More Jena 6: “He’s Locked up Again”
[Guest post by DRJ]
Mychal Bell, one of the “Jena 6”, has been jailed again in connection with prior unrelated charges.
From the AP as reported in the Houston Chronicle:
“A teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy is back in jail after a judge sentenced him on charges that were pending before the attack that put him in the national spotlight, his attorney said Thursday.
Mychal Bell, who along with five other black teenagers had been accused of beating a white classmate, went to juvenile court Thursday expecting another routine hearing, said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell’s attorneys. Instead, after a six-hour hearing, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced him to 18 months on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said. He had been hit with those charges before the Dec. 4 attack on classmate Justin Barker.
“He’s locked up again,” Marcus Jones said of his 17-year-old son. “No bail has been set or nothing. He’s a young man who’s been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it.”
The report also includes these quotes from Al Sharpton and Bell’s father:
“We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment,” said Sharpton, who was instrumental in organizing the protest held on Sept. 20, the day Bell was originally supposed to be sentenced in the case. Bell’s parents were also ordered to pay all court costs and witness costs, Sharpton said.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Jones said. “I don’t know how we’re going to pay for any of this. I don’t know how we’re going to get through this.”
Expecting “another routine hearing,” Bell instead had a 6-hour hearing that ended up with him going to jail. Depending on how you view this case, either he was treated unfairly or he and his parents are learning the hard way about consequences.
— DRJ
Cruel and unusual punishment, Al? I guess it is a matter of perspective. I mean, incitement to riot got you fame, simple battery and destruction of property got a straight-A future rocket scientist 18 months. I can see your point.
/must I?
the friendly grizzly (153cea) — 10/12/2007 @ 1:06 amThey usually don’t set bail when you’re sentenced upon conviction. Sorry dude.
Usually that’s how it works… I had to pay the court costs on my DUI here in Illinois.
And since Bell’s a minor, it goes to his parents to pay for it. What got him a pass on the ‘Jena 6’ stuff is boning his folks.
Maybe they should have attempted to raise someone who isn’t a preditory criminal…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 5:10 amThe sad thing about the Jena episode is how the really important things go under the radar yet again.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 5:33 amSome of the more legitimate incidents prior to Jena such as the 14 year old black girl in Texas given seven years for shoving a white teacher were part of the reason the march was formed. It was NOT the Jena six in and by itself. People don’t want to get concerned about legitimate cases of racial bias as mentioned.
In the rush to say “I told you so” about Bell, the fact that noose incidents have occurred in more than six states since then is conveniently overlooked. At the knee jerk reaction site (sometimes referred to as hotair) the consensus is that a black person, possibly even the professor are the culprit.
Apparently, this was a violation of probation proceeding. Bell was on probation for the two counts of battery and two counts of damage to property for which he was sentenced. The State used the new attack on Justin Baker to “violate” him. The details are sketchy because of the confidentiality of juvenile court proceedings but it sounds reasonable to me.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 5:40 amI hope “expecting another routine hearing” is the reporter’s spin and not the attorney’s or the defendant’s. From a legal point of view a violation of probation petition is no joke. The standard of proof can be preponderance of the evidence and the State’s chief witness is the same probation department which recommended probation the first time. From a broader perspective, it would be sad if the defendant thought the court was toothless and he could walk in and walk back out no matter what he had done.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 5:47 amThat’s what it sounded like to me too, nk.
4 hours is short for most anything, ESPECIALLY a fresh trial. It had to be a revocation hearing of some kind.
And they could have violated him on nearly anything. He just got nailed for a biggie…
I hope this is just the start of a long long time in prison for this guy.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 5:50 amThis is just until age of majority and I hope that youth facilities in Louisiana are more like schools than prisons. If they are, it may be the best thing that happened to him. It may save his life and his future. Did you see the picture that accompanied the article DRJ linked to?
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 5:56 amAt the knee jerk reaction site (sometimes referred to as hotair) the consensus is that a black person, possibly even the professor are the culprit.
rhodeymark (4f2403) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:03 amTry to be a little fair at least, huh? That so-called consensus is actually a reaction to the news that the University, which has presumably reviewed the CCTV security tapes, refuses to share them with law enforcement w/o a warrant. The fact that they might be embarrassing is one proffered hypothesis for this decision. Remember the teacher who defaced her own car? It happens.
I did, nk.
I guess I don’t see how living in a trailor park even remotely excuses or explains the behavior that led to him getting 18 months.
He strikes me (with his fairly long criminal record – remember he’s still a minor) as the sort who is just prone to being a criminal.
And that sort is best locked up.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:08 amRhodeymark,
And the HA folks completely ignored the fact that these incidents have happened multiple times since Jena in several states.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:12 amIf one is a hoax it negates the others?
I’m no bleeding heart liberal, Scott. At least not much. And he’s only a teenager. He might get turned around. And his odds will be better away from there.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:22 amBTW: If I can get the link through, here is the article where I got my information in comment #4.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:27 amVoR
As a HA person (though I nearly never go there, due to what can only be described as “lazyness”), I guess I have to say something…
Yes, nooses show up all the time. Doesn’t make it right, doesn’t make it good.
I hate racism, in all it’s forms. It is absolutely counter to what I think this country is about.
But think about it this way: All these nooses in other parts of the country, yet where are Sharpton and Jackson? Why have they not shown up to march or speak?
Those who profit from exacerbating racial tension are ignoring the nooses as well.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:28 amI’m sorry… at least two of which are battery. And two counts of criminal destruction of property…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:29 amWell, I’m certainly no bleeding heart. And, as you may have noted by my posts, I’m for executions every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Yet, I do feel they have been heavy handed with this kid.
dave (dcf56d) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:30 amScott,
Your “But” is telling and a good example of where our state of race relations sits today. Too many people use the AL and Jesse card as a reason not to care or get involved with incidents that are truly racially motivated.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:36 amAl and Jesse are criticized roundly yet expected to solve true incidents. Don’t you see a bit of a quandary with that view? Do you REALLY want them to be the end all judges of these incidents?
Hmmm… Seems the comment that #14 was to modify never showed. I’ll type it here, then, with the correction…
I suppose I could agree, nk, were it not for his already extensive criminal record. At least two counts of battery, and two counts of criminal destruction of property.
My father spent a BUNCH of his young life as a ward of the state of Illinois (his mom had run off, and they were taken from an alcoholic father).
He didn’t become a criminal because he’s just not a criminal (well, he wasn’t then). He was then, in high school, raised by relatives, along with one of his brothers, and their three boys and daughter. They instilled in him an actual sense of right and wrong.
He grew up dirt poor, in bad housing, and he didn’t beat anyone up, he didn’t destroy other people’s property.
So I don’t accept that living in a bad ara, growing up poor, is what makes someone a violent criminal, which Bell obviously is.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:37 amNo VoR it doesn’t negate the others, but this one has brought in the FBI and DoJ and should stand as an excellent example of this behavior being treated seriously. So why the stonewall?
rhodeymark (6797b5) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:40 amI don’t expect Al or Jesse to solve anything, save the problem of “How do we get more airtime?”
They are race-baiters, and racists themselves. They fan flames until there is a crisis.
They don’t want to solve anything. That would remove the platform upon which they speak. If it won’t get them time infront of a camera, they don’t care.
I use them as an example. If these other incidents of noose-hangings aren’t important enuogh to get their attention, what does that mean?
And, statistically, 6 cases “since the Jena 6 case” is less impressive than you might think. It was, after all, in August of 2006…
A year later, in a country of our population, and just 6?
I’m not as convinced as you seem to be that such numbers point to an epidemic.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:42 amDon’t tell anybody, Scott, but I was a ward of the court for a short time too. However, I was not placed, I was allowed to remain in the custody of my parents because it was not their fault that I was sixteen with glands instead of brains. With their extraordinary help I managed to grow out of it … at about age 45.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:47 amAccording to
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/12/columbia.noose/index.html?iref=newssearch
“Levine said that although the entrance to the building is covered by security cameras, the hallway where the noose was found is not.”
The incident happened on Tuesday and they are reviewing the tapes already. Since the hallway wasn’t covered by the camera, the request for a subpoena seems a little more reasonable. Doesn’t seem like stonewalling.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:49 amScott,
I didn’t use the word epidemic, you did. But you do recall that much was made that the noose incident at Jena was “no big deal” and really had no bearing on the assault.
What is your threshold at which people should condemn these kind of things?
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:52 amDave,
Isn’t a little unfair to say “they have been heavy handed with this kid” when the records of his priors are sealed? They may have been terribly lenient. We don’t KNOW, do we?
I’d guess someone was way too lenient in the earlier parts of his life and my suspicion would fall on the person saying “he’s back in jail again,” no bail, etc. But sometimes even good discipline and parenting doesn’t prevent some kids from going bad.
Dan S (c77713) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:53 amVoR,
Statisticly? Somewhere around .01% is where I’ll start to notice…
That’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a good baseline.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 6:59 amI figured your wife would have been instrumental in beating that out of you. 🙂
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 7:00 amVOR – How does one gain your insight to determine what, using your words, are legitimate cases of racial bias or incidents that are truly racially motivated? Can you explain to us how you separate the wheat from the chaff in these incidents since it appears you claim to be able to do so? What special knowledge do others need to develop? Is there room for disagreement among “experts” such as yourself?
“People don’t want to get concerned about legitimate cases of racial bias as mentioned.”
“Too many people use the AL and Jesse card as a reason not to care or get involved with incidents that are truly racially motivated.”
daleyrocks (906622) — 10/12/2007 @ 7:07 amDon’t go giving her ideas. She reads this blog.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 7:08 amIf people don’t KNOW, they shouldn’t be demonizing this kid now, should they? But, they are. Why aren’t you chastising them? Judging by his original dispositions and without knowing more, I think it is most likely he got into a couple of fights. As to the vandalism, I have no idea. However, vandalism runs the gamut from destruction of property to writing on a bathroom wall with a magic marker.
As far as him being back in jail, it appears the current case was used as a probation violation and he was sentenced, therefore, no bail.
dave (dcf56d) — 10/12/2007 @ 7:23 amI’m pretty sure she had the idea of beating you long before I started posting here. 🙂
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 10/12/2007 @ 7:28 amDaleyrocks,
You are missing the point. It is not special knowledge. It is simply a matter of trying to be more observant of things happening around you.
Two people of the same race will not see some of the things that don’t necessarily concern them in day to day life. That is human nature and not race unique.
The only difference between me and the “average” couple is that I am in an interracial marriage. I am white and have no doubt that were it not for seeing what my wife and kids experience I would be largely oblivous to it. But I do see it, from the way my wife and kids are treated in school and in public and the way the tune changes once a school or public official deals with me.
White people get tired of seeing the sensationalized news about blacks who talk about racism for incidents that may not really be a racial incident. Particularly if the white person knows they are not a hateful person by nature. But these are the very people that can make the most difference in helping point out things that are wrong. The trick is to get past the “tiredness” , realize that there are people still living with 19th century attitudes, and take the time to reach out to educate them.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 7:32 amScott Jacobs wrote:
I’m sure it will be — but not the way we’d like it. Rather, he’ll be out in 18 months (if not less), commit another violent crime or three, and then start a series of prison time, followed by release, followed by another crime, followed by more time in the slammer.
Dana (3e4784) — 10/12/2007 @ 8:01 amScott #29,
I’ll have you know that my wife has the heart of an innocent child. I’ve seen it. It’s in a jar on her desk. (This is a joke, BTW.)
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 8:15 amOr, he may go to college, go to law school, become a member of the bar and the district atty. We just don’t KNOW.
dave (dcf56d) — 10/12/2007 @ 8:24 amVOR – I would say your situation gives you insight others may not have, but I would argue that merely reading wire service accounts of incidents scattered around the country should not give one the ability to automatically discern whether a situation was a truly racially biased case. That is how I have read your comments. Thank you for explaining.
daleyrocks (906622) — 10/12/2007 @ 8:28 amDaleyrocks,
Thanks for the reply. I agree that wire service accounts alone are not adequate to gauge the whole story. My wish is that more people would be aware of these stories and willing to demand follow up on the ones that turn out to be truly racially biased in nature.
Voice of Reason (7df17c) — 10/12/2007 @ 8:37 amVOR, from reading your posts here on various issues, you are the type who goes around life with a big chip on your shoulder. I wouldn’t take your word for a second about racist incidents against you or your family. You are the kind of twit who thinks everyone who cuts you off in traffic did it because the person next to you is black.
Around eight grade, someone taught me how to make a hangman’s noose and I must have made a dozen of them over the next years. It never occurred to me even once that they had anything to do with black people; I associated them with cowboys. But you, in your infinite wisdom, can spot a noose at fifty paces (or just read about it) and see the racism oozing from between the fibrous knots.
You see racism everywhere like a bereft lover sees the face of his lost love in every dirty window and every knotted bole. You just can’t let it go because you love it so much. Racism makes you feel like a special person –so tolerant and wise and surrounded by such bigoted fools. It is because of people like you that racism cannot die. Only by believing that everyone else is evil, can you believe yourself good.
Doc Rampage (ebfd7a) — 10/12/2007 @ 9:33 amDoc,
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 9:39 amYour post says much more about your chip on the shoulder than anything else. I’m not going to ask you to believe me and I really don’t care whether you do or not.
Racism will always be with us as long as there are people such as yourself who try to pretend it doesn’t exist in any form.
Doc Rampage,
I just couldn’t resist but
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22doc+rampage%22+site%3Apatterico.com+racism
shows you commenting on racism over 500 times. You are trying awfully hard to convince people the concept is a figment of their imagination.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 9:50 amDoc Rampage wrote:
Mrs McCarren’s seventh grade English class was so f’ing boring that I think I had made nooses on every single one of the room’s pull shade cords.
Dana (3e4784) — 10/12/2007 @ 10:17 amHuge 🙂
Voice, perhaps a similar search would show 49 comments from you — and isn’t Dr R a longer time commenter here?
There are certainly racists out there, but there are also a whole lot of people heavily invested in finding racism in everything, because they somehow think it adds strength to their political positions.
Dana (3e4784) — 10/12/2007 @ 10:22 amDana,
Considering that I am not trying to strengthen a political position your comment is curious. I am not heavily invested in finding racism in everything but neither am I on a mission to claim that racism doesn’t exist any longer.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 10:38 amIf the country is to heal the racial divide it is incumbent on those who are NOT racist to be willing to speak up when things are racist.
Until Jena there was not a national incidence of nooses being left on doors and buildings. Now there is. Is it racist? I don’t know. Should the acts themselves be examined? I think they should.
NK linked a better article on this subject in his comment #12 (Thanks, NK). The article includes a quote from “one of [Mychal Bell’s] attorneys.” I don’t think it’s common in probation revocation cases to have multiple public defenders for one defendant. So unless Mychal Bell has been given special treatment by the public defender’s office or the public defender’s office is particularly well-funded in Jena, Louisiana, (which I doubt), Bell may have privately-retained attorneys. Maybe they are doing it pro bono given the Jena 6 incident but, if not, that’s interesting.
DRJ (74c23b) — 10/12/2007 @ 10:46 amDid he have multiple attys on the record? Or, were there just multiple public defenders in the courtroom? Nothing unusual in that due to the notoriety of the case. I wonder how many DAs were present.
dave (dcf56d) — 10/12/2007 @ 10:53 amThank you, DRJ. There is a lot about this case that is speculative because of the sealed proceedings.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 10:57 amDave #43,
I know what you mean. In just about every other case anybody could ask to examine the court file. But not in juvenile court and even non-related spectators would be excluded.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 11:00 am“Depending on how you view this case, either he was treated unfairly or he and his parents are learning the hard way about consequences.”
I’d be more comfortable if this wasn’t the same judge who sentenced him for the assault last year.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 11:14 am#43
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 10/12/2007 @ 11:16 amThe NAACP established a legal defense fund for them. It looks like two attorneys are on the case according to the Chicago sun times.
Maybe the NAACP can establish a defense fund for this “teenage” victim of racism too.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 2:23 pmNK,
Two very different cases don’t you agree? For one the victim and the offender wre black. Secondly the article you cited mentioned nothing about him being a victim of any sort.
voiceofreason (7796e1) — 10/12/2007 @ 3:06 pmThe NAACP stood up a defense fund for Bell because his first court appointed lawyer offered no defense. They have the right to spend money in whatever way they see fit. You could create a NAAWP and do the same if you so desired.
Someone had mentioned something about the number of attorneys for Bell – that was why I posted that comment.
VOR,
I don’t know. We cruise along talking about the law and about giving teenagers a chance to turn their lives around and then a case like the one I linked comes along like a bucket of ice water in our faces. There are kids who may be irredeemable.
As for the race part, I know that black people are even more disproportionately victims than they are perpetrators. I believe that in Chicago they are about 84% of the murder victims as one example.
And I apologize for using your NAACP as a foil but that’s all I did. I was not targeting you. I suppose I am targeting identity politics which take no regard of the merits or the horrifics of the case.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 3:28 pmnk: That was a cheap shot.
dave (ed6e98) — 10/12/2007 @ 3:29 pmThat should have been “your NAACP reference as a foil”.
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 3:29 pmnk: That was a cheap shot.
At whom? At VOR? Please see my comment #50. At predatory teenage monsters? At the race-hustling, poverty-pimping industry which will rise up to defend him? At Roper v. Simmons which will save him from the death penalty?
nk (6e4f93) — 10/12/2007 @ 3:35 pmVOR #47,
Thanks for the information. Maybe now the parents can use the money they saved on paying an attorney to pay their son’s court costs and fees.
NK #48,
There are no words for that crime.
DRJ (74c23b) — 10/12/2007 @ 3:48 pmFolks – We have been round and round with VOR before. Simply not agreeing with his position on an issue is enough to get you branded as a racist. You folks have been quite nice and concilitory towards him. I will not. He has charged others with being racist with no substantiation, other than not agreeing with his policy positions. His casual use of the term, and his ability to see racism where others cannot, diminish actual racism, much in the way the poverty and race pimps like Jesse and Al do.
JD (864bd2) — 10/12/2007 @ 3:54 pmnk: You typed faster than me. And it was still a cheap shot.
dave (ed6e98) — 10/12/2007 @ 4:00 pmIs cheap shot used in the manner the Leftist use the word smear, which is now defined as telling the truth about a Leftist?
JD (864bd2) — 10/12/2007 @ 4:12 pmHow mighty white of you, just look at the history of this country, take a real close look and white history, they rapped, in slaved, killed, and destroyed most civilzations they have touched (speaking of their fore-fathers).The same blood the flowed in the father’s are in them too, did we get justice then, did they try to understand the rights of other’s then, did they practice compasion then, then why do we expect it now, wake up my people, we need to take a step back before we move foward, we need small victories we need to claim our neighborhood store’s back, I dont care what race, we need to make people understand always bet on black, lets go into these stores and tell them if you want to do business in our community you have to pay a price, we need home’s fixed up, playground’s built, let’s make these neighborhood store’s pay for this, lets get the nation of islam to stand in front of these store’s and boycott them, and I bet these people would start taking us serious.
B.r TRTH (53ec15) — 10/12/2007 @ 9:23 pmNK,
Thanks for the reply. I guess there are some for whom there is no hope. In my hometown a crime very similar to the one you linked to happened to an elderly lady in our church. Horrible crime for a small town and tough on the congregation. In that instance the killer and her were both white. It never made the national news but was just as tragic and horrific.
voiceofreason (7796e1) — 10/12/2007 @ 9:25 pmDRJ,
Not to quibble too much but you miss the point about the attorneys. The parents couldn’t afford to pay, period.
voiceofreason (7796e1) — 10/12/2007 @ 9:32 pmConsidering that the judge is the same one from the earlier case who was overturned, it seems a little convenient that he is sentencing him for something that happened before the assault case.
The NAACP got involved because the court appointed attorney offered zero defense in the original proceedings. They did it because they felt an injustice had been done. Just as Barry Scheck does with the Innocence Project, we should welcome groups who are willing to fund defenses for those who don’t have the means to get top notch representation.
VOR, I’m on Patterico’s side bar. Every hit on his site with the word “racism” is also going to have the phrase “Doc Rampage”.
And I take back what I said about how you have to find evil in everyone else to make yourself feel good, because you don’t even think that racism is a big deal. To you it’s just a convenient sin to beat others over the head with like mean-spirited little old ladies of times past used drinking: “Ooh! You nasty little racist you!”
If you really took racism seriously and really understood what a horrible thing it is then you wouldn’t throw the word around like a casual insult; you wouldn’t accuse someone of something so bad without evidence to back it up. And if you really understood how bad racism is, then you wouldn’t be giving a pass to blatant racists like Sharpton and Jackson.
Doc Rampage (ebfd7a) — 10/13/2007 @ 12:30 amA lot has been made about Mychal Bell’s attorney calling no witnesses at the original trial, but who was he supposed to call? The victim he kicked in the head? The witnesses who saw Bell do it? The emergency room doctor who treated Justin Barker?
Sometimes, criminal defense attorneys can’t “put on a defense” because they don’t have one. Often times, defendants won’t follow the advice of their court-appointed attorneys to accept plea offers because the defendants don’t trust them. The best these attorneys can hope for is to create reasonable doubt during cross-examination of state witnesses.
lc (1401be) — 10/13/2007 @ 1:24 amDoc Rampage,
You should learn how to use google before making silly statements. Your name appears 9420 times in the context you described.
I can’t change the fact that you get obsessive every time you read the names Sharpton and Jackson. But you do. You only look for racism in black people to validate some kind of bitterness that comes from within you. Lynching could come back into vogue and you would only care if Jackson marched against it.
So you will understand that I don’t buy your BS.
voiceofreason (7796e1) — 10/13/2007 @ 2:52 amLC,
Why would lawyers take up a case in which their review of the court transcripts showed the attorney had put on a sufficient defense? The NAACP doesn’t jump into every single case involving a black person.
voiceofreason (7796e1) — 10/13/2007 @ 2:56 amVOR, I don’t know what the strategy of the NAACP attorneys are. The main one seems to be is that Mychal Bell was treated in too heavy-handed a way.
The only criticism I’ve heard about Bell’s original attorney so far is that he put on no witnesses. That’s not unusual in a criminal case.
lc (1401be) — 10/13/2007 @ 3:07 amLc,
I found this while googling. While the accuracy is not verifiable it at least shows some of the claims made about the case and why some felt the defense attorney didn’t do a very good job.
http://truthfighterstv.com/main/partisan-witnesses-in-jena-6-saga/
A better link for one of the more comprehensive reporting on the case as well as copies of witness statements is
voiceofreason (7796e1) — 10/13/2007 @ 3:48 amhttp://pursuingholiness.com/
VOR, I read your links, but I’m not convinced. Inconsistent witness statements are dealt with in effective cross-examination and the defense closing statement. Without the transcripts, we don’t know what happened.
Hanging nooses is bad. I don’t believe it was a high school prank. The white students who did it are hateful and despicable. But having your feelings hurt three months before is not a defense for an assault.
As far as some of the witnesses being friends with Justin Barker, so what? Usually, it’s defendants who choose who they commit their crimes in front of.
lc (1401be) — 10/13/2007 @ 4:27 amVoice of Reason (oh, the irony!), Doc Rampage is correct and you are incorrect on how his name shows up in that Google search on racism that you linked. (To further demonstrate the point, “Best of the Web”, which is not a commenter’s moniker here but which appears on Patterico’s blogroll gets about 528 hits.)
The correct Google search for Doc Rampage returns 31 results.
You may now commence backpedalling on how this search isn’t really important and doesn’t mean anything.
Shad (ed8abc) — 10/13/2007 @ 4:50 amLc,
I’m only showing you the things that were claimed and possible reasons the NAACP may have felt it should assist. The issue of who the witnesses were was not the only claim being made.
voiceofreason (c62dd5) — 10/13/2007 @ 6:23 amThose readers not in S Calif may not know that Sharpton has jumped into a new controversy this week called the Palmdale 4. At this point, it appears to be another Tawana Brawley type case. I will post an article this weekend.
fouse, gary c (33b5ba) — 10/13/2007 @ 9:02 amre: Palmdale 4. Did you read that the girl’s doctor said her wrist wasn’t broken?
Palmdale
dsf (55926e) — 10/13/2007 @ 11:11 amAl Sharpton and the “Palmdale 4”
Al Sharpton has inserted himself into another racial controversy this week, this time in the community of Palmdale, located outside of Los Angeles. The case, which involves a disturbance at a Palmdale high school that involved four black students and a campus security guard, is threatening to exacerbate racial tensions in this small community with a growing African-American population. Los Angeles black civil rights leaders have jumped into the fray bringing in Al Sharpton in the process. However, as the investigation into the incident unfolds, this appears to have the earmarks of a Tawana Brawley-type hoax.
These are the details as we know them to date: On September 18, Pleajhai Mervin, 15, dropped a cake on the on the floor of the Knight High School lunch area and refused to pick it up when requested by campus security guards. (Cakes, balloons and other party items are not allowed on campus.) According to numerous witnesses, the girl became increasingly belligerent, yelling and swearing as the guards repeated their request over 20 times. Finally, one guard placed the girl in a wrist lock pinning her over a table to control her. At this point, another student, Joshua Lockett, 14, began recording the scene with a video camera, which are not allowed on campus and which he refused to hand over when asked. In the process, he was restrained by other security personnel and pinned to the ground. At this point, Lockett’s sister, Kenngela Lockett, jumped on the back of one of the guards and began hitting him on the back. Eventually, deputies arrived at the scene and arrested the three students. Subsequently, Mervin’s mother, Letrisha Majors, having been notified of the incident arrived at the school and was arrested for hitting three persons, the school principal, vice-principal and a security guard.
In the wake of the incident, black civil rights leaders in Los Angeles have become involved in the controversy charging the school and authorities with brutality and racism over the incident. This week, Najee Ali, an activist who is executive director of Project Islamic Hope, enlisted Al Sharpton, who happened to be in LA on unrelated business to participate. Sharpton and Ali then held a news conference on Wilshire Blvd in LA to protest the incident and announce a larger demonstration to be held in Palmdale on November 19 outside of the Antelope Valley Courthouse. Also present with Sharpton were Majors and Mervin, who had her right arm in a sling. According to Sharpton, Mervin’s arm was broken. (Both Mervin and Kenngela Lockett have claimed that their wrists were broken.)
On October 11, about 60 protestors gathered in front of the above courthouse, chanting and holding up signs that read, “No justice-no peace”. They demanded the firing and prosecution of the guard who had restrained Mervin. The previous evening, Charles Steele Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, had stated that the protestors would “raise hell and go to jail”. (Valley Press article by Amira Seyoum dated 10-12-07). Nonetheless, no violence broke out during the demonstration.
In the midst of this controversy, the LA Times has written a series of articles, based largely on statements from members of Palmdale’s black community who say the incident is part of a pattern of discrimination in the Palmdale area. Comparisons have been made to the Jena 6 case in Louisiana. The Times’ theme seems to be that the students were “victims”, and that the school and local community were habitually too quick to discipline black students in many cases causing black students to end up with arrest records. In one article, black parents described school principal, Susan Mc Dougal as “dismissive and rude”. (LA Times article by Ann Simmons,10-11-07).
Yet, other inquiries are pointing to a different conclusion. This week, when KFI’s talk-jocks, John and Ken, began discussing the allegations made against the security guard, they received numerous calls from employees and families from Knight High School. According to their accounts, Mervin was completely out of control, and that the guard had exercised a great amount of patience until the point that it was necessary to restrain her.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Department, after interviewing witnesses and viewing video of the incident have determined that the action of the guards was not excessive, and that appropriate measures were used. (Valley Press article by Veronica Rocha, 10-12-07)
In addition, deputies who had custody of Mervin and Kenngela Lockett stated that they had no injuries, showed no signs of pain and declined going to a hospital. (Rocha) Upon being released, both signed their release forms with no difficulty.
Finally, ABC News reporter Leo Stallworth (himself an African-American) spoke on the phone with Mervin’s doctor (with the permission of Mervin’s mother) who informed him that during his examination of the girl, there was no injury to her wrist.
Last night, KFI talk show host John Ziegler spoke on the phone with Najee Ali during Ziegler’s show. When confronted with the fact that there were no injuries, Ali tried to switch the theme to “emotional damage”. When asked about the fact that an African-American reporter (Stallworth) was debunking the charges of injury, Ali dismissed Stallworth as an African-American by comparing him to Condoleeza Rice and other black conservative figures.
So that is where we stand today. It remains to be seen if Sharpton and other black activists continue to push this case, or if they will drop it like a hot potato. Unfortunately, as it stands now, we have another racial controversy that threatens to further divide whites and blacks in a part of the country (greater LA) that is already badly divided. Al Sharpton, in his brief LA appearnce this week, has already fanned the flames by essentially convicting the guard who restrained Mervin. This is taking on the appearance of Tawana Brawley all over again (although in the Brawley case, there was no underlying incident to begin with). Here, there was clearly an incident, but as cooler heads prevail, it looks more and more that the three youths and the mother were guilty of creating a disturbance and assault which justified the actions of the school guards.
We will have to wait and see if Sharpton returns to California to lead more demonstrations.
gary fouse
fouse, gary c (33b5ba) — 10/13/2007 @ 11:53 amfousesquawk
Not until you learn to use full stops more often…
And check your grammar.
And BTW, telling local businesses that if they want to be in your area they have to pay money to fix things up – is extortion.
How about you pull yourselves up by your bootstraps like Americans should, and do it yourself.
In New Orleans, the black communities continue to struggle. The Korean population has almost completely rebuild it’s area, with far less federal money than the other areas have recieved. Care to guss why?
It’s because they just rolled up their sleves and got to it.
You do not value what you do not work for. If you are given pristine areas, they will fall to ruin. If you work to build a pristine area, it will remain pristine.
Scott Jacobs (a1de9d) — 10/13/2007 @ 10:53 pm