Azizi, do you really equate the noose display with the assault? I don't see it as equivalent, and I don't think the two matters are viewed equally under the law, nor should they be.

Let's put aside the race implications for just a moment. If I tell someone I will hang him, that can be treated as a threat, and that person could take out a restraining order on me. If, however, I jump him with five of my companions and beat and kick him unconscious (whether he's subsequently hospitalized or not), that is a clear assault.

I know you will reply that the race implications can NOT be put aside, but the basic charges under the existing system of law require some order, predictability, and consistency. Within that context, should other factors such as race-hate be taken into consideration? Certainly.

Should the case of Mychal Bell be a precedent for changing the way our laws are enforced? It certainly doesn't seem to me so. Do we need to change our racial attitudes? Absolutely. But my God that's difficult to do. I routinely receive jokes via email from otherwise intelligent and educated white folks that contain the same old tired and mean racist jokes. I'm frankly sick of their assumption that because I am white it's ok. I also believe that some of this closet hate must go on in the black community as well. I don't know what it will take to end it, but I can't see that the Jena 6 situation does anything but provoke more polarity and anger. It seems clear to me that the supposed persecution of Mychal Bell as a cause celebre' for the abolition of repression is counter-productive in uprooting the deeper racial problems that plague us.