I'm with you on that one. And I'm black. And something tells me that this is more like the OJ six rather than the Jena 6. This just gives an excuse for folks to pat themselves on the back for their supposed political correctness and then forget the whole thing.
Surely people aren't protesting because these six are being charged and tried for beating the hell out of a kid, right?
Yes they are - they aren't protesting the charges they want the kids freed.
There's no evidence that white kids put the nooses in the "white tree", it's just "conventional wisdom" that they must have. It's entirely possible that the nooses were placed by black kids or teachers to further heighten tensions.
There's still a great deal of prejudice and quasi-segregation in Louisiana, a state run for a century by Democrats. You can bet that all of the public officials involved are members in good standing of the Democratic Party. Tell me again why anybody listens to the Demobigots on race?
I spent 30 minutes on Google and am now up to speed on the Jena Six story. It was not difficult or horribly confusing for me to get a good idea of the time line and opposing viewpoints. Very few of the people who started this movement (and it was grassroots, not Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - they jumped on the bus after the heavy lifting had already been done) contend that there should be no consequences for the beating of Justin Barker. No, the outrage stems from the original charges of attempted murder and conspiracy for the beating, charges that were modified once the boys were being tried as adults rather than juveniles. When the DA is arguing that sneakers qualify as a deadly weapon, I think it's clear that there's a problem. Dismissing the case as unworthy without bothering to investigate the facts even a little is just cynical.
There seem to be legitimate questions about the way this was handled, not only the severity of the original charges, but the fact that some white kids supposedly beat up some black kids (albeit less severely) and got next to no punishment.
But to tell you the truth, I really don't know what to think about this because, thanks to an utter lack of media credibility on these kinds of stories, I have no idea what really happened. After the coverage of Katrina and the Duke "rape" case, it is obvious that the media is utterly incapable of reporting racially-charged stories like this one in a factual, non-hyperbolic fashion. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice....
Thanks, but I believe I'll hold my outrage this time until we know for sure what happened.
All anyone has to do is go and look at the newspaper from that little town to know the exact time line of it all. You will find that the editor of the paper has laid it all out. I can not agree with the charges that were brought about from this incident. At the same time I see no reason to beat someone like that as a gang. What has not been touched on is that teachers and others were prevented from getting to the kid during the beating.The other thing that is so disturbing is that the kids doing the beating have had plenty of time to be honest about this situation. What about the victim of the beating? I bet not many of you know that it is his last year in H.S. and he has quit school. So all the race baiters get is a pyrhic victory. These kids --- all of them get --- what?
Very few of the people who started this movement (and it was grassroots, not Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - they jumped on the bus after the heavy lifting had already been done) contend that there should be no consequences for the beating of Justin Barker.
2 words - bull and shit
Why are they being 'freed' since the charges have already been reduced and only 1 is incarcerated? with the rationale that 'too many blacks are already in jail'?
Mychal Bell has already been in jail for almost a year. They want him out until a proper trial can be arranged and a proper punishment, or the charges are dropped.
Let's remember, it's been confirmed by CNN that there were two incidents previous to the fight under scrutiny. One in which a young black man was attacked by a group of white men at a party, and one in which a young white man pulled a gun at a gas station on some black young men. None of these young white men were arrested. In fact, the young black men were arrested for wrestling the gun out of the man's hand in the second incident.
There's also nothing illogical about a protest over a particular incident standing as a symbol for nation-wide injustice. If you don't see that, then you wouldn't have been on board for a lot of important historic political movements.
This is such an utterly simple case it blows my mind people can't seem to grasp the injustice here.
Was a crime committed? Yes. Absolutely. Multiple crimes were committed.
Does that warrant second degree murder charges for the black participants and a round of handslaps for the white ones?
The situation: there's a tree in Jena where only white people are allowed to sit.
Black kids decide to sit there.
A noose is hung from the tree, reminding the black kids of their place.
This causes what I'd think of as a righteous anger, leading to a fight.
There's more, of course: the case of a black kid getting jumped by white kids, nothing happening to the white kids, the same black kid chasing one of his white assaulters-- who then pulls a shotgun.
The black kids wrest away the shot-gun-- and are charged with theft of the gun.
Is this getting any simpler for you?
The problem isn't the crimes committed, the problem is that the entire justice system, and the school system atop that, has pulled out all the stops on these black kids-- a systemic racism that any upright American, anyone who pretends to have a commitment to justice, should condemn.
My mind is blown by how many excuses people are willing to make and how much ignorance individuals are willing to show-- just because the injustice, in this case, doesn't seem to have much with "them."
There's also nothing illogical about a protest over a particular incident standing as a symbol for nation-wide injustice.
You'd be correct if you were talking about the failure of the judicial system to prevent recidivist violent criminals from leading racially motivated attacks against innocent victims.
Jib: Anybody, with the research skills of a modern day twelve year old, can find out the details of this case. The fact that you can't seem to be bothered to read more than one summation (and it's obvious that you haven't since you seem to be making the leap from noose hanging to black students (and how many? There is still no clear evidence of who or how many kids were involved in this final fight) beating up the white student as if it were the black students who escalated the situation into violence) says a lot.
And I think serving a year in jail, after a screwed up trial featuring a screwed up during and a screwed up judge IS sufficient time served for a school fight.
Meant to ad to the above: To be able to go "FREE" now.
And that's screwed up "jury" not "screwed up during"
D, I can appreciate that, but much of this seems to revolving around the 6 kids currently charged, not the larger injustices. And these aren't second degree murder charges anymore.
Anon-Or perhaps I should address you as Annon-You do a wonderful job of making assumptions, but you are completely wrong. I have read more than just the one summation. The link was to bring readers unfamiliar up to speed quickly, because for chunks of the country, this story is just making its way into their consciousness. And speaking of leaping, you seemed to have leaped to some incorrect conclusions as to what I said in this post.
Very nice article on this was done by Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star. That article can be found here http://www.kansascity.com/sports...ory/
284511.html
The DOJ and an "African American" investigator found no correlation between the noose tree (which was chopped down less then a week after the nooses appeared) and the beating of Barker. This was a federal prosecutor. He found no hate crime. One could argue that the hate crime was committed against Justin Barker, but that's not the point.
The point is that Mychal Bell had a prior charge of assault and was on probation. European Americans vouched for Mychal Bell to assure he would not do time on that charge.
Those same citizens (European American) stepped up for Bell once again in December of last year. Then, and only then did this troubled youth get support from the African American community.
Is the picture getting clearer for you anon?
Thanks for the additional info, Ched.
Anon, Anon2, bandit and leapoffaith - you don't appear to have read the link.
Jib: Though I think they're out of order to the narrative of events - and the order is important - I'll take your questions one by one.
First, the students were tried as adults; the specific charges don't allow for that under Louisiana law, and there's no precedent. The prosecutors showed bias by trying to charge the kids for a much greater crime than they comitted. Add to that the disparities in the town's practice of justice between black and white that Radley mentions, and you have a situation that cannot be born.
Furthermore, you have the Sharks taunting the Jets in the lunchroom after the Jets have suffered a beating; Mychal Bell, one of the Jena 6, was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit it - how can conspiracy be proven where it doesn't exist?
Second, the nooses carry far more weight for blacks in the South than you can imagine. Lynchings are not a thing of the distant past, and their message of capricious punishment for transgression of unspoken white-entitlement rules is clear, even if the punishment is now disappearance, drowning, beating, or burning one's house, instead of hanging.
Nooses in the South are a clear threat of violence and death for blacks. Are they against the law? No, though if they were anti-gay or anti-woman, the ACLU would be taking this up in a heartbeat.
You ask: if this is the case, and I believe it's a strong part of it, why wasn't there a protest earlier? Because it hadn't hit the national radar. It only began to boil a few short weeks ago when Mychal was convicted. He is the only defendent with a prior record.
To answer your next questions, the Jena 6 deserve equal justice. The precedent has been to give white kids lesser charges, acquittals, and negligible bail amounts. So the Jena 6 deserve to be given the same minor charges as the white kids, and the same acquittals, bail and token probation as the white kids.
Jena then has to decide if it wants that to be the justice they live by, or if they need to seek strong punitive action that matches their laws and is enacted equitably.
That's why people are marching in Jena, and if I could have been there with them, I would have been.
Regarding the Jason Whitlock/Kansas Star article, Whitlock says "The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker’s assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the “Jena Six” in reaction to Walters’ extreme charges of attempted murder." I couldn't disagree more. Otherwise, Whitlock gets the picture, big and small, on target, especially about community and family involvement.
Congrats on the Instalanche.
Links: Insty, Radley Balko's WaPo link, the Kansas City Star piece, and the Guardian, among a wash of everything else I've read and posted on.
tee bee, I can't agree that these kids deserve the same slaps on the wrists that the other kids did. That's how these things continue to escalate. That's not to excuse the slaps on the wrists that the other kids received, and that's also not to say that those inequities don't deserve scrutiny. None of us can do anything about those prior actions now, though. Now that there is awareness on this, it has to stop here, and it has to stop with these six kids who beat the hell out another kid. I wouldn't excuse this behavior if it were 6 Native American kids in Northern Wisconsin in a similar situation, and I'm not going the behavior of these kids, either.
Jib, I read it all --- every bit. It is my personal opinion that race baiters are at work in a place that does not need them. Call me a fool but I believe this town can heal itself. I am concerned about ALL of the kids in this situation. Maybe that is a stupid belief. I don't know.
I think by insisting on a harsher punishment, however condoned by local law, is inappropriate. It is the greater damage because it supports disparity in justice.
If they decide to review appropriate punishment for juvenile violence, then enact any resulting changes in law equitably, fine. That should be the starting point. We're still in the discovery phase, so I can't support disparate charges or sentences.
And leap, the Al Sharptons of the world didn't show up until the August conviction of Mychal Bell. That may have resulted in pressure on the review courts to overturn the conviction (which was illegal), but one can hardly lay the prior year of racist charges, trials and convictions at the feet of any outside agitators.
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