system."

Brown says she hasn't had many problems in Jena, except for one area: how the law treats blacks.

Two years ago, Brown says, her daughter was convicted of disorderly conduct for a school fight even though one of her teachers backed up her statement that she wasn't there.

"Criminal justice and race are inextricably intertwined in the South," says Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He says the civil rights movement never reached Jena and other towns in north-central Louisiana.

One place where blacks and whites in Jena mingle easily is the football field.

Last week during Jena High School's homecoming, graduates cheered the Jena Giants, holding up signs showing the years they graduated. Principal Glen Joiner pointed out that blacks and whites who attended school together sat next to each other at the game.

"Would they all have come back if we had bad racial problems?" he asks.

On Monday, a hot, humid Louisiana evening, parents gathered to watch the junior varsity beat the Caldwell Parish Spartans 20-to-8. After the game, black and white players held hands and prayed.

"See that?" Joiner says. "That's what we're about. You see whites and blacks together in prayer. They're a team. That's a bond these kids have."


Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-18-Jena_N.htm

[Roxie]

Lloyd
September 19, 2007, 12:00 PM ET
Hillary Crosley, N.Y.
Nick Cannon, Lloyd, Baby Boy, Sean P, Twista, Tank, Jagged Edge, Killer Mike, Bobby Brown, DTP's Small World and Hurricane Chris will perform at the "Jena 6 Empowerment Concert," to be held Sept. 29 in Birmingham, Ala.

The event aims to raise national awareness of incidents that have occurred over the past year in and around a Jena, La., high school, involving violence between African-American and white students.

Several African-American students were charged with assault and second-degree attempted murder stemming from one of the incidents. Many of the charges have since been dropped, but one student, Mychal Bell, has been found guilty and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced tomorrow (Sept. 20).

"What's happening to the Jena 6 is not an isolated incident -- it could happen to any of us," says Baby Boy. "We are asking men of all persuasions to stand on the front line with our young people and send a message demanding accountability of law enforcement officials and the judicial system."

In conjunction with the concert, Cannon and Danity Kane's Aubrey will host a Sept. 28 peace rally at Birmingham's Parker High School.

In related news, David Bowie today donated $10,000 to a legal defense fund for the African-American teens. The donation was announced by the NAACP, which is organizing protesters in advance of tomorrow's sentencing.




Links referenced within this article



Find this article at:
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003643021


and



David Bowie Donates To "Jena Six" Defense Fund

posted Wednesday, September 19, 2007

* David Bowie has donated $10,000 to the defense fund for the Jena Six, a group of black teenagers who allegedly attacked a white teenager in a small Louisiana town. Bowie said, "There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town of Jena. A donation to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund is my small gesture indicating my belief that a wrongful charge and sentence should be prevented." (NME)

[Roxie]

Ok, so this is the day to wear black or green (or both!) to show your support for those in Jena.

I don't have any (weather appropriate) black, so I wore green and brown. Also got a purple ribbon to show support
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Roxie21/th_jena2.jpg (http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Roxie21/jena2.jpg)

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Roxie21/th_jena1.jpg (http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b58/Roxie21/jena1.jpg)

[MurphBurger]

No. I refuse to support any part of this. Yes, it is bad that it happens but this, http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp

This sickens me and im disgusted that someone would even think of doing this so i say Fuck Jena 6

[RandomPasserby]

I had black socks on today. And black walking shoes!

[Roxie]

No. I refuse to support any part of this. Yes, it is bad that it happens but this, http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp

This sickens me and im disgusted that someone would even think of doing this so i say Fuck Jena 6 While I heartily disagree with the assessment in the green box (the assessment in the last paragraph is much more level headed), that shit is really sick and I hope they're punished to the full extent of the law. I'd appreciate any updates on that as far as that is concerned

While I agree that report is extremely disturbing, saying "fuck jena 6" doesn't help anyone. These have absolutely nothing to do with one another. And to encourage injustice doesn't help the case that you posted. So, you're not helping ANYONE. Help or keep it moving.

[4letterwords]

I personally don't feel like backing 6 kids who ganged up and beat the crap out of another student. The original sentence was unjust, but now all but one is getting battery (which they should) and as soon as the other one gets battery (he will, attempted murder will never go through) I will be saying good riddance to these little punks. If beating the crap out of a kid 6 on one isn't battery, then how far do you have to go till it is? It doesn't matter if you're black, white, purple... ganging up and beating the shit out of someone is not ok.

Look at pictures of the kid who got beaten up. I fail to see how 'superficial' injuries could cause the blood clots behind his eyes.

http://thejenatimes.net/home_page_graphics/home.html

I suggest reading the time line of events lower on the page.

I'm not saying the original charge wasn't unjust, it completely was. It was wrong and thank god the charge was reduced. But in supporting the 'Jena Six" it almost seems like people are relieving them of any fault in the matter. They all deserve to get charged with battery. Why make martyrs out of these little douchebags?

[Roxie]

You're mistaken. No one I've talked to or heard talk about this, are saying the kids don't deserve some punishment. They're not trying to absolve them or make it as if they didn't do what they did. The injuries are called "superficial" b/c they apparently have no debilitating lasting impact. If they did, they would've kept him at the hospital and he probably wouldn't have attended a party that same night.


I clicked the link, but I didn't see the picture..I scrolled down *shrug*

But it's more than just the fight. It's everything leading up to. All the things that did and did not happen.

The $90,000 bail set (which I believe is near the same bail set for those 6 ppl who raped and tortured that woman [in another thread], I think), the DA who plans on appealing, etc, etc...

I do want to know what's happening with the other 5 guys though. I'm not clear if they're still facing attempted murder charges or not.

I think this is much more than an event.
In the quad this afternoon there was a SEA of black with some green. It was incredible, slightly overwhelming.

[ParryDat]

cause the principal decided it was a prank...I guess they can't press charges?

The Principal actually recommended that the kids that hung the noose's around the tree be expelled.He was overruled by The School Board,and they called it a "Harmless Prank".

[Roxie]

Yeah! I heard that today, but it's still being reported as the principal just suspending them and calling it a prank

[Jetsetlemming]

You're mistaken. No one I've talked to or heard talk about this, are saying the kids don't deserve some punishment. They're not trying to absolve them or make it as if they didn't do what they did. The injuries are called "superficial" b/c they apparently have no debilitating lasting impact. If they did, they would've kept him at the hospital and he probably wouldn't have attended a party that same night.
Bull. There are quotes in the articles you posted with activists saying the "Jena six" should be "being sent back to class, not sent to jail", and on numerous occasions was their arrests and charges referred to as "unjust".

[Roxie]

Bull. There are quotes in the articles you posted with activists saying the "Jena six" should be "being sent back to class, not sent to jail", and on numerous occasions was their arrests and charges referred to as "unjust".
That's not the same as "they should go totally unpunished as they did nothing wrong".
Also, the articles most likely refer the charges of attempted murder.

edit: talking to a friend helped me understand something...that a lot of people are getting the impression that to "support the jena six" means that one supports what they did (i.e. beating up that kid)...this is not the case. Like I said before I haven't heard anyone saying they should go completely unpunished and that they were justified in what they did...ppl are upset about the DA's handling of the case, the charges of attempted murder and jail time and what not, when there are the ppl who beat up Bailey but went unpunished, and the guy with the gun who went unpunished.

Everyone that i’ve seen write or heard talk about Jena has said that the white kids should have been punished, and that the Jena 6 should be punished somehow for the assault. “Free the Jena 6″ just fits on a sign better than “Give the Jena 6 25 hours of community service, probation until they turn 18, and in-school suspension for a week…oh, and make sure that the white kids get proportional punishments”.

I really feel like i'm watching a movie from 1957 and I keep waiting for the credits to roll.


Ooh, I also find this (http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/NEWS/70915030)really helpful in understanding some details of the case. Very helpful. I learned some stuff

Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder. That charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile. (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hEDGACsk9ZRgdFmzTA-FtR5-3LdQ)

[stsparky]

Amidst White Supremacist Backlash, Mayor Of Jena "Appreciates" Pro-White Group's "Moral Support (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/24/amidst-white-supremacist-_n_65709.html)"

No sooner did tens of thousands of African-American demonstrators depart the racially tense town of Jena, La., last week after protesting perceived injustices than white supremacists flooded in behind them.

First a neo-Nazi Web site posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena 6 case and urged followers to find them and "drag them out of the house," prompting an investigation by the FBI.

---------------------

White supremacist backlash builds over Jena case (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-jena25_websep25,0,4477421.story?coll=chi_tab01_lay out)

No sooner did tens of thousands of African-American demonstrators depart the racially tense town of Jena, La., last week after protesting perceived injustices than white supremacists flooded in behind them.

First a neo-Nazi Web site posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena 6 case and urged followers to find them and "drag them out of the house," prompting an investigation by the FBI.

Then the leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, the mayor, Murphy McMillin, praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager, Justin Barker, urged white readers to "realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind."

Over the weekend, white extremist Web sites and blogs across the Internet filled with invective about the Jena 6 case, which has drawn scrutiny from civil rights leaders, three leading Democratic presidential candidates and hundreds of African-American Internet bloggers. They are concerned about allegations that blacks have been treated more harshly than whites in the criminal justice system of the town of 3,000, which is 85 percent white.

David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, last week announced his support for Jena's white residents, who voted overwhelmingly for him when he ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor in 1991.

"There is a major white supremacist backlash building," said Mark Potok, a hate-group expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group in Montgomery, Ala. "I also think it's more widespread than may be obvious to most people. It's not only neo-nazis and Klansmen—you expect this kind of reaction from them."

Controversy over the Jena 6 case has been percolating for months but it exploded into national view last Thursday when a crowd of at least 20,000 peaceful demonstrators from around the country marched through the central Louisiana town.

They came to support the six black high school students who were initially charged by the local prosecutor with attempted murder for attacking Barker, a white classmate who was beaten and knocked briefly unconscious last December. The charges were later reduced to aggravated second-degree battery.

The incident capped months of racial unrest after three white students hung nooses from a shade tree at the high school after black students asked permission to sit under it. School officials dismissed the noose incident as a prank, angering black students and their parents and triggering a series of fights between whites and blacks. The whites involved were charged with misdemeanors or not at all while the blacks drew various felony charges.

McMillin has insisted that his town is being unfairly portrayed as racist—an assertion the mayor repeated in an interview with Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group based in Learned, Miss., who asked McMillan to "set aside some place for those opposing the colored folks."

"I am not endorsing any demonstrations, but I do appreciate what you are trying to do," Barrett quoted McMillin as saying. "Your moral support means a lot."

McMillin declined to return calls seeking comment Monday.

Barker's father, David, said his family did not know the nature of Barrett's group when they agreed to be interviewed, adding, "I am not a white supremacist, and neither is my son."

But Barrett said he explained his group and its beliefs to the Barker family, who then invited him to stay overnight at their home on the eve of last week's protest march.

Rev. Jesse Jackson told the Tribune that he had grown so concerned about white extremists' threats against the Jena 6 families and perceived injustices in the town that he called the White House over the weekend to ask for immediate federal intervention. Jackson said the acting head of the U.S. Justice Department's civil right division phoned him Monday to say that the agency had begun investigating the Jena situation.



www.supportjena6.com

[Roxie]

i heard about duke's involvement today as well, but not all of this info (such as the mayor!) wooooow
http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2007/09/24/with-friends-like-these-david-duke-on-jena/

[Roxie]

from feministe (http://feministe.powweb.com/blog/2007/09/26/justice-in-jena/#comments)
The District Attorney involved in the Jena 6 case has an op/ed in the New York Times, wherein he justifies the prosecutions of the six teenagers in Jena, and claims that “The victim in this crime, who has been all but forgotten amid the focus on the defendants, was a young man named Justin Barker, who was not involved in the nooses incident three months earlier.” He also defends his decision to try Mychal Bell as an adult.

I don’t think anyone is defending the attacks on Justin Barker. But the DA obscures the point of the protesters in this article — they’re objecting to the lack of consideration of the greater context; the non-punishment leveled on the noose-hangers by the school; and the disproportionate punishments given to the black students.

The whole article is a cop-out. And I look forward to the New York Times presenting the views of the thousands of people who stand behind the Jena 6 any day now…



September 26, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor

Justice in Jena
By REED WALTERS
Jena, La.

THE case of the so-called Jena Six has fired the imaginations of thousands, notably young African-Americans who, according to many of their comments, believe they will be in the vanguard of a new civil rights movement. Whether America needs a new civil rights movement I leave to social activists, politicians and the people who must give life to such a cause.

I am a small-town lawyer and prosecutor. For 16 years, it has been my job as the district attorney to review each criminal case brought to me by the police department or the sheriff, match the facts to any applicable laws and seek justice for those who have been harmed. The work is often rewarding, but not always.

I do not question the sincerity or motivation of the 10,000 or more protesters who descended on Jena last week, after riding hundreds of miles on buses. But long before reaching our town of 3,000 people, they had decided that a miscarriage of justice was taking place here. Their anger at me was summed up by a woman who said, “If you can figure out how to make a schoolyard fight into an attempted murder charge, I’m sure you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime.”

That could be a compelling statement to someone trying to motivate listeners on a radio show, but as I am a lawyer obligated to enforce the laws of my state, it does not work for me.

I cannot overemphasize how abhorrent and stupid I find the placing of the nooses on the schoolyard tree in late August 2006. If those who committed that act considered it a prank, their sense of humor is seriously distorted. It was mean-spirited and deserves the condemnation of all decent people.

But it broke no law. I searched the Louisiana criminal code for a crime that I could prosecute. There is none.

Similarly, the United States attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, who is African-American, found no federal law against what was done.

A district attorney cannot take people to trial for acts not covered in the statutes. Imagine the trampling of individual rights that would occur if prosecutors were allowed to pursue every person whose behavior they disapproved of.

The “hate crime” the protesters wish me to prosecute does not exist as a stand-alone offense in Louisiana law. It’s not that our Legislature has turned a blind eye to crimes motivated by race or other personal characteristics, but it has addressed the problem in a way that does not cover what happened in Jena. The hate crime statute is used to enhance the sentences of defendants found guilty of specific crimes, like murder or rape, who chose their victims based on race, religion, sexual orientation or other factors.

Last week, a reporter asked me whether, if I had it to do over, I would do anything differently. I didn’t think of it at the time, but the answer is yes. I would have done a better job of explaining that the offenses of Dec. 4, 2006, did not stem from a “schoolyard fight” as it has been commonly described in the news media and by critics.

Conjure the image of schoolboys fighting: they exchange words, clench fists, throw punches, wrestle in the dirt until classmates or teachers pull them apart. Of course that would not be aggravated second-degree battery, which is what the attackers are now charged with. (Five of the defendants were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder.) But that’s not what happened at Jena High School.

The victim in this crime, who has been all but forgotten amid the focus on the defendants, was a young man named Justin Barker, who was not involved in the nooses incident three months earlier. According to all the credible evidence I am aware of, after lunch, he walked to his next class. As he passed through the gymnasium door to the outside, he was blindsided and knocked unconscious by a vicious blow to the head thrown by Mychal Bell. While lying on the ground unaware of what was happening to him, he was brutally kicked by at least six people.

Imagine you were walking down a city street, and someone leapt from behind a tree and hit you so hard that you fell to the sidewalk unconscious. Would you later describe that as a fight?

Only the intervention of an uninvolved student protected Mr. Barker from severe injury or death. There was serious bodily harm inflicted with a dangerous weapon — the definition of aggravated second-degree battery. Mr. Bell’s conviction on that charge as an adult has been overturned, but I considered adult status appropriate because of his role as the instigator of the attack, the seriousness of the charge and his prior criminal record.

I can understand the emotions generated by the juxtaposition of the noose incident with the attack on Mr. Barker and the outcomes for the perpetrators of each. In the final analysis, though, I am bound to enforce the laws of Louisiana as they exist today, not as they might in someone’s vision of a perfect world.

That is what I have done. And that is what I must continue to do.

Reed Walters is the district attorney of LaSalle Parish.

[Jetsetlemming]

I'm glad to hear his side of it and agree with his position 100%.

[Roxie]

I still don't think they should've been charged with attempted murder, which is what the orginal charge was (why is that not in his writing? Hmmm).

And a tennis shoe as a "dangerous weapon"....I mean was it considered a dangerous weapon upon purchase? Or was "dangerous weapon" a transitory state that the shoe entered in when it kicked someone? And then it's like, is the shoe ALONE a "dangerous weapon"? Wouldn't it have to be that shoe becomes a "dangerous weapon" once it's put on someone's foot who has inent to do harm? And if that's the case, well, then the shoe isn't truly a "dangerous weapon" it's the person...

I just want to know how he's going to make that arguement.

[Jetsetlemming]

Conjure the image of schoolboys fighting: they exchange words, clench fists, throw punches, wrestle in the dirt until classmates or teachers pull them apart. Of course that would not be aggravated second-degree battery, which is what the attackers are now charged with. (Five of the defendants were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder.) But that’s not what happened at Jena High School.
Yes it was.

And a dangerous weapon is anything you attempt to inflict serious bodily harm with.

[Roxie]

Ah ok, missed it.

But did they attempt to inflict bodily harm with their shoes specifically or their feet? Or was it the kicking of their feet combined with pressure and speed?

[japanat]

Ah ok, missed it.

But did they attempt to inflict bodily harm with their shoes specifically or their feet? Or was it the kicking of their feet combined with pressure and speed?
When I was a kid, some of the towns near me required anyone attaining a black belt to be registered "as possessing a dangerous weapon in their hands and feet". And while it may seem stupid to apply that to tennis shoes, the difference between tennis shoes and steel-toed boots is only a matter of degree - and many people nationwide have been punished more severely after kicking in a fight with steel-toed boots. Brass knuckles are just something you slip on one of your extremities, too.

I think the situation in the town sucks, and they definitely need to do a better job of race relations, but it sounds like the police and feds followed the law very carefully. The legal problems, at least, seem to be a matter of how the law is set up, not how it has been enforced (other than the school disciplinary board screwing the pooch in the first place). And that is a question for the state legislative body, not the judicial.

[Roxie]

See, being a black belted or having brass knuckles I can understand. Those aren't meant for anything else except defending one's self.

but anyway...

[Roxie]

By DOUG SIMPSON
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 27, 2007; 10:18 PM

JENA, La. -- A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate prompted a massive civil rights protest here walked out of a courthouse Thursday after a judge ordered him freed.

Mychal Bell's release on $45,000 bail came hours after a prosecutor confirmed he would no longer seek an adult trial for the 17-year-old. Bell, one of the teenagers known as the Jena Six, still faces trial as a juvenile in the December beating in this small central Louisiana town.

"We still have mountains to climb, but at least this is closer to an even playing field," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize last week's protest.

"He goes home because a lot of people left their home and stood up for him," Sharpton said as Bell stood smiling next to him.

"There's only one person who could have brought me through this and that's the good Lord," Bell told reporters later in front of his father's house.

District Attorney Reed Walters' decision to abandon adult charges means that Bell, who had faced a maximum of 15 years in prison on his aggravated second-degree battery conviction last month, instead could be held only until he turns 21 if he is found guilty in juvenile court.

The conviction in adult court was thrown out this month by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, which said Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that particular charge.

Walters had said he would appeal that decision. On Thursday, he said he still believes there was legal merit to trying Bell as an adult but decided it was in the best interest of the victim, Justin Barker, and his family to let the juvenile court handle the case.

"They are on board with what I decided," Walters said at a news conference.

Bell faces juvenile court charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime.

He is among six black Jena High School students arrested in December after a beating that left Barker unconscious and bloody, though the victim was able to attend a school function later that day. Four of the defendants were 17 at the time, which made them adults under Louisiana law.

Those four and Bell, who was 16, all were initially charged with attempted murder. Walters has said he sought to have Bell tried as an adult because he already had a criminal record, and because he believed Bell instigated the attack.

The charges have been dropped to aggravated second-degree battery in four of the cases. One defendant has yet to be arraigned. The sixth defendant's case is sealed in juvenile court.

Bell's lawyer, Carol Powell Lexing, said his next hearing is set for Tuesday.

Critics accuse Walters, who is white, of prosecuting blacks more harshly than whites. They note that he filed no charges against three white teens suspended from the high school over allegations they hung nooses in a tree on campus not long before fights between blacks and whites, including the attack on Barker.

An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 protesters marched in Jena last week in a scene that evoked the early years of the civil rights movement.

Walters said the demonstration had no influence on his decision not to press the adult charges, and ended his news conference by saying that only God kept the protest peaceful.

"The only way _ let me stress that _ the only way that I believe that me or this community has been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community," Walters said.

"I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened. You can quote me on that."

The Rev. Donald Sibley, a black Jena pastor, called it a "shame" that Walters credited divine intervention for the protesters acting responsibly.

"What I'm saying is, the Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly," Walters responded.

After the news conference, Sibley told CNN that Walters had insulted the protesters by making a false separation between "his Christ and our Christ."

"For him to use it in the sense that because his Christ, his Jesus, because he prayed, because of his police, that everything was peaceful and was decent and in order _ that's not the truth," Sibley said.

Walters has said repeatedly that Barker's suffering has been lost in the furor over the case, and that what happened to the teen was much more severe than a schoolyard fight.

Walters also has defended his decision not to seek charges in the hanging of the nooses, which he said was "abhorrent and stupid" but not a crime.

can someone explain the conspiracy charges to me? I don't get it.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

I was going to make a separate topic, but I decided to keep it in this one.

We all know about the Jena Six. In fact I'm the one who made the topic around here when it was still pretty low key.

It's eventually blow out of proportion and a few black community members in Little Rock have in fact made a trip to that area. I'm not going to go into details where I was and the locations for specific reasons, but I'll just say what happened.

I was standing next to a portly very pleasant (at least I thought so) black woman. As I was waiting for something I noticed a T-Shirt she was wearing that said "JUSTICE FOR THE JENA SIX!" I for one agree that tensions can get out of control and some things can be taken out of context, but what is happening down there is not right.

I, stupidly, forgot that my color was white. I for the longest time didn't think my skin colour mattered. To this woman it did and my next comment obviously ill tempered her.

"Where did you get that T-Shirt? Man, when I heard about that I just couldn't believe that kind of stuff still happens in this country." It was at that point, right after I had said that, that I realized that I don't understand the anger withheld in the black race over racism. How that I, as a white person, will never understand the feeling of being considered as a lesser human being by some idiots out there who judge only on colour of skin. My quick comment was nearly shot back into my face when this woman turned my direction and looked me straight in the face with fiery brown eyes.

At first I thought she might just spout off about the situation. I was obviously wrong.

"You can't believe this kind of stuff happens? Where the hell have you been living? You think standing there and talking to me about my T-shirt is going to change a damn thing? You think that just because you are white and don't agree with what is going on is going to make you feel better? What the hell is the matter with you anyway? I don't walk up to random ass people and ask them how they feel about racism do I? The last thing I need to hear is another dumb cracker kid tell me how bad he feels for me. Get the hell away."

I remember these precise words because I was speechless and did what she told me to do. I actually almost felt like crying because everything I thought about before about racism, my feelings on it, and my general idea on how everyone should be treated were thrown out the window.

I felt wrong in every kind of way and even sick.

Then again maybe the woman just didn't want to be talked to by some random person. Maybe, she was having a horrible day. Who knows?

As far as I know. I should just keep my mouth shut.

[ZaichikArky]

^wtf that woman was wearing that shirt, most likely to let people know how she felt about the situation. You'd think that by wearing a political shirt like that, you'd want to teach others about how you feel about something and engage in meaningful political discussion, but obviously she was just a bitch who was racist herself.

It's like if someone is wearing a Che Guevara teeshirt and someone asks them "Hey who's that?" and they respond with "How can you NOT know about the great Guevara?! You must be a capitalist pig to be so ignorant! Get out of my sight!"

What a horrible approach to a situation >_>.

[Roxie]

She was definitely being quite the asstart. Also, when wearing a shirt about such an issue, expect to be asked about it. It's only fair. I would've only been too happy, but then again it's like you said..still. She really threw that moment to shit. She had obviously been embittered by previous discussions, but that wasn't fair of her.

don't keep your mouth shut...do some reading, but don't keep your mouth shut.

[Jetsetlemming]

"You can't believe this kind of stuff happens? Where the hell have you been living? You think standing there and talking to me about my T-shirt is going to change a damn thing? You think that just because you are white and don't agree with what is going on is going to make you feel better? What the hell is the matter with you anyway? I don't walk up to random ass people and ask them how they feel about racism do I? The last thing I need to hear is another dumb cracker kid tell me how bad he feels for me. Get the hell away."

She's a racist, and there's nothing you could've done to avoid her reacting like that to you. She was probably thinking evil things about you for having the audacity to stand in line with her.
It's not exactly a new phenomenon. I ran into that sort of behavior a lot when I lived in the Wilmington area about 5 years ago. Any time a person who looks kinda white tries to talk to them, or even be in their presence, some people just snap, along the lines of "YOU! WHITE PERSON! YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF ALL MY PROBLEMS! RARGH!"
:(

[White Girl]

Some people are so stupid.

I think they should handcuff the black and white students together and zap them every time they try to take a swing at each other or say something racist. Keep them together until they make up. It'd be funny, and they could make a reality show out of it, too.

1. Racism
2. Reality show
3. ???
4. Profit

[Roxie]

I found this post on a blog. It tries to explain the thing about the shoe being a "dangerous weapon"



FYI, "dangerous weapon" doesn't mean what most people think it does. I took a look at Westlaw in my own state, and checked the definition.

Sneakers count.

They count because kicking someone while wearing shoes (even sneakers) is supposedly more dangerous than doing so barefoot.

See, e.g., Com. v. Ulysses H., 52 Mass.App.Ct. 497 (2001)

I wouldn't be surprised if the legal precedent was the same in Louisiana. As such, Bell's initial charges may have been perfectly justified under existing law. My nickel's on the law being the same in LA.

This doesn't say anything about the obvious racism and inconsistent treatment in Jena. That continues to be an enormous issue.

But it might serve as a warning not to jump on a bus before you know where it's headed. I have seen an enormous number of posts snidely mocking the "sneaker as dangerous weapon" concept. Somehow, I suspect that few of those authors actually KNOW what Louisiana law says.

I don't know for sure either; I suppose it's always possible that Louisiana law is more favorable towards the defendant than is Massachusetts law. Want to take bets?

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

Yeah, I sorta figured that she was bitter about something and have scince then been able to at least move on past what she said to me.

I've never been yelled at by anyone but my mother and father mostly because I avoid conflicts.

When this happened I guess I unintentionally headed straight forward into one. For whatever her reasons were I hope that in some way I can at least say, "Hey, I do care about these issues on race."

[Roxie]

Mychal Bell Released From Prison — Of Course Rev. Al Has Something To Say (http://www.stereohyped.com/crime-punishment/mychal-bell-released-from-prison-of-course-rev-al-has-something-to-say-20070928/)
Students In Blackface "Jena 6" Reenactment (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1002071jena1.html)

[Chris]

Has anyone heard anything about the white kid that pulled the gun and then had it taken away from him? I'm writing an article in the newspaper, I'm going to do a redcap of events, but I'm wondering what happened to the incidents in between the nooses and the Jena Six incident. There hasn't been much reported on that, and the fact that the kid took the gun home after having it pointed at him and was charged with theft of a firearm seemed much more abhorrent to me than any other incident, so I'm wondering if that was found to be false since no one is talking or reporting about it.

[Gymnoge]

There is something I do want to point out. Jena is forty-five minutes from my home town, and my job had me drive to often.

Jena is not a racist town, and the racial tension that national media kept mentioning really is not anywhere to be found. You go to the high school football games there is no division, the same goes for diners, stores, and social events. Jena is a place you can go to a visit; you can enjoy the quiet little town. It is still a place where you will always be greeted with a smile; people will stop what they are doing just to wave. The people of Jena don't care about race, and would help anyone even if it were just asking for directions or looking for a good place to stop and have a bite.

National Media failed to bring balanced information, as did many of the activists that were present. If anything has been accomplished by the national media and activists and that they have made the people of Jena, Xenophobes.

[Roxie]

I would not call that information "balanced".

[Gymnoge]

Which bit of information are you talking about?

The information made available by media groups?
Or
The opinion I posted earlier?

If it is the second, I am sorry you feel that way. It is simply my views based on the several trips I have made to the city, both working and leisure. While working I interviewed more than a hundred people; black, white, Asian, Native American, and Creole. I have been to Jena, my ex-fiance's home town, long before the events that occurred. As well as after the noose and beating events. I was there before, during and after the march, both in Jena and Alexandria. The actions of an extremely small group of people which includes both sets of agitators have tarnished the image of that town for a long time.

[Roxie]

Ah, ok. now that I can understand.

[Roxie]

Got this from a blog linked to another blog.

Mychal Bell of the `Jena 6' Back in Jail (http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-jena-six,0,616506.story)

and apparently, the noose is back in fashion (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21228709/) all over the nation.

[japanat]

Got this from a blog linked to another blog.

Mychal Bell of the `Jena 6' Back in Jail (http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-jena-six,0,616506.story)

and apparently, the noose is back in fashion (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21228709/) all over the nation.
Could you explain why he's back in jail? The article says 'parole violations', including 2 fights, then moves on to the Jena 6 incidents, without explaining exactly what the parole violations are from.

[Black fist]

He might of been on probations and because of the fight he was in violated his parole guideline so he was put back in jail to finish whatever sentence he was paroled from.

[Roxie]

Could you explain why he's back in jail? The article says 'parole violations', including 2 fights, then moves on to the Jena 6 incidents, without explaining exactly what the parole violations are from.
Wish I could, but I'm running up against the same lack of detail.

[Jetsetlemming]

Glad to hear he's back where he belongs.
Where are the rest of the jena six? On bail waiting for trial?

[Chris]

I'm a staff writer for the college newspaper, I volunteered for an opinions piece on Jena. Here's the online link, they also put it in print.


http://www.cowleypress.com/opinion1.html

Tell me what you guys think.



Racism has stumbled into the spotlight recently in a string of racially charged incidents involving students of the Jena high school in Jena, Louisiana. These incidents underscore a worldwide problem*— racism and its ugly parent — hatred.

Should this come as a surprise for Americans? Humans in 2007 are no different than humans in the 1950s or humans in the 1850s.

This is 2007, but America, supposedly civilized, still faces the same issues people worldwide face. The incidents in Jena have not sparked ethnic cleansing or a civil war, however they can hardly be ignored.

This series of events began when an African-American student asked the principal for permission to sit under a tree in the school's courtyard, a gathering spot for Caucasian students.

The principal replied students could "sit wherever they wanted." The following day three nooses were hanging from the tree.

The FBI found the incident had "all the markings of a hate crime." Yet the Caucasian students could not be prosecuted because federal standards require the teens be certified as adults.

Several interracial fights occurred after the noose incident according to The Town Talk, an Alexandria-Pineville, Louisiana newspaper. The school held a special assembly to address escalating violence, and La Salle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters was asked to speak.

The students segregated themselves: African-American and Caucasian at the assembly.

The town’s tension heightened when a fight occurred at the Jena Fair Barn party followed by an incident the next day at the local "Gotta Go" store the encounter resulted in a fight, a weapons being drawn and charges filed against those who took the shotgun away using force.

Two days later Justin Barker was knocked unconscious and then kicked according to a New York Times article. Barker was hospitalized and released two hours later.
Six students, dubbed the "Jena Six" were arrested. All but one was charged with attempted second-degree murder.

Jesse Ray Beard was released because he was 14 at the time of the attack.

Mychal Bell, 16 at the time of the fight, was charged as an adult, the four others African-American students were 17 making them adults under Louisiana law.

The request to lower Bell's $90,000 bail was turned down because of his juvenile record. An all-Caucasian jury convicted Bell of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. The case is under scrutiny for its all white jury though the jury call did include African-American residents of La Salle Parish.

According to The Louisiana Weekly and the Associated Press Bell has since been sent back to jail for violating his probation, he was sentenced to 18 months for two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property.
Walters said, “This matter was unrelated to the December 2006 event at Jena High School, and that case was not even mentioned in the court proceedings.”
The incidents that created the foundation for this case underscore humanity’s problem. One it has faced for the entire duration it has resided on earth. Racism.

In 2007 Americans would like to think that the pathetic ideals of racism have long since been buried, swept aside by our national conscience. This case shows a different reality.

Humans have had a long history of hatred; a simple look at any textbook or news broadcast is more than enough to prove this, with incidents like the Balkan genocides, the ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq, or maybe something a little closer to home, such as the protests in Little Lock in 1957 over the attendance of nine African American students to a previously all-Caucasian school.

As a country the United States has come a long way since the 1950s in civil rights, for the most part all Americans have an equal opportunity to create their own future however they desire.

Unfortunately all humans have the same capacity to hate one another they have always had, people do not change easily.

When looking at the incidents in Jena Americans have to realize that this is not simply a black and white issue. No, it is much larger than that. This is not merely an insult to those involved; it is an insult to our entire species. It has always been said that the first step to solving a problem is realizing that it exists. In the world today, incidents like those in Jena serve to remind us that the problem of racism still exists, and while it will never go away entirely people can still make great strides in attempting to further bury it. When looking at the chain of events in Jena one must look at both sides of the issue to find the truth buried underneath.

In this case many mistakes have been made on both sides. The six African-American students charged were far from innocent, indeed they did attack another student and place him in the hospital; though one would be hard- pressed to find the original charges of second-degree murder reasonable.

One article described Bell as "frightened and numb" as he sat in his jail cell, and at the age of 17. Who wouldn't be when initially faced with the possibility of 22 years in prison?

The court battle over Bell rages on as he finds himself back in jail, though those charges were not related to the chain of events that brought this legal battle on.
America finds itself at a stalemate between two sides that are in the wrong, but we must consider the issue that set off this chain of events: racism. Racism can stem from many problems in society, but in the end it all boils down to respect for one another. It is up to all people to work to prevent racism, and in that light racism cannot be seen as a race specific problem, it's a human problem that plagues everyone whether they realize it or not. It's a problem that prevents successes everyday, whether they're individual or human-wide. It's up to all humans to work set aside their differences.

Arkansas City is a small town, much like Jena, though we do not seem our racial problems here might not be as pronounced. Dialogue must take place so that our racial problems can be brought to the forefront and solved; there are decidedly better methods than what the students at Jena High School chose.

Hatred is an issue that takes the involvement of all sides to resolve, thus all people are required to play their part. Humans as a whole must recognize the problem as one that exists everywhere, stemming from the ugly side of all people. It cannot be ignored, wherever it takes place; history has shown us that the results can be disastrous.

[Roxie]

I think it would've been a nice literary device to have included about what happened to the tree. it would've driven your point home.

[Chris]

I think it would've been a nice literary device to have included about what happened to the tree. it would've driven your point home.


I was going to, but it didn't really strike me as relevant to the story, though I get what you're saying. It would've shown that we had to take more action than just cutting down a tree.

[Roxie]

well more than that. They cut down the tree and then shaved down the stump as if to say that if they got rid of the tree, as if the tree had never been, then maybe this would go away as well. None of this was the tree's fault and it could "happen again" under ANY tree...what would they do then? Cut down all the trees in town?

[stsparky]

Now how reliable is the local press?

MEDIA MYTHS ABOUT THE JENA 6 (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p09s01-coop.html)
A local journalist tells the story you haven't heard.

By Craig Franklin
from the October 24, 2007 edition

(in link - Opinion editor Josh Burek talks with Craig Franklin about the distorted story of the Jena 6.)

JENA, LA. - By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they've all heard the story of the "Jena 6." White students hanging nooses barely punished, a schoolyard fight, excessive punishment for the six black attackers, racist local officials, public outrage and protests – the outside media made sure everyone knew the basics.

There's just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice.

I should know. I live in Jena. My wife has taught at Jena High School for many years. And most important, I am probably the only reporter who has covered these events from the very beginning.

The reason the Jena cases have been propelled into the world spotlight is two-fold: First, because local officials did not speak publicly early on about the true events of the past year, the media simply formed their stories based on one-side's statements – the Jena 6. Second, the media were downright lazy in their efforts to find the truth. Often, they simply reported what they'd read on blogs, which expressed only one side of the issue.

The real story of Jena and the Jena 6 is quite different from what the national media presented. It's time to set the record straight.

Myth 1: The Whites-Only Tree. There has never been a "whites-only" tree at Jena High School. Students of all races sat underneath this tree. When a student asked during an assembly at the start of school last year if anyone could sit under the tree, it evoked laughter from everyone present – blacks and whites. As reported by students in the assembly, the question was asked to make a joke and to drag out the assembly and avoid class.

Myth 2: Nooses a Signal to Black Students. An investigation by school officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the placing of two nooses in the tree the day after the assembly. According to the expulsion committee, the crudely constructed nooses were not aimed at black students. Instead, they were understood to be a prank by three white students aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo team. (The students apparently got the idea from watching episodes of "Lonesome Dove.") The committee further concluded that the three young teens had no knowledge that nooses symbolize the terrible legacy of the lynchings of countless blacks in American history. When informed of this history by school officials, they became visibly remorseful because they had many black friends. Another myth concerns their punishment, which was not a three-day suspension, but rather nine days at an alternative facility followed by two weeks of in-school suspension, Saturday detentions, attendance at Discipline Court, and evaluation by licensed mental-health professionals. The students who hung the nooses have not publicly come forward to give their version of events.

Myth 3: Nooses Were a Hate Crime. Although many believe the three white students should have been prosecuted for a hate crime for hanging the nooses, the incident did not meet the legal criteria for a federal hate crime. It also did not meet the standard for Louisiana's hate-crime statute, and though widely condemned by all officials, there was no crime to charge the youths with.

Myth 4: DA's Threat to Black Students. When District Attorney Reed Walters spoke to Jena High students at an assembly in September, he did not tell black students that he could make their life miserable with "the stroke of a pen." Instead, according to Walters, "two or three girls, white girls, were chit-chatting on their cellphones or playing with their cellphones right in the middle of my dissertation. I got a little irritated at them and said, 'Pay attention to me. I am right now having to deal with an aggravated rape case where I've got to decide whether the death penalty applies or not.' I said, 'Look, I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. With the stroke of a pen I can make your life miserable so I want you to call me before you do something stupid.'"

Mr. Walters had been called to the assembly by police, who had been at the school earlier that day dealing with some students who were causing disturbances. Teachers and students have confirmed Walters's version of events.

Myth 5: The Fair Barn Party Incident. On Dec. 1, 2006, a private party – not an all-white party as reported – was held at the local community center called the Fair Barn. Robert Bailey Jr., soon to be one of the Jena 6, came to the party with others seeking admittance.

When they were denied entrance by the renter of the facility, a white male named Justin Sloan (not a Jena High student) at the party attacked Bailey and hit him in the face with his fist. This is reported in witness statements to police, including the victim, Robert Bailey, Jr.

Months later, Bailey contended he was hit in the head with a beer bottle and required stitches. No medical records show this ever occurred. Mr. Sloan was prosecuted for simple battery, which according to Louisiana law, is the proper charge for hitting someone with a fist.

Myth 6: The "Gotta-Go" Grocery Incident. On Dec. 2, 2006, Bailey and two other black Jena High students were involved in an altercation at this local convenience store, stemming from the incident that occurred the night before. The three were accused by police of jumping a white man as he entered the store and stealing a shotgun from him. The two parties gave conflicting statements to police. However, two unrelated eye witnesses of the event gave statements that corresponded with that of the white male.

Myth 7: The Schoolyard Fight. The event on Dec. 4, 2006 was consistently labeled a "schoolyard fight." But witnesses described something much more horrific. Several black students, including those now known as the Jena 6, barricaded an exit to the school's gym as they lay in wait for Justin Barker to exit. (It remains unclear why Mr. Barker was specifically targeted.)

When Barker tried to leave through another exit, court testimony indicates, he was hit from behind by Mychal Bell. Multiple witnesses confirmed that Barker was immediately knocked unconscious and lay on the floor defenseless as several other black students joined together to kick and stomp him, with most of the blows striking his head. Police speculate that the motivation for the attack was related to the racially charged fights that had occurred during the previous weekend.

Myth 8: The Attack Is Linked to the Nooses. Nowhere in any of the evidence, including statements by witnesses and defendants, is there any reference to the noose incident that occurred three months prior. This was confirmed by the United States attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, Donald Washington, on numerous occasions.

Myth 9: Mychal Bell's All-White Jury. While it is true that Mychal Bell was convicted as an adult by an all-white jury in June (a conviction that was later overturned with his case sent to juvenile court), the jury selection process was completely legal and withstood an investigation by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Court officials insist that several black residents were summoned for jury duty, but did not appear.

Myth 10: Jena 6 as Model Youth. While some members were simply caught up in the moment, others had criminal records. Bell had at least four prior violent-crime arrests before the December attack, and was on probation during most of this year.

Myth 11: Jena Is One of the Most Racist Towns in America. Actually, Jena is a wonderful place to live for both whites and blacks. The media's distortion and outright lies concerning the case have given this rural Louisiana town a label it doesn't deserve.

Myth 12: Two Levels of Justice. Outside protesters were convinced that the prosecution of the Jena 6 was proof of a racially biased system of justice. But the US Justice Department's investigation found no evidence to support such a claim. In fact, the percentage of blacks and whites prosecuted matches the parish's population statistics.

These are just 12 of many myths that are portrayed as fact in the media concerning the Jena cases. (A more thorough review of all events can be found at www.thejenatimes.net (http://www.thejenatimes.net) – click on Chronological Order of Events.)

As with the Duke Lacrosse case, the truth about Jena will eventually be known. But the town of Jena isn't expecting any apologies from the media. They will probably never admit their error and have already moved on to the next "big" story. Meanwhile in Jena, residents are getting back to their regular routines, where friends are friends regardless of race. Just as it has been all along.

• Craig Franklin is assistant editor of The Jena Times.

[Kaji]

Sounds like cannibalism for the stories of old Jim Crow...

[RoxFontaine]

I always thought these kids were suspect. I always trust my instincts. I never supported these kids....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKC34rsLuqc