What is all this "Jena Six" business?

[trevxenemy]

Originally Posted by Stylerod

I don't know. Did they get chased away? Did the police come?

I don't know, did they? If so, that might change things a bit.

However, if the 6 guys had the intention of killing him, they could've easily done so.

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by trevxenemy

I don't know, did they? If so, that might change things a bit.

However, if the 6 guys had the intention of killing him, they could've easily done so.

So you admit you have no idea what happened but continue to comment about it. Ok.

[six6ftr]

Driver with noose dangling from his pickup is arrested


ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) -- A teenager was arrested Thursday when police allegedly found hangman's nooses dangling from the rear of his pickup truck after he drove past a crowd of people who had attended a civil rights march earlier in the day.

The incident took place only hours after tens of thousands of civil rights marchers demonstrated in Jena, about an hour's drive from Alexandria, on behalf of six teens charged with beating a white schoolmate at Jena High School.

Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Colfax, La., and a 16-year-old passenger in his truck were arrested Thursday night near a bus station where a group of people who had marched in Jena were waiting for buses to take them home.

Munsen, who is white, was booked on charges of inciting a riot, driving while intoxicated and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. A city attorney will decide whether charges against the 16-year-old boy from Dry Prong, La., are warranted, said Alexandria Police Sgt. Clifford Gatlin.

"I wish we had a charge in Louisiana for aggravated ignorance, because this is a classic case," Gatlin said.

Gatlin said the crowd of about 200 people at the bus station remained calm throughout the episode.

"They were just offended and appalled that somebody would be that stupid to do that," Gatlin added.

The 16-year-old, who was being held in a juvenile detention facility Friday, told police he had a "KKK" tattoo on his chest and said some of his relatives were involved in the Ku Klux Klan, according to a police report.

Officers found an unloaded rifle and a set of brass knuckles in Munsen's truck, police said.

Nooses figured into the controversy that drew tens of thousands of people to Jena on Thursday.

Last year, a black Jena High School student asked whether blacks could sit under a shade tree that was a frequent gathering place for whites. He was told yes, but nooses appeared in the tree the next day. Three white students were suspended but not criminally prosecuted.

[Simius]

Jesus. This reminds me of the deep south shit in the 60's. Well, to be fair, at least nobody has actually been lynched yet.

[six6ftr]

I am glad that calm heads prevailed and no incident occurred.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by six6ftr

Driver with noose dangling from his pickup is arrested

Munsen, who is white, was booked on charges of inciting a riot, driving while intoxicated and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. A city attorney will decide whether charges against the 16-year-old boy from Dry Prong, La., are warranted, said Alexandria Police Sgt. Clifford Gatlin.

All legitimate charges. I hope this idiot learns a lesson? In the first instance it was a clear case of harrasment. Not a criminal act, but one the school should have dealt with in the harshest manner including expulsion. But what bothers me is that one act is like the start of a spiral. In the minds of some it becomes an excuse of all others. Does anyone really think "free the Jena six" is a plea for actual justice?

I would also remind people that the matter of the "white tree" is not something exclusive to southern racism. The white areas, and black areas, and hispanic areas are becoming all to common in so-called integrated schools all over the country. Even in college! And race attitude is involved from all parties. You might want to check out the excellent book or film "Freedom Writers Diary" about a group of integrated students who overcome their race identity hatred. A black student who dares to enter the hispanic area is targeted for murder. Much more serious than an offensive prank.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by trevxenemy

Don't you think if those 6 guys had the intention of killing him, they would've done so? They clearly had the upper-hand.

I agree that the murder charge was going too far. But you also need to understand that prosecutors will always file the worst charge they think applies because they can use that to plea bargain. Watch the OJ case! The kidnapping charge is over the top and will be dropped. It is a universal practice that has nothing to do with race. That is part of the legal system that happens every day.

[trevxenemy]

Originally Posted by Stylerod

So you admit you have no idea what happened but continue to comment about it. Ok.

I didn't see anything mentioning police chasing the 6 away. It said they were later arrested, which implies to me that they were arrested at home or some place other than the event.

[six6ftr]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

All legitimate charges. I hope this idiot learns a lesson? In the first instance it was a clear case of harrasment. Not a criminal act, but one the school should have dealt with in the harshest manner including expulsion. But what bothers me is that one act is like the start of a spiral. In the minds of some it becomes an excuse of all others. Does anyone really think "free the Jena six" is a plea for actual justice?

I would also remind people that the matter of the "white tree" is not something exclusive to southern racism. The white areas, and black areas, and hispanic areas are becoming all to common in so-called integrated schools all over the country. Even in college! And race attitude is involved from all parties. You might want to check out the excellent book or film "Freedom Writers Diary" about a group of integrated students who overcome their race identity hatred. A black student who dares to enter the hispanic area is targeted for murder. Much more serious than an offensive prank.

Yes, it is a plea for equal justice for everyone.

[JaJae]

This guy:
"That's some nappy headed hoes there"

Has something to say..

Lessons from Jena, La.
By JASON WHITLOCK

Now we love Mychal Bell, the star of the 2006 Jena (La.) High School football team, the teenage boy who has sat in jail since December for his role in a six-on-one beatdown of a fellow student.

Thursday, thousands of us, proud African-Americans, expressed our devotion to and desire to see justice for the “Jena Six,” the half-dozen black students who knocked unconscious, kicked and stomped a white classmate.

Jesse Jackson compared Thursday’s rallies in Jena to the protests and marches that used to take place in cities like Selma, Ala., in the 1960s. Al Sharpton claimed Thursday’s peaceful demonstrations were to highlight racial inequities in the criminal justice system.

Jesse and Al, as they’re prone to do, served a kernel of truth stacked on a mountain of lies.

There are undeniable racial and economic inequities in our criminal justice system, and from afar the “Jena Six” rallies certainly looked and felt like the righteous protests of the 1960s.

But the reality is Thursday’s protests are just another sign that we remain deeply locked in denial about the path we need to travel today for true American liberation, equality and power in the new millennium.

The fact that we waited to love Mychal Bell until after he’d thrown away a Division I football scholarship and nine months of his life is just as heinous as the grossly excessive attempted-murder charges that originally landed him in jail.

Reed Walters, the Jena district attorney, is being accused of racism because he didn’t show Bell compassion when the teenager was brought before the court for the third time on assault charges in a two-year span.

Where was our compassion long before Bell got into this kind of trouble?

That’s the question that needed to be asked in Jena and across the country on Thursday. But it wasn’t asked because everyone has been lied to about what really transpired in the small southern town.

There was no “schoolyard fight” as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree.

Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack.

A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the “Jena Six” case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. 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.

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.

Where were the promises and supervision before any of this?

It’s rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker’s attack. And it’s never mentioned that white people in the “racist” town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell’s father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.

You won’t hear about any of that because it doesn’t fit the picture we want to paint of Jena, this case, America and ourselves.

We don’t practice preventive medicine. Mychal Bell needed us long before he was cuffed and jailed. Here is another undeniable, statistical fact: The best way for a black (or white) father to ensure that his son doesn’t fall victim to a racist prosecutor is by participating in his son’s life on a daily basis.

That fact needed to be shared Thursday in Jena. The constant preaching of that message would short-circuit more potential “Jena Six” cases than attributing random acts of six-on-one violence to three-month-old nooses.

And I am in no way excusing the nooses. The responsible kids should’ve been expelled. A few years after I’d graduated, a similar incident happened at my high school involving our best football player, a future NFL tight end. He was expelled.

The Jena school board foolishly overruled its principal and suspended the kids for three days.

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.

This guy always has a good way of putting things into perspective when it comes to race issues.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

I agree that the murder charge was going too far. But you also need to understand that prosecutors will always file the worst charge they think applies because they can use that to plea bargain. Watch the OJ case! The kidnapping charge is over the top and will be dropped. It is a universal practice that has nothing to do with race. That is part of the legal system that happens every day.

I was just going to say this. It is extremely common for charges to the most severe so they can take a plea bargain for a lesser charge. However, that does not explain what appears to be an excessive bail.

[thomez]

Inciting a riot is such a bullshit charge.

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by JaJae

This guy:
"That's some nappy headed hoes there"

Has something to say..


This guy always has a good way of putting things into perspective when it comes to race issues.

It’s rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker’s attack. And it’s never mentioned that white people in the “racist” town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell’s father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.

Great post. There is always more to the story. I haven't heard this from anywhere else.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by six6ftr

Yes, it is a plea for equal justice for everyone.

Sorry, but legitimate outrage over the hangmans noose does not equal a get out of jail free card for assault. I get the message. But kicking the white boy into the hospital when he is down is not the way to get through to people. I am saying the cause of racial justice is losing ground over this. Making a hero of thug no matter what color is a step backward.

[six6ftr]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

Sorry, but legitimate outrage over the hangmans noose does not equal a get out of jail free card for assault. I get the message. But kicking the white boy into the hospital when he is down is not the way to get through to people. I am saying the cause of racial justice is losing ground over this. Making a hero of thug no matter what color is a step backward.

No one never said anything about getting out of jail free. All they are saying is that all of the individuals both white and black need to be charged equally for their crimes. This has yet to occur.

[six6ftr]

Originally Posted by six6ftr

In September 2006, a black student at Jena high school asked permission from school administrators to sit under the "white tree." School officials advised

Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the "white tree" at the school to protest the light suspensions given to the noose-hanging white students.

The white District Attorney then came to Jena High with law enforcement officers to address a school assembly. According to testimony in a later motion in court, the D.A. reportedly threatened the protesting black students, saying that if they didn't stop making a fuss about this "innocent prank I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." The school was put on lockdown for the rest of the week. Swept under the rug!


On Friday night, Dec. 1, a black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. -No Charges filed!

On Saturday, Dec. 2, a young white man pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested; no charges were filed against the white man. - Again, No charges.

On Monday, Dec. 4, at Jena High, a white student -- who allegedly had been making racial taunts, including calling African-American students "niggers" while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the black student at the off-campus party -- was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that evening. -Charges filed against the black teens

So show me where these black teens are being treated the same as the whites? Again, both white and black should be charged!

RMNIXON

Quote:
Originally Posted by six6ftr View Post
Yes, it is a plea for equal justice for everyone.

Sorry, but legitimate outrage over the hangmans noose does not equal a get out of jail free card for assault. I get the message. But kicking the white boy into the hospital when he is down is not the way to get through to people. I am saying the cause of racial justice is losing ground over this. Making a hero of thug no matter what color is a step backward.

So are you saying that only those individuals without a criminal past deserves the right to equal justice?

[Roonie]

Originally Posted by six6ftr

So show me where these black teens are being treated the same as the whites? Again, both white and black should be charged!



So are you saying that only those individuals without a criminal past deserves the right to equal justice?

Very good points and a reminder of what this country was founded on. Innocent until proven guilty.

[nbiggershaft]

I definitely see the racism, I definitely see the injustice. I even see how attempted murder is too far. But I don't see how these thugs deserve sympathy for beating an unconscious kid. "All this help support the Jena Six", Comon

[six6ftr]

I think people are assuming that the actions of these individuals are being forgiven or forgotten. No one has said that they should not pay for their crime. The protest is about the injustice and unfair treatment that was handed down in this case and how this sort of injustice is common in african american cases all over the country.