More on the Jena 6
So how bad was that beating in Jena? Pretty bad. This is an old article, but it has more detail than anything else I’ve seen yet:
Investigators from the LaSalle Parish Sheriff’s Office have gathered statements from more than 40 people — a number of them students — who told investigators they saw everything that happened. Many of these statements were included in court documents.
“When I heard a black boy say something to Justin, I turned my head and I saw somebody hit Justin,” one student wrote in a statement. “He fell in between the gym door and the concrete barricade. I saw Robert Bailey kneel down and punch Justin in the head. … Then Carwin Jones kicked him in the head. … Theo Shaw tried to kick him so I pushed Theo Shaw down. I also saw Mychal Bell standing over him.”
Phrases like “stomped him badly,” “stepped on his face,” “knocked out cold on the ground,” and “slammed his head on the concrete beam” were used by the students in their statements.
Free the Jena 6!
P.S. I read a lot about how the victim went to a “party” afterwards. Here’s more on that:
Barker was discharged about 2½ hours after being admitted to the ER. Later that night, he attended a ring ceremony at the school, where he was presented his class ring by his parents, something Kelli Barker said her son really wanted to be a part of, even though he was still in pain.
“All that keeps being said is that he was just in the hospital for a little bit and not really hurt,” Kelli Barker said of Justin. “I thank God he wasn’t hurt more than he was. But we have medical bills to show that he really was hurt.”
According to court documents, the initial trip to the emergency room cost $5,467.
P.P.S. I keep reading unverified reports that more than one of the suspects has a criminal record. I have yet to see any proof, but I will tell you frankly that it would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that individuals who participate in a brutal group beating like this have gotten in trouble before. I will follow up on this and see if I can get any verification.
Last Spring, I was in a car wreck in which I was knocked unconscious for 5 minutes and suffered a broken collarbone, cuts, scrapes and sprains. Except for the broken collarbone, which healed without complication, my injuries were probably similar to the Jena 6 victim’s injuries. Like him, the hospital gave me a complete workup (CTscan, Xrays, etc.), charged me around $6,000.00, and sent me home less than 4 hours after I arrived.
It’s been almost 6 months since that happened and I’m still on part-time medical leave solely because of complications from the concussion and trauma, including a trauma-induced muscular disorder that I will probably have for the rest of my life. My doctor also told me that I have an increased risk for bleeding in the brain.
I’m obviously biased but you don’t have to convince me that these were potentially serious injuries.
DRJ (ec59b5) — 9/24/2007 @ 7:48 pmhere’s a link which has a short blurb at the very very end about Bell’s priors. not much info though
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/14/jena.six/index.html
chas (ace24c) — 9/24/2007 @ 7:52 pmJason Whitlock with the Kansas City Star has more facts than I have read anywhere else as well as a genuine sorrow for what has happened to the accused. This is very worth reading
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/284511.html
Much has been written about Bell’s trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell’s public defender was black.
It’s almost never mentioned that Bell’s absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son’s life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges. At a bond hearing in August, Bell’s father and a parade of local ministers promised a judge that they would supervise Bell if he was released from prison.
…..
But the kids responsible for Barker’s beating deserve to be punished. The prosecutor needed to be challenged on his excessive charges. And we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once they’re in harm’s way.
I’ve been the spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City for six years. Getting black men to volunteer to mentor for just two hours a week to the more than 100 black boys on a waiting list is a yearly crisis. It’s a nationwide crisis for the organization. In Kansas City, we’re lucky if we get 20 black Big Brothers a year.
You don’t want to see any more “Jena Six” cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law.
red (9e9332) — 9/24/2007 @ 7:55 pmJason Whitlock’s column is the most insightful commentary on the Jena 6 that I have read. Too bad he is excoriated by his community for holding views like his.
JD (c3bb88) — 9/24/2007 @ 8:18 pmGive Mark Levine a call. The guest he had on his radio show today (9/24/07) cited priors of at least one of the assailants.
USCitizen (dfd52b) — 9/24/2007 @ 8:46 pmDRJ,
The article stated:
//Justin Barker was taken by ambulance to LaSalle General Hospital’s emergency room, arriving at 12:25 p.m., according to court documents. A report from the ambulance company stated Barker “denies any pain other than his eye.”
Once in the emergency room, Barker told medical personnel that he had been “jumped by 15 guys” and was unsure of what he had been hit with, according to the emergency physician’s record in the court file. The record noted an injury to Barker’s right eye requiring follow-up medical attention and injuries to his face, ears and hand.
A Computed Tomography scan of Barker’s brain showed no abnormalities, but there were reports of him losing consciousness during the attack, according to hospital records.
Barker was discharged about 2½ hours after being admitted to the ER. Later that night, he attended a ring ceremony at the school, where he was presented his class ring by his parents, something Kelli Barker said her son really wanted to be a part of, even though he was still in pain.
“All that keeps being said is that he was just in the hospital for a little bit and not really hurt,” Kelli Barker said of Justin. “I thank God he wasn’t hurt more than he was. But we have medical bills to show that he really was hurt.”//
15 guys turned into six, he initially said only his eye was hurt, and there were “reports” he may have been unconscious.
In my opinion there is no way to compare your injuries with his. Unless you both were hit in the same spot and with the same amount of force, it really is difficult to make that kind of comparison.
The student statements are iffy at best. Stomped in the face? Did you see any footprints in the pictures? Knocked out cold? He was talking to the EMTs. Stomped him badly but no injuries to his torso or legs?
If we are going to apply fairness and objectivity to the “Jena 6” let’s also apply it to the claims of the “Jena 1″…..
voiceofreason (0354c1) — 9/24/2007 @ 8:57 pmvor – How about this? If this person was not hurt very badly, you should be first in line to volunteer to play his role in a re-enactment. Since he was not hurt, you are not allowed to lose consciousness, grunt, moan, or cry out in pain when you are struck in the back of the head, stomped by multiple people, and have your face smashed into the concrete while unconscious.
JD (c3bb88) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:05 pmVOR,
It wasn’t until 4 weeks after my wreck that I even realized I had passed out, when my mind finally cleared enough to realize that my first recollection was hearing the ambulance arrive 5 minutes after the accident. In the ER, I assured everyone I had not passed out. Furthermore, I didn’t hurt at all until 2 days after the wreck.
The brain and the body do funny things, VOR.
DRJ (ec59b5) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:08 pmVOR,
How dare the victim not have counted his assailants accurately!
Patterico (2a8eaa) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:10 pmDRJ,
We will have to agree to disagree. I think it is a weak comparison. It has been nine months since the beating and no complications remotely similar to yours have occurred.
voiceofreason (0354c1) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:15 pmPatterico,
voiceofreason (0354c1) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:18 pmI am not defending the people who attacked him. But it is fair to examine the statements made by him and others.
If that is off limits just say so and I’ll be quiet.
I’m fine with agreeing to disagree but I wasn’t trying to convince you he had the same outcome I have. My point was that the potential was there.
DRJ (ec59b5) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:19 pmThose reports, especially on the date of the loss, are notoriously inaccurate. Ask any plaintiff attorney whose client was treated and released at the ER with no objective injuries, and then starts chiropractic treatment for the next couple years. Generally, they do a good job of a narrative of the genesis of the injury and the nature of treatment rendered. Outside of that, it is usually far too early to judge the exact nature and extent of the injury incurred.
JD (c3bb88) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:27 pmIf that is off limits just say so and I’ll be quiet.
Nothing is “off limits” here. I just don’t think your argument amounts to much.
Patterico (2a8eaa) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:46 pmThere is more detail in this AP article than I’ve seen before, although not much about criminal records.
DRJ (ec59b5) — 9/24/2007 @ 9:54 pmVOR:
Let us discount those disinterested witnesses who state that six individuals attacked one person with no apparent provacation. It should be clearly understaood that their statements are without merit according to your informed view.
One wonders how the black community would have acted if six whites had attacked one black. Has anyone heard of the Federal Government using a hate crimes statute on this one? Its amazing the way they acted during Rodney Kings trial, especially so if anyone views the entire video instead of thetruncated one often shown by the MSM.
I would never consider six to one a fair fight nor justified under most circumstances.
Thomas Jackson (bf83e0) — 9/24/2007 @ 10:41 pmRobert Bailey Jr., one of the Jena 6, was charged with aggravated battery and theft after he and two friends wrestled a shotgun away from a white guy who pointed it at them at a convenience store.
alphie (99bc18) — 9/24/2007 @ 10:50 pmThieves and Parasites–Thieves and Parasites. Thank you liberals….
TheManTheMyth (9a7d6a) — 9/25/2007 @ 12:41 amThomas Jackson,
1. Witness accounts are notoriously inaccurate. That is quite different from “being without merit”.
2. There were over 1000 cases of whites reporting hate crimes in 2004. There were over 2000 crimes committed against blacks in the same year.
3. Look at
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp
and you will see that Black hate groups are far outnumbered by white ones.
4. As to your what if question about what would “they” do
take a look at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296429,00.html
and then explain to me where the outrage is from the white community that something like this happened in the year 2007. Or better yet, where were the Jackson and Sharpton?
5. According to some accounts the Bell kid’s previous assaults were against blacks and the typical hand slap was meted out, some think because he was a star football player, some because the local authorities didn’t give black on black crime much priority and unless committed against a white person had minimal consequences.
And really, that is the crux of this. Most people wouldn’t care one whit about this case, the white victim or the community if Revs Jackson and Sharpton hadn’t formed a protest.
read http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0925/p09s01-coop.html
voiceofreason (0354c1) — 9/25/2007 @ 1:00 amfor an interesting take on the whole Jena episode.
link for hate crime stats
voiceofreason (0354c1) — 9/25/2007 @ 1:01 amhttp://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2004/hctable1.htm
What are you suggesting here, vor? The trash that did this has been collected and will be dealt with accordingly. What is it you expect people to say about it? I’m not particularly outraged, but I am thoroughly disgusted. There’s really nothing to be outraged about, as there is no ongoing injustice. It’s an awful crime. Those responsible are going to pay for it. The victim is on the mend.
What more do you suppose should be said about it?
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 5:30 amThis link is a story by the Shreveport Times on why bond was originally denied to Mychal Bell:
Four priors – All violent crimes
I assume that the reason there are not more details is because they were all tried as juvenile and may be sealed. The only reason they are known at all is because they were presented to the court as reasons why bond should be denied.
As for being unable to county the number of your assailants, could not a reasonable person conclude that there may have been others gathered around who did not actually strike blows, but being beaten (and from behind no less) may limit one’s ability to accurately account for who was a spectator and who was a participant?
w3 (87a727) — 9/25/2007 @ 5:39 amAnd the kid who caught a beating at Jena for the crime of being white? He’s not in there, nor will he be.
What is in there? 3475 victims of anti-black hate crime. Assuming 36 million blacks in America (a low estimate), that makes for an incidence rate of slightly less than .ooo1%
While that’s still .0001% too many, you seem to be asserting that this is a widespread problem. Do you think it is? And if you’re concerned about a blind eye being turned to black on black crime, what do you think about the rate of such in our Chocolate City, New Orleans? What do you think of this?
Do you think the problem could be dead ends and not blind eyes?
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 5:44 am[…] Patterico continues to probe the Jena 6. Posted in: Race Hustlers Send to a Friend Printer Friendly comments (3) trackbacks (0) […]
Michelle Malkin » Heather Mac Donald on the Jena 6 (41113f) — 9/25/2007 @ 5:49 amI remember that, and I also remember that someone kept blogging even though she should have stayed the hell asleep in bed. 😉
I’m glad you’re getting better, though…
And good old Staunchie showed up! yay!
You leave out the fact that he pointed the shotgun at them because they were ROBBING THE STORE. Sorry, I’m not weeping they got charged with a crime…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 9/25/2007 @ 5:50 amScott,
The gun owner claims he ran to his pick up to get the gun after words between students were exchanged and he felt threatened. Unfortunately there are many biased reports on the “Gotta Go incident” where the gun owner is described as a white student (he was white, but an adult) and the black students become people who were minding their own business (witnesses say they were picking a fight) when a gun was pulled.
Nowhere have I read that the gun was brandished to fend off a robbery. Do you have a source for this claim?
w3 (87a727) — 9/25/2007 @ 6:04 amI also don’t see where he the gun was pointed at anyone, yet I do see that the white guy was fleeing when they caught up with him and took the gun.
It is, of course, not a crime to have a gun nor to let people know you have a gun, nor to draw a gun.
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 6:08 amSorry w3, I don’t…
But having worked the register at several convenience stores in my slightly younger days, I can assure you that “threatened” and “robbery” and really very similar. Often one is involved in the other.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 9/25/2007 @ 6:11 amScott,
You disappoint me. The incidents are all bad enough as they are are without having to manufacture claims, especially unsupported ones.
We already have, on the one side, Voice of “Reason” making wildly speculative assertions about the motives of police and prosecutors. Here you are on the other, bringing discredit to those of us who do not see how the charges facing these young men are an “injustice” and so your claims must be challenged.
The adult male from whom the gun was stolen was not being robbed when he attempted to brandish the weapon according to his own account. His story is that he went into the store as a customer and heard what he interpreted to be the boys plotting to jump him or someone who entered the store at the same time. Threatened, he ran to his truck to get his gun. Evidently he was justified in his fear as he was chased out of the store.
This is a link to the most emotionally detached telling of the Gotta Go incident I have found. I hope you find it instructive:
The Town Talk article on the Jena Six
w3 (87a727) — 9/25/2007 @ 7:29 amThat sounds suspiciously like a robbery.
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 9/25/2007 @ 7:41 amThis looks suspiciously like a moving of the goalposts.
w3 (87a727) — 9/25/2007 @ 7:52 amScott,
What exactly is “wildly speculative”?
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/25/2007 @ 8:08 amI was reading all of this and wondering who could be the ‘white’ Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. And it occured to me that whoever tried to take on the mantel as such, would be branded a racist. So let’s level the playing field no? From here on out can we add ‘Racist’ to Al Sharpton’s name?
paul from fl (7da085) — 9/25/2007 @ 8:27 ampaul from fl, I’d venture a guess that David Duke would be the foremost candidate for that title. And yes, race baiting is the realm of racists so you’re on solid ground using the term in describing “Reverands” Jackson and Sharpton. I’ve been doing it for years, since about the time I thought better of the term “reverse racism”.
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 8:38 amSome people remind me of some Muslims. They get their feelings hurt so they have to destroy/riot/kill/whine/threaten/seeth….
Barbara (d671ab) — 9/25/2007 @ 8:54 amMy wife tried to tell me one time about a Phillip K. Dick story which depicted babies as aliens from outer space. I haven’t read it and having raised a baby I just don’t see it. But my experience with teenagers, most of all my own teen years, does lead me to believe that teenage boys, of whatever color and culture, are as far removed from humanity as hairless primates can get. I’d say that we should just guard ourselves carefully around them as best as we can until they grow out of it and, for mental comfort, view them as an emergency food supply. 😉
nk (7d4710) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:11 amAre we confusing a peaceful march with terrorist bombs, Barbara?
I believe some people were arrested for driving their pickup truck with nooses dangling from the back, Jasper-style, in front of the marchers:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/21/car.nooses/index.html
alphie (99bc18) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:14 amOh Alphie you know the answer you will get from that. Only white democrats are racist. Robert Byrd, yada yada yada.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:18 amWhite Republicans are saviours of the universe – not a bad one in the bunch — protecting us from those dirty arabs and brown people. By the way are you going to church with them tonight?
vor – Care to cite any evidence that the cowards with the nooses were Republicans, or even conservatives? Who has said the n-word more often? The Mayor of LA (D-LA), or Sen. Byrd (Grand Kleage – WV)?
JD (893727) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:28 amAlphie,
See what I mean? As predictable as it is sad.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:29 amJD, tsk, tsk. You should have known better. The Swamp Beast and Alphie are not here to discuss — just to disrupt. I still think they’re both Glenn Ellersburg.
nk (7d4710) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:35 amVOR, any chance you’ll respond to my #21 or #23?
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:36 amSure Pablo.
#21 Victim is on the mend? No big deal with the injuries, justice has been served and all is how you seem to view it.
#23 While impressed with your calculator operating skills, you seemed to have missed the point that whites have an even less percentage of hate crimes. However they are reported which flies in the face of the popular myth that only blacks file hate crimes.
For you and some others this is the feel good story of the year.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/25/2007 @ 9:41 am“White kid beaten by a group of black kids – racism is myth!”
She says so in the piece you linked. So, you knew that, right?
What part of “It’s an awful crime.” leads you to conclude that it’s “no big deal”? That is the polar opposite of what I said, and the response I was hoping for from you is an answer to my question regarding what sort of “outrage” you’re expecting. What should it sound like in you view?
And when they’re reported, like in the Jena case, they’re not recorded…which was my point. So, “hate crimes” like that one don’t get counted, which screws the statistics up. But again, there were a couple of questions there which you have overlooked.
Where have you heard that? Gays, Muslims, people from any group you want to name make such claims.
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 10:03 amPablo,
You classify one as a hate crime and the other as not. How exactly do you reach that conclusion?
The stats were from 2004 so of course the Jena case won’t be included. But if it meets the FBI definition which is
“A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.”
It will be added to the database.
As to what kind of outrage? Perhaps a march on the W Va town instead of Jena. Perhaps even statements from reputable Republicans and Democrats.
Popular myth – more specifically that whites can’t have hate crimes perpetrated against them.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/25/2007 @ 10:09 amAnd yet we’ve still never elected a leader of the Klan to congress…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 9/25/2007 @ 10:14 amVOR:
I see your ideological blinders are firmly in place. How accurate are FBI statistics? Please tell us why Latinos are classified as white for hate crimes puurposes by the FBI. Hmm, I wonder what La Raza has to say about that. Perhaps the FBI uses the South African standard of awarding honorary white status for certain groups, or perhaps the FBI stats are designed to protray certain things.
Yeah we all see the massive number of six whites attacking a single black, or threewhites torturing and then killing a group of whites as they did in Tennessee. But its the news media that just doesn’t report white on black crime-doh.
2. Eye wittness testimony is notoriously inaccurate. Right, who are you going to believe the eye wittness or the defense attorney. I guess we have an example here of who do you believe the master cylinder or your lying eyes. Well VOR guess we know where you stand. Some testimony is more equal than others=how very progressive of you.
3. Of course black hate groups don’t exist that’s why we see Al and Jessie calling for riots and Louie the Scout for the Mothership on TV but rarely while we see all those white hate groups like, hmm, the Boy Scouts, talk radio and anyone that doesn’t belong to NOW and MoveON.
Doesn’t even reach the laugh level on the ridicule meter. My guess is you wear a bow tie and like claypso music there VOR.
4. Last I saw them they were at Duke screaming for racial justice. Same4 as they are doing now.
Let me guess, according to our magic crystal ball you are the speech writter for the Iranian PM who told us that there are no homos in Iran.
You know opposing reason’s hegemony is Alpho’s turf you’re poaching.
5. Well I can understand why you don’t care if a four time convicted thug doesn’t really count if he attacks blacks. And one can also understand your lack of rage given your obvious moral standards to defend and justify the actions of the black community just because six thugs attacked an individual who had the nerve to report it.
I can also understand those who don’t like one standard of justice so seek to impose a “hate” crimes standard. Can the gulags and thought crime be far behind.
Only if VOR continues wallowing in incoherence and can grow ignorance exponentially.
Thomas Jackson (bf83e0) — 9/25/2007 @ 10:16 amvor,
What did I classify as not being a hate crime? I said that the Jena beating won’t be recorded as a hate crime, not that it isn’t one. It isn’t being investigated or prosecuted as a hate crime, so it won’t make the statistics. It’s a lot like most female on male domestic violence.
How, if it isn’t being treated as a hate crime by the authorities?
For what purpose? What would be the goal? What would it accomplish that isn’t already being accomplished? Everyone I’ve heard is in agreement on the subject and on what actions ought to be and are being taken. What would you protest? The dirtbags? Yeah, and…?
That’s very different from saying that only blacks file them. And as I noted, the Jena case is not being prosecuted as a hate crime, and in fact, I can’t think of a single prominent case that has been prosecuted as a hate crime against straight whites. So that might not be as much of a myth as you suggest.
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 10:27 amThomas,
Read
http://www.nclr.org/content/viewpoints/detail/42500/
to cure your misconceptions about La Raza.
The rest of your post was blather.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/25/2007 @ 10:35 amVoice of Reason –
OK, so in 2004, the hate crimes against whites were “reported”, according to your information, but the hate crimes against blacks were actually “committed”?
Why the difference in your terminology? Were the 1000 hate crimes against whites simply “reported” and later found to have not been committed? And the only hate crimes actually committed were those against blacks?
reine.de.tout (720041) — 9/25/2007 @ 11:40 amreine
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/25/2007 @ 11:59 amRead the report I linked to. Report or committed should apply to both. Sorry if two different verbs was confusing.
But they don’t. Are you going to address the questions in my #48, vor?
Pablo (99243e) — 9/25/2007 @ 1:09 pmVOR:
I nderstand your circuitous reasoning. Its like the rest of your comments. Just more troglodyte ranting to promte bigotry. Guess no price is too great for progressives to pay for principled idealism, as long as they don’t have to bear the cost.
By the way, snorting Draino really won’t help your reasoning skills.
Thomas Jackson (bf83e0) — 9/25/2007 @ 5:40 pmVOR – “Committed” implies something that has been definitely determined to have actually happened. “Reported” implies that somebody said something happened, with no final determination as to whether it did or did not happen.
The verbs are not confusing. They mean different things. So my question – why is it you are convinced that hate crimes have been “committed” against blacks, but only “reported” against whites?
reine.de.tout (720041) — 9/27/2007 @ 5:46 amReine,
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.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/27/2007 @ 5:58 amVoice 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.
reine.de.tout (720041) — 9/27/2007 @ 10:50 amReine 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.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/27/2007 @ 11:06 amI 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”.
reine.de.tout (720041) — 9/27/2007 @ 11:48 am“I don’t have a clue
Comment by reine.de.tout”
That about sums it up.
Voice of Reason (10af7e) — 9/27/2007 @ 11:50 amYep. You happy now? You won.
reine.de.tout (720041) — 9/27/2007 @ 11:58 amFor 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?
Rod (a0c151) — 10/1/2007 @ 10:32 amMaybe we should start hanging pictures of Black Egyptian Kings and Queens on your front porch.
There aren’t any.
nk (7d4710) — 10/1/2007 @ 11:35 amBefore 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.
Chriswl (5d8bcc) — 10/2/2007 @ 11:06 amA 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.
lolo (5d6ccc) — 11/20/2007 @ 11:47 pm