I agree with Bill D and Q. From the little that I have learned about this case it does sound as though the local authorities in general did too little too late to prevent the escalation. All the principals seem to be teenage boys - testosterone charged and tending to see violence as the answer to problems, whatever their race or creed. The school, at least, should have been aware of the way in which this could escalate and should maybe have been making more effort to arbitrate between the groups.

At this point it would be very difficult to go back and unravel all the threads that knit this together, but that would be the only thing that might actually lead to some sort of real justice being done.

Problem is, IMHO, once the likes of Sharpton and Jackson get involved the whole thing just gets blown up to a point where it is almost impossible for a non confrontational solution to be found and the actual facts get buried under the hate rhetoric from both sides.

Just my five cents worth, anyway.