personal thoughts on the Jena 6

[Amianthus]

So they could say that the principal told them they could sit there? You know, the ultimate power figure in the school?

Maybe tweak the nose of whitey?

[Michael Tee]

Sounds pretty far-fetched to me.  I think they just figured the tree might have been whites-only and they didn't want to transgress school policy.  Then when they HAD the permission and the nooses and other harassment and taunting began to occur, they snapped.

[sirs]

Oh good gravy....let's put that right next to "If Bush knew....."   

[Michael Tee]

Put it right next to anything you like.  Whatever happens to be plain common sense and public knowledge will always seem nonsensical to the right-wing fringe of see-no-evil-hear-no-evil monkeys who are always covering up either their eyes or their ears.

[sirs]

Put it right next to anything you like.  Whatever happens to be plain common sense ....

Plain common sense?  Hysterical.  Ranting the theory that this was some "unspoken school policy" and as a result, the blacks in question "snapped" defies all aspects of common sense.  Snapped perhaps at the white kid bragging about what other kids may have done, facilitated by the insidious downloading of how much a victim they're supposed to be, simply by the color of their skin.  School Policy?? 

I remember my 1st year in HS, during some pep rally, I was standing under this big shaded tree, with several oter students I didn't know.  Another student came up to me, and with a smile said "hi", and asked me how I was doing.  I said "fine", and he mentioned, "Do you happen to know where you are"?  I'm thnking trick question, but he then answered for me, along the lines of if I didn't leave the immediate area, the trashcan over to the left was going to be my new home.  It was a hangout for certain Seniors, mostly the jocks.  It wasn't some unspoken school policy.  It was an unspoken click region.  Sure, i could have gone to the principal and asked "permission" to hang out there, and he would have said of course.  Nothing to do with "school policy"

Nothing excuses any student from hanging nooses in trees or from cars.  That's simply looking to incite a negative reaction.  But trying to claim, (with of course the tact of "It's the south" as the supposed smoking gun) that this is school policy for blacks to have to ask permission to stand some specific place, is beyond moronc.  It's fits neatly right next to the garbage that if Bush knew (in advance about 911, he would have sat on the info)

[Henny]

Prince, there is a piece of the story you missed. I found a "nutshell" version on colorofchange.org:

Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat
beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the
tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more
Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney
then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded
that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best
friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke
of my pen."

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA
did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard
fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted
murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the
stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the
next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of
Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same
weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party.
The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a
young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran
away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students
were later arrested for the theft of the gun.

That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter
of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was
beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black
students "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and
kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but was
released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.

Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17),
Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an
unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged
with second-degree attempted murder.  The first trial ended last
month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was
convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated
battery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his
public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal's
parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the court
prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the
judge could see them.

[hnumpah]

Because if I could be put in their place, I cannot say for certain that I would not have hit someone.

But would you have ganged up on him, or continued to beat him after he was unconscious?

[hnumpah]

And I still seriously question the teens being tried as adults.

Why? From Henny's post:

Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17),
Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an
unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged
with second-degree attempted murder.

Of the ones whose ages were listed, every one of them qualifies to be tried as an adult depending on the seriousness of the crime. Different states have different statutes, but I'd bet just about every one of them allows teens as young as 16 to be tried as adults.

What I question, based on other elements of the story, is the bias of the sheriff and prosecutor.

The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same
weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party. The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students
were later arrested for the theft of the gun.

That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but was released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.

[yellow_crane]

Today's news suggested that the two who were arrested for hanging the two nooses from the back of their truck, ages 18 and 16, were bonafide members of the KKK.


"What I question, based on other elements of the story, is the bias of the sherrif and the prosecutor."


I think most of America, when viewing the klan of the southern states, always assumes or concludes after protracted nonaction that the sherrif and prosecutor are always involved--otherwise what would explain the lack of legal action against racial outbreaks like this one.

If this be generally true, and I believe it to be so, the fact that the sherrif and prosecutor are odiously involved suggests two things:  (1) the problem is near omnipresent and endemic, socially permitted, highly entrenched, (2) it is a recognizable porthole to change, and simply by addressing from a federal level, change can be brought about.  Start prosecuting these corrupt officials on the local level with the federal hammer and you would soon see some recognizable change.  If no compliance, start shutting off all valves to the state, take over programs that give to Blacks and increase them--a furthur inspiration to begin to cauterize the hate that clearly exists.

A furthur suggestion might be to apply the Rico hammer directly to klan members, where it clearly qualifies for application.

[BT]

Strange country we live in.

Apparently it is ok for a gang of six to kick the snot out of a  boy because six months earlier someone hung a noose on a tree.

Or it is ok to kick the shit out of a guy who is unconscious motionless on the ground because the sheriff or the DA may or may not have some baggage.

And apparently it is ok to let these guys off because some white boy hired a lawyer and plea bargained down to a lesser crime.

[hnumpah]

I'm not saying anyone comes out of this all lily-white. What I am saying is that I do suspect the motives of the sheriff and DA in light of past events, especially the one involving the white kid who pulled a gun on a group of black kids and got off with nothing - so there was no plea-barrgain involved there - while the kid who took the gun from him was charged with theft of a firearm.

As far as letting the ones who hung the noose go, I don't necessarily agree with it, but that was the choice that was made. Charging the black kids as adults and with serious crimes after continuing their attack once the victim was unconscious, I also have no problem with, except, as I said, I suspect the law may not be being evenly applied here.

[Henny]

Or it is ok to kick the shit out of a guy who is unconscious motionless on the ground because the sheriff or the DA may or may not have some baggage.

"...Later the same weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party..."

"That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "nigger..."

[BT]

"That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "nigger..."

That doesn't excuse beating the snot out of a kid who is unconscious. And conflating the issue dilutes the law.

[Amianthus]

The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."

That was in response to a series of fights at the school, not to a protest. The DA came to an assembly the principal called to address the fights and protests after a series of them. The comment he made was when he couldn't (initially) get the attention of the students in the assembly.

[yellow_crane]

Strange country we live in.

Apparently it is ok for a gang of six to kick the snot out of a  boy because six months earlier someone hung a noose on a tree.  

To begin at the beginning:  should a noose be hung from a white-only tree, it is morally incumbent upon all Whites to proffer forth the guilty or the names.  Laws regarding witnessing crimes are in effect in the general national legal body--you can't just refuse to talk because you got friends or don't like, etc.  The Law considers requiring witnesses to tell the truth to be the morally correct posture.

Admittedly, no evidence of legal application may exist down there in our most arcane state, and the issue of "kids" and legal perscription always exists.  That then is a corporal part of the problem.  A law should be passed that when a hate crime happens on or just of the campus of an educational institution, people who witness this be required by penalty of law to render forth testimony, or be given stiff, meaningful, educational, tough love sentences.  This would occlude the potency of enablement and engendering, which are ribs of "hate crime" statues and also, strangely concurrent, the varying theories regarding our youth and their growing anger and recalcitrancies.

No ignoring this primal encounter point.  It must be examined thoroughly.  The worst case scenario would be to leave this lack of responsible response from the Whites completely alone--to ignore it.  It's importance must be shouted out.  The transgression by the collective Whites gives manifestation of mob mentality here, or at the very least proof of universal approval of the act.  It is responsible adults displaying maturity to kids.

Providing emphacis on the need for honesty from a group of afterall children, we can proceed, having had established a foundation for real, not fluid, law, to prosecute the real offenders.

They be the prosecutor.

The prosecutor was the legal chair for the school board; the school board voted to have it labelled a "hate crime" and he persuaded them to change.

If the status is moved to a "hate crime" he will have to be punished for his enabling and engendering.

I am looking for a Dylan song which would lament a "colonel hanged by his own petard."