Comments on: More on the Jena 6

By: lolo

lolo — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 07:47:53 +0000

A beating is a beating….is a beating. I don’t condone for one second the nooses…..but, exactly how much time did they spend in the hospital for their hurt feelings? Why aren’t Al & Jesse defending every school shooter in the country…..because it’s apparently okay with them to use violence against someone who taunts you? According to this ruling that these kids get off…it’s okay for everyone who has been bullied about being too skinny, overweight, crooked teeth, gay, poor….or just plain different to beat the hell out of the person(s) doing the taunting. Wait…sorry….Jesse and Al are involved so it’s only okay for black skinny, overweight, gay, different people to beat the thell out of someone….my bad.

Way to go Al & Jesse….great role models.

By: Chriswl

Chriswl — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:06:52 +0000

Before jumping to spurious conclusions about the facts, consider this report from the AP:
Associated Press 9/22/07
“‘What happened, really?’
The story goes that a year ago, a black student asked at an assembly if he could sit in the shade of a live oak, which, the story goes, was labeled “the white tree” because only white students hung out there. The next day, three nooses dangled from the oak — code for “KKK” — the handiwork of three white students, who were suspended for just three days.
Much of that is disputed. What happened next is not: Two months later, an arsonist torched a wing of Jena High School. (The case remains unsolved.) Two fights between blacks and whites roiled the town that weekend, culminating in a school-yard brawl on Dec. 4 that led the district attorney to charge the Jena Six with attempted murder. The lethal weapon he cited to justify the charge: the boys’ sneakers.
In July, the first to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted after two hours of deliberations by an all-white jury on reduced charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit it.
(It was widely reported that Bell, now 17, was an honor student with no prior criminal record. Although he had a high grade-point average, he was, in fact, on probation for at least two counts of battery and a count of criminal damage to property. In any event, his conviction was overturned because an appeals court ruled he should not have been tried as an adult.)
There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.
Consider:
_The so-called “white tree” at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students “were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them,” according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.
_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish are African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, none showed up.”

It is easy to believe the facts we are fed, just like the reporter for the Christian Science Monitor that reported on the ‘Jena-6′ story. Unfortunately, you must have a firm grip on the facts before you can draw any worthwhile conclusions. While it looks in hindsight that the prosecutor overcharged, keep in mind that charging decisions are made after detailed investigation including interviews with witnesses at the school (since this was a very public beating). The media and those that stand to gain from the racial publicity like Al Sharpton @ Co. (remember the Tawana Brawley fiasco? How is it Sharpton has not been entirely discredited after that incident?) perpetuate the facts that are favorable to their race-war agenda. Also keep in mind that prosecutors sometimes charge the maximum that the facts will support in hopes of coercing a guilty plea to a lesser charge, knowing that while the facts support the higher charge, the outcome will most likely be conviction and/or plea to a lesser charge.

The bottom line is a beating is a beating, and a criminal act is a criminal act. We should not be making heroes of those that blatantly break the laws that we all must live by. It is appropriate to decry unfairness to minorities in our judical system, but it is not when we make heroes of our villians.

By: nk

nk — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:35:00 +0000

Maybe we should start hanging pictures of Black Egyptian Kings and Queens on your front porch.

There aren’t any.

By: Rod

Rod — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:32:44 +0000

For those of you who want to stay on the punishment of the Jena 6, what about the punishment of all of the unsolved lynchings and rapes and theft of property etc that Black people have endured?

Until you are ready to deal with that, how can I really listen to any of your comments.

I don’t think that there are many people anywhere that think the Jena 6 deserve no accountability, but neither do insensitive people who hang nooses on trees – and especially a tree that may have actually hung someone’s ancestor.

Maybe we should start hanging pictures of Black Egyptian Kings and Queens on your front porch.

It wouldn’t be thought of as a tasteless prank then – would it?

By: reine.de.tout

reine.de.tout — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:58:08 +0000

Yep. You happy now? You won.

By: Voice of Reason

Voice of Reason — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:50:15 +0000

“I don’t have a clue
Comment by reine.de.tout”

That about sums it up.

By: reine.de.tout

reine.de.tout — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:48:19 +0000

I don’t have a clue what point you’re trying to prove with your “statistics”. What in the world have those got to do with the FACTS of the Jena 6 case? Why are you so intent on defending a thug? That’s my point. Also, honestly – just wanted to yank your chain a little bit to see how riled up you would get. Seems to have worked. I’m not the one hurling insults under the guise of “discussion”.

By: Voice of Reason

Voice of Reason — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:06:28 +0000

Reine of confusion,

What difference does it make? The report captures it nicely. You can pull a Coulterism and change the subject on a technical point while avoiding the stark truth or you can quit being silly and learn something. Blacks, with roughly 15% of the population have twice as many hate crimes perpetrated against them as the next highest group – whites, with over 50% of the population.

By: reine.de.tout

reine.de.tout — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:50:38 +0000

Voice of Reason: I checked the report. It does not use “committed” vs. “reported”. You chose those words. They do not mean the same thing, and will not mean the same thing no matter how often you try to say they do. I’m amazed that a person as important and intelligent as yourself is confused about that.

By: Voice of Reason

Voice of Reason — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:58:55 +0000

Reine,

I don’t know what is confusing to you. The FBI or DOJ wrote the report. The classification is the same for both, meaning committed against.

I should have said reported committed against whites.

Happy now? I didn’t know we were studying for the bar exam.