What is all this "Jena Six" business?

[WickedLou9]

Sharpton: Congress should grill Jena DA - Yahoo! News

So 6 black kids beat a white kid into a bloody mess... They get arrested on some pretty serious charges.

Previously some white kids hung nooses in some trees near the school and got a slap on the wrist basicaly.

So now the black community is protesting because of the disparate treatment being handed out.



Forgive me if I seem ignorant.... but isn't there a difference between doing something distasteful and racist, and physically beating the crap out of someone? Could that be the REASON for the disparate treatment? Why so much attention from the likes of Al Sharpton and such?

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

[ Why so much attention from the likes of Al Sharpton and such?

Do you really, honestly, have to ask that question?

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by Stylerod

Do you really, honestly, have to ask that question?

It's more than just him though.
I agree reverand Al is a half wit celebrity seeking ass wipe who is only out to serve himself.

but still

Thursday morning, thousands of demonstrators clad in black converged on the local courthouse and a nearby park to protest the disparity in the charged teenagers' treatment. Thousands more marched along city streets in what at times took on the atmosphere of a giant festival — with people setting up tables of food and some dancing to the beat of a drum.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke to one crowd. Dennis Courtland Hayes, interim president and CEO of the NAACP, was also there.
"People are saying, `That's enough, and we're not taking it any more,'" Hayes said.
Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader, described the scene as reminiscent of earlier civil rights struggles. He said punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants, but "the justice system isn't applied the same to all crimes and all people."

What are these people thinking?

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

Sharpton: Congress should grill Jena DA - Yahoo! News

So 6 black kids beat a white kid into a bloody mess... They get arrested on some pretty serious charges.

Previously some white kids hung nooses in some trees near the school and got a slap on the wrist basicaly.

So now the black community is protesting because of the disparate treatment being handed out.



Forgive me if I seem ignorant.... but isn't there a difference between doing something distasteful and racist, and physically beating the crap out of someone? Could that be the REASON for the disparate treatment? Why so much attention from the likes of Al Sharpton and such?

There's a LOT more to the situation.

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

There's a LOT more to the situation.

I'm not that familiar with it. Could you elaborate?

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

I'm not that familiar with it. Could you elaborate?

Cliffs (from what i understand):

Small town of 3000
White kids hang noose under tree so black kids don't sit under it
black kids complain
DA comes to school tells black kids "i can ruin your lives if you make this an issue"
tensions rise within the school
black kids beat white student (later that day white student picks up class ring and goes to a party)
black students charged with attempted 2nd degree murder. which will give them 20 years
one kid is still sitting in jail waiting for trial

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

I'm not that familiar with it. Could you elaborate?

Black kids go to principal and ask if they can sit under a certain tree (called the White tree). He says sure, it's for everyone. They go the next day, there are nooses hanging from tree with white kids spitting racial slurs. The racist white kids get expelled, the superintendent overturns expulsion.
The black kids want to protest this by having a sit down under the tree.. somehow the DA gets involved and shuts that down....
after the whole noose thing, racial tensions arise, scuffles ensue, black guy gets jumped, nothing happens...
Black guy gets a rifle pulled on him, he wrestles it away from white kid and takes it to the cops, black guy gets in trouble for "stealing" the gun from white kid.
white kids gets busted over the head with a bottle, goes to hospital, gets checked out, goes to school dance, black guys gets prosecuted for attempted MURDER. Jumping someone is never justified, black or white. But attempted murder for a good ol' after school brawl is a bit much.

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

Black kids go to principal and ask if they can sit under a certain tree (called the White tree). He says sure, it's for everyone. They go the next day, there are nooses hanging from tree with white kids spitting racial slurs. The racist white kids get expelled, the superintendent overturns expulsion.
The black kids want to protest this by having a sit down under the tree.. somehow the DA gets involved and shuts that down....
after the whole noose thing, racial tensions arise, scuffles ensue, black guy gets jumped, nothing happens...
Black guy gets a rifle pulled on him, he wrestles it away from white kid and takes it to the cops, black guy gets in trouble for "stealing" the gun from white kid.
white kids gets busted over the head with a bottle, goes to hospital, gets checked out, goes to school dance, black guys gets prosecuted for attempted MURDER. Jumping someone is never justified, black or white. But attempted murder for a good ol' after school brawl is a bit much.

yeah that does seem a bit excessive.

[Stylerod]

What a mess.

Seems the white kid did get a beatdown though

The beating victim, Justin Barker, was knocked unconscious, his face badly swollen and bloodied, though he was able to attend a school function later that night.

[Phantom]

woah, as I was just reading this and heard about this for the first time, I heard a guy explain why all the african americans in the city here are wearing all black today.

this must be well publicized somewhere that I don't frequent?

[six6ftr]

Here is the breakdown on occurances.

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

The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from the "white tree." The message was clear. "Those nooses meant the KKK, they meant 'Niggers, we're going to kill you, we're going to hang you till you die,'" Casteptla Bailey, mom of one of the students, told the London Observer.

The Jena high school principal found that three white students were responsible and recommended expulsion. The white superintendent of schools over-ruled the principal and gave the students a three-day suspension, saying that the nooses were just a youthful stunt. "Adolescents play pranks," the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune. "I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

The African-American community was hurt and upset. "Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple," according to Tracy Bowens, mother of students at Jena High.

But blacks in this area of Louisiana have little political power. The ten-person, all-male government of the parish has one African-American member. The nine-member all-male school board has one African-American member. (A phone caller to the local school board trying to find out the racial makeup of the school board was told there was one "colored" member of the board.) There is one black police officer in Jena and two black public school teachers.

Jena, with a population of less than 3,000, is the largest town in and seat of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. There are about 350 African Americans in the town. LaSalle has a population of just over 14,000 people -- 12 percent African-American.

This is solid Bush and David Duke Country -- GWB won LaSalle Parish four to one in the last two elections; Duke carried a majority of the white vote when he ran for governor of Louisiana. Families earn about 60 percent of the national average. The Census Bureau reports that less than 10 percent of the businesses in LaSalle Parish are black-owned.

Jena is the site of the infamous Juvenile Correctional Center for Youth that was forced to close its doors in 2000, only two years after opening, due to widespread brutality and racism including the choking of juveniles by guards after the youth met with a lawyer. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the private prison amid complaints that guards paid inmates to fight each other and laughed when teens tried to commit suicide.

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.

Racial tensions remained high throughout the fall.

On the night of Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006, a still-unsolved fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School.

On Friday night, Dec. 1, a black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. 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.

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.

Six black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. All six were expelled from school.

The six charged were 17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior, whose bail was set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw -- bail $130,000; 18-year-old Carwin Jones -- bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis -- bail $70,000; 16-year-old Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as an adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still-unidentified minor.

Many of the young men, who came to be known as the Jena 6, stayed in jail for months. Few families could afford bond or private attorneys.

Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial because his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has also remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in jail for months until their families could raise sufficient money to put up bonds.

[RMNIXON]

I heard today that Philadelphia has nearly 300 murders this year. The majority are committed by blacks and so are the victims.

But we have a serious moral crisis down in Jena over a stupid racist stunt and a clear case of assault?

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

I heard today that Philadelphia has nearly 300 murders this year. The majority are committed by blacks and so are the victims.

But we have a serious moral crisis down in Jena over a stupid racist stunt and a clear case of assault?

Which is the whole point behind the outrage. ASSAULT, yes...attempted murder, no.

[Diesel66]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

Which is the whole point behind the outrage. ASSAULT, yes...attempted murder, no.

assult = pushing the kid. Knocking a kid unconcscious is WAY beyond assault.

[Scrum]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

Knocking a kid unconcscious is WAY beyond assault.

Perhaps, but it's certainly not attempted 2nd degree murder.

If roles were reversed in this case, I doubt the white kid would have been slapped with that charge.

[Diesel66]

Originally Posted by Scrum

Perhaps, but it's certainly not attempted 2nd degree murder.

6 guys stomping on a kid while he is down is most definitely attempted murder.

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

6 guys stomping on a kid while he is down is most definitely attempted murder.

It could be. But those charges have already been changed. Not sure why it keeps getting repeated.

[trevxenemy]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

assult = pushing the kid. Knocking a kid unconcscious is WAY beyond assault.

Not really. The guy was still able to go hangout that night.

If he were put in ICU for 5 weeks, sure.. attempted 2nd degree murder. A swollen face and some blood? I got that almost everyday at wrestling practice.

[trevxenemy]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

6 guys stomping on a kid while he is down is most definitely attempted murder.

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.