BS: The Jena 6 Controversy

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Sep 07 - 02:03 PM

After seeing the video of the beating/fight (taken via phone device by one of the white kids) between one white kid and 5 black kids I do not see any evidence of attempted murder.

When I watch the Video of the white truck driver who was pulled from his truck and struck with a brick during the race riots in LA I do see evidence for attempted homocide charges.

I agree that these kids are all poor examples of character, culture, integrity and rationality. The local sheriff, principal and district attorney have all failed justice in my eyes.

Business is good for Sharpton since the Imus affair.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Riginslinger
Date: 26 Sep 07 - 01:41 PM

Okay, then why did they bring attempted murder charges in the first place?

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Sep 07 - 01:25 PM

Justice in Jena, by Reed Walters.
This reasoned explanation of the necessary actions taken by this prosecutor appeared in The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2007.

Justice in Jena

Not a 'member' of any choir.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Sep 07 - 02:59 AM

Yes Janie, when the "unenlightened" want to speak about the specifics of the situation rather than simply understanding the greater scope of the struggle against injustice which overrides anything as puny as the facts in a particular case, the "enlightened" tend to find the entire thing just a tad grimy. If we could stick to noble proclamations and generalities we could all agree and have a much nicer conversation. Frankly, I don't appreciate the holier-than-thou attitude.

I saw a clip of the Little Rock 10 on CNN. Yes, these were students who bravely walked into Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 50s to gain rights to an equal education. They followed Dr King's method of non-violence, patience, and correct action, and broke the back of the segregated school system in Arkansas. A woman now in her 60s who was one of the ten related how she had been harrassed by several white female students. "I called them white trash", she said, "and I've never been able to forget that, and how bad I felt for having said it." When the reporter asked why, she replied "because it was below my character. It put me down to their level."

So please, don't give me the Jena 6 and Mychal Bell as your courageous pioneers for equal treatment under law. And if I have the honesty to bring up my objections due to some very specific reasons, you may want to listen to them and learn something from them rather than sulking, pouting, or calling me a racist. I am certainly willing to listen to your side of the argument. You don't have to convince me that unequal treatment under the law exists. But I think the Jena 6 and Mychal Bell are such a weak argument that they could very well have the opposite of the effect intended.

And no Bobert, I didn't take what you said personally. And when you talk about reparations etc you may be "preaching to the choir" but I'm not and never have aspired to be a member. But I like the way you play guitar.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Janie
Date: 26 Sep 07 - 12:25 AM

Sad and interesting thread.

Again and again I read a number of posts of people who understand the issue here is institutional racism and equal justice -

And again and again I read posts from people who don't see that at all.

Some one pulled in the Duke case. That is still a good example of the pervasiveness of institutional racism, and one scumbag prosecutor's almost successful efforts to exploit our common knowledge of it's existence to his own ends.

FWIW, the Southern Poverty Law Center is located right here where I live and is a well respected institution in these parts, by ALL parties, even those likely to find themselves on the opposite side of a lawsuit.

FWIW, I am the clinical consultant for the mental health court in a County here in North Carolina. In the course of completing diagnostic assessments I take a complete psychosocial history, including prior arrests, convictions and jail sentences. I took on this assignment about 4 months ago. In that short time, it has become very apparent to me that Black defendants are much more likely to have done jail time, especially prison, than are White defendants with very comparable histories of offences.

Speaking in generalities, it is clear to me that white antisocial thugs do not receive as severe sentences, and the threshhold for sending them to prison is noticably higher than for black antisocial thugs.

I am impressed by the professionalism of the judges, DA's, probation officers and defence attorney's on the team. Black or white, none of them are consciously racist. But the fact remains that justice is meted out unequally. The poor and working class, white or black, fare worse than the middle class, white or black. But within socioeconoic classes, blacks fare worse than whites.

Janie

I understand why Azizi bailed on this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Sep 07 - 03:55 PM

In point of fact, Q, it has nothing to do with anything at all! Certainly not with anything under discussion on this thread.

Now, whether your posting it is a sign of ignorance, or something else, its not for me to say.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Sep 07 - 03:04 PM

Such ignorance!

Voting facts.
"In that time period (1980-2004), blacks in Louisiana have reported higher registration rates than blacks outside the South. In fact, beginning in 1988, the difference has been at least ten percentage points, with the one exception of 1994. In 2002, Louisiana blacks were 16.5 percentage points more likely to report being registered than non-southern African Americans."
"....by 2004, blacks were almost 30 percent of the registered electorate, a figure basically identical to [their share of] the voting age population."

A complication- while 30% of LA"s registered electorate is African American (equal to their percentage of the electorate as a whole), they tend to vote Democratic in a state in which George W. Bush won 75% of the white vote in 2004. This does not as important on the parish level; blacks hold 20% of the seats in the State Legislature, and are represented by more than 700 elected officials.
Bullock-Gaddie Report on Louisiana, Feb. 10, 2006, AEI website.

Louisiana voting

Again, this has nothing to do with the Jena criminal case.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Peace
Date: 25 Sep 07 - 10:36 AM

"None of this has anything to do with the prosecution of a young criminal in Jena, Louisiana."

There are more than a few young criminals in Jena. But let's definitely get the Black kid. We don't keep those folks in their place and they'll be wanting to vote next.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Greg B
Date: 25 Sep 07 - 10:30 AM

Yep, it's always them outsiders. Dang old meddling agitators.

Guess Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney got what they deserved for
meddling in the affairs of Southerners, who were well on their
way to working out their 'negro' problem on their own, right, Q?

Heck, by now they'd have been so integrated that the little black
kids would be saluting the confederate battle flag, if those
New York Jews hadn't come down and got in their business.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Sep 07 - 09:13 AM

All this was being done without the intervention of outsiders... a circus of white demonstrators from outside who only built resentment among southern whites that continues to this day.

Yup, Q- right you are. Everything was just hunky-dory for Black folks following the Brown decision & all the subsequent "unpleasantness" was caused by them damn "Outside Agitators". An somewhat idiosyncratic, but not all that uncommon (unfortunately), view of the civil rights movement.

        We didn't know, said the congregation, singing a hymn in their church of whites
        Press was full of lies about us, preacher told us we were right.
        The outside agitators came, they burned some churches and put the blame
        On decent southern people's names to set our Colored people aflame
        And maybe some of our boys got hot and a couple of niggers and Reds got shot
        They should have stayed where they belonged!
        The preacher would have told us if we'd done wrong.

        We didn't know at all, we didn't see a thing.
        You can't hold us to blame, what could we do?
        It was a terrible shame, but we can't bear the blame.
        Oh, No, not us! We didn't know.

                        -Tom Paxton

Theophilus Eugene Connor would be proud. I suppose you also believe the fiction that the Civil War was fought over "States Rights" rather than chattel slavery?

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Sep 07 - 12:24 AM

I still have my poll tax receipt. Yeah, I was there in 1950 when Herman Sweat(t) finally was able to enter the University of Texas. "Mum's the word for Sweat" was the word at that time- I doubt that a foreigner would understand the full meaning of that phrase in the South even if he knew of the multiple meanings of mum. A number of people at the University and in the State supported Sweat and condemmed the failure of Pres. Painter and other educators to take up the torch with the Texas Legislature.
(It may help to know that this deodorant, no longer marketed in the U. S. or Canada, among other things was recommended for use on sanitary napkins)

The Vinson court held that the equal protection clause required that Sweat be admitted to the Univ. Texas Law School because the hastily set-up "School of Law of the Texas State University for Negroes" did not have equal facilities. This victory had immediate application in several states.
The next important decision was against the Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education- not a part of the South. This decision quashed the idea that equality was possible under a policy of racial separation. This came in 1954, and opened the undergraduate, in addition to graduate and professional, degrees to Blacks, not only in the South, but in mid-western and western states that had similar laws to those of Texas and southern states.

Tne NAACP of the time, I seem to remember Thurgood Marshall was their Chief Counsel, worked hard to forward African-Americans in their striving for equality. Marshall later became a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.

All this was being done without the intervention of outsiders. Throughout the South, in the next ten years, African-Americans, with the aid of the courts, tore down much of the enforced segregation, rampant not only in the South, but practiced in many ways in the North and West. They marched and demonstrated and sometimes suffered for their activities.
They were joined by a circus of white demonstrators from outside who only built resentment among southern whites that continues to this day. Unfortunately, the NAACP and other groups of the time, failed to discourage them.

Many law enforcement and court officials in the South today are African-American, including chiefs-of-police and court officials. Poor whites as well as poor blacks still are poorly treated by the system, but this is universal. Money thrown at this and similar social problems instead of into stupid wars would help our society to heal the wounds of the disadvantaged.

None of this has anything to do with the prosecution of a young criminal in Jena, Louisiana. The circus that took place there is ludicrous and hopefully will not be repeated.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Riginslinger
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 10:30 PM

So it was mentioned on NPR today that the kid who was beaten up had nothing to do with the hanging of the nooses. Is that common knowledge, or did I just miss it?

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 05:41 PM

Thanks for your reply, Bobert. I've no doubt you do have an *accent* but I do think you were putting it on a bit. As for the choir, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 05:29 PM

Point well taken, kat... Yes, the original inhabitants certainly deserve an apology... and more... Those who live on reservations are some of the poorest folks in our general population...

Sorry also 'bout my hillbilly dialect... It ain't meant to be mimickin' anyone... It's really the way I talk in real life... I'm jus' tryin' to write the way that I talk... Those who have met me or heard me perform would say, "Hey, that's the way the boy is..." If it were mimiscking tho, I agree with you that it would indeed be racist in that I was putting down white hillbillies... Heck, white hillbillies is my neighbors and my friends... Yeah, most of them know that I ain't 'xactly into that bluegrass an' old timey music but don't seem to bother them none that I play alot of blues... Actually, jus' about every party I play up here in the mountains theres folks who come up and say stuff like "I ain't never heared of that kinda music but I like it..."

As fir what I have said here about a discussion of race, no, I don't necessarily thuink I'm am preaching to the chior... Maybe with you, kat, but from reading what others have said, if they are in the choir then count me out... We ain't singing in the same key...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 08:21 AM

A much better tribute than the more than 40-year-old rant by Dylan, typical of the artifacts exhumed by rabble-rousers.

Artifacts, huh? Rant? Seems a pretty contemporary analysis & germaine to me. The white power structure & its M.O. don't seem to have changed much if at all; e.g. the sainted Senator Jesse Helms employed "nigger-baiting" to keep his seat until the day he died. Plenty of other contemporary examples- Ol' Jesse was just primus inter pares.

Just curious, Q - how old are you? Vass you dere, Charlie, in 1963?

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:43 PM

Bobert, I think you are preaching to the choir. Why do you think you are the only one of us who gets it? Why do you apparently assume none of us has been in the trenches, etc.?

I consider your kind of po'talk posting to be racist...it may be meant as benevolent, but it comes across as racist and I don't like to think of you that way. It sure isn't going to get you any converts and, as I said, you are preaching, in large part, to the choir. Maybe the majority of white Americans don't get it, or maybe you've been down South too long. I don't know, but I do know a lot of Mudcatters do get it. I also know the demographics of our country are NOT stuck in the past. Americans of Mexican/Latino/a/Spanish/Puerto Rican descent are the fastest growing segment of our population. In some areas they are in the majority now. Young people all over are living mixed race lives with their partners and children, blended families, etc. THEY get it no matter their race.

If, and it is a big IF, I were going to apologise to ANY segment of our population, it would be to the original inhabitants of this land, those mistakenly called "Native Americans" way back when we started taking away their lands.

Should Romans apologise to those of Gaulish descent; to those of all the other nations whose people they enslaved back in ancient Rome? How far back do you want to go? Should I go after whoever it was, Sutherland, I think, who put my ancestors off their land and sent them across the sea to a world they knew nothing about? Almost everyone can find some history in their past which is full of strife, enslavement, torture, etc. Should each person sue for reparations?

My ex-son-in-law (as the father of my grandsons and someone whom we dearly love, he will always be a part of our family) and I talked about how my ancestor may have "owned" some of his ancestors in the Caribbean. Did he expect or demand an apology from me? No, he comes from an island of predominately black people, not Americans, and has a completely different take on race relations. He definitely feels discriminated against here, but he doesn't feel anyone "owes" him anything for what was done 2-300 years ago.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: John Hardly
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:52 PM

Bobert,

I suppose it will never occur to you that "discussion" doesn't imply everyone agreeing with your point of view.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:42 PM

LOL....

No, I tried to get this discussion going on ion the "poverty thread" and, geeze, at least half a dozen other threads over the years and it never, ahhhh, takes off...

Hey, I don't mean to sound like I'm comin' down on anyone persaonlly here... What I see here in Mudville is prrdy much indicative of wnat I see in the general population...

This thread is very much about "race" and it is very much about how white people tend to line up when they are told "It's about race"...

I read a good article in the Style section of the Washington Post today bout how school teachers are so unprepared and uncomfotable in talking about race, slavery, Jim Crow, etc...

I don't think folks here are any different... And I undertsnad that... I really do.... I mean, we have had Southern states who have pushed back apologies for slavery, for lynchings, etc... And I don't think the Midweat is far behind the South in bigotry...

I'm sorry if any one Catter takes offense to what I am saying here but it isn't intended to be an indictment of any one individual but and indictment of white America in general...

White America doesn't get it....

If white America had gotten it, then after the nooses were hung from the tree then the teachers would have altered their curriculum to speak to the history of the civil rights movement.... This is waht educators do when they fell free to do so... But they didn't fell free...

And we here in Mudville don't either... I have offered my ideas about "repair"ations over and over here in Mudville and purdy much either been ignored or told that "Hey, I ain't gonna pay fir nuthin' mah grand-daddy did"...

I ain't gonna beat this horse but so much here but a real discussion ain't been had here...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:19 PM

Bobert needs to flush out his septic tank.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:11 PM

Yeah, I reralize that this joint is made up of primarily white people who probably feel very uncomfortable talking about race... Probably??? Well, for the most part, not at all... I have tried unsecessfully to get the discussion going but most folks here run from it like "pigs from a gun"...

Bullshit...nothing uncomfortable about talking about it unless someone tries to make out to be something they are not, Bobert, but I still luvya...

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 07:59 PM

Yeah, I reckon no one has bothered to see just how similar what has happened here in Jena ios to the desegregation of the Little Rock schools...

Yeah, talk about deja vu'... Here you have a bu8nch of white kids who think it is their God-given right to control a section of publicly owned property... In Little Rock it was the schools... Here, it was a shade tree...

But schools/shade tree the underlyin' statement that was being made was one of "white supremecy"... "Hey, we are white and therefore this is mine, mine, mine..."

Any arguments here???

Now, TO WIT: Black kids take exception, go to the school and say, "Hey, ain''t this like Jim Crow, 'er somethin'..." and the school says, '"Yeah, okay, kinda" but nuthin' much is done until the white kids threaten the black kids with the "noose", a symbol that not only represents hatred, racism but also a history of black people being lynched...

Any arguments yet???

Now, TO WIT, Part B: We have a community of white people who think that it was okay for their white kids to threaten the lives of black kids but not okay for black kids to defend themselves???

Hmmmmm???

This is what this case biols down to, folks...

Yeah, I reralize that this joint is made up of primarily white people who probably feel very uncomfortable talking about race... Probably??? Well, for the most part, not at all... I have tried unsecessfully to get the discussion going but most folks here run from it like "pigs from a gun"...

Well, here's my prediction... This will get settled and Bell will get out on bail, cop a plea to somethin' real low and get probabtion and white America will have dodged the bullet once again...

Man, this just ain't right...

(But, Bobert, white America is in control of the power...)

Still don't make it right...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 05:52 PM

Oh my gawd, we've been blogged by a nonnie!

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 01:19 PM

Medgar Evers biography, University of Mississippi website:
Medgar Evers

A much better tribute than the more than 40-year-old rant by Dylan, typical of the artifacts exhumed by rabble-rousers.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: kendall
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 01:10 PM

Guest different name, The right are always chirping about constitutional freedoms such as the 2nd amendment but when it comes to freedom of speech, it does not apply to visitors. They don't want to hear what that Iranian "President" has to say.

Old military saying: "Know your enemy".

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: John Hardly
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 12:24 PM

"They" it seems to me, fit the metaphor "pawn" much more in the context of Al Sharpton's, Jesse Jackson's, and MLKIII's "game, more than in the context of anyone else's "game".

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Greg F.
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:48 AM

"New South" my arse. Deja Vu all over again.
*

Only a Pawn in Their Game
Bob Dylan (Copyright 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music)

        
A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood.
A finger fired the trigger to his name.
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game.

The South politician, he preaches to the poor white man,
"You got more than the blacks, don't complain.
You're better than them, you been born with white skin," they explain.
And the Negro's name
Is used it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid,
And the marshals and cops get the same,
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool.
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks,
And the hoof beats pound in his brain.
And he's taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath a hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain't got no name
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

The day Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king.
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Big Mick
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:37 AM

GUEST,different name - You have been around a week, and you managed to use 4 or 5 names, referred to people as dumb, fat and lazy. One of the rules here is that you must use a consistent identity. You have not. You are also rude and nasty. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: jacqui.c
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:27 AM

There is plenty of disagreement on this site and the contributors cover the whole political spectrum.

There are rules, one of which is to identify yourself when posting. If you had been around the site for more than a week you would be aware of the problems that have been caused by anonymous posters.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: GUEST,different name
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:21 AM

The Liberal left is for freedom for everything as long as they dont disagree with them. Thanks for making my point I've blogged this site for a week and I've figured it out. I didnt post anything offensive, just a different view from most people on this site. Dont worry I wont be back

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: bobad
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:00 AM

From the FAQ, January 9, 2007: From now on, anonymous posting will be watched and controlled. We've had far too many problems with anonymous posters. If you want to post, use a consistent name. We're not requiring registration, although we certainly prefer that. You may certainly use a pseudonym as a user name, but please use that same name every time you post. If you post without using a consistent name, you risk having your messages deleted.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 10:15 AM

I'll try for a 1ooth on most threads with NO regard to race OR religion

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Riginslinger
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 06:45 AM

Peace - I agree, it is a question of law. The authorities need to insure equal protection under the law.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: GUEST,BILL
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 12:41 AM

Well said Q, but some people want feelings involved in law. You at least know that law doesnt work on feelings alone. I hate to drive the speed limit because I like the feeling of speed. So what would happen if I get too many speeding tickets, I would get my license pulled. That guy had a long history of fighting and should be tried as an adult. Does someone hitting another person change the damage to that person because of age when we are talking about 1 year, no.....put him in jail for awhile maybe he learn a lesson and maybe he wont but at least he wont be punching people in the back of the head..

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 12:25 AM

Peace, in the last case, Bell was convicted by a jury- it was not judge alone. To those who want to make a racial case out of it, the people of Jena, not just the legal system (it would have to have convicted him regardlss of make-up considering the history of the accused) must be blamed.

The jury was all white, therefore it was 100% bigoted and tromping on the poor black. His criminal record, however, - four previous adjudications- can not be ignored, and conviction should have resulted regardless of the jury make-up. With the decision that the case should have been handled in the juvenile courts, a new trial will be held unless the decision is reversed- which it can be if the crime is deemed serious enough.

The remaining five of those charged all posted bail (one had $138,000 as the sum). That, of course, is is not what has to be raised; in most jurisdictions 5-10% of the fee is sufficient for a bondsman to handle the case. Anyone can post it except those with criminal convictions.
Why didn't the civil rights folks who make so much noise post it for Bell? Did they push him into refusing to post bail in order to push their agendas?

The others have not faced court yet, but unless they have prior convictions for crimes, if convicted they may get off with light sentences and remission of criminal record after a period.

Why did Bell not post bail when he had the opportunity? It looks like he wanted to get a brouhaha started- he did.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Peace
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 11:24 PM

The issue is law, not race. As long as folks turn the issue into that of race it detracts from the true crisis to do with Jena. What is under scrutiny, and rightfully so, is the American legal system.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Riginslinger
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 09:19 PM

"...the forces of hate will dive deep for another decade of so."

             Charley - I don't want to fight, but I think the forces of hate are out there all the time, and it runs deep, and it's not confined to one side.
             When we see teenaged kids doing things like this, we can only assume they're carrying out the projected attitudes of their parents.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 08:18 PM

All very sad but there is national focus on this small town and just maybe the forces of hate will dive deep for another decade of so. Unfortunately the issue of racial hatred in the States is never a done deal. And future generations will have to deal with this afgain in a few years. Only the names will be changed.

This is probably not my most insightful post.

Anyone want to fight?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 07:20 PM

Oh, well, no sense trying to talk to a nutcase.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Greg B
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 06:19 PM

Well of course the n***** was allowed to play football! Ain't no
cotton to tote in Jena, so he had to make hisself useful, and
besides, now as the football teams is innegrated, they've figgered
out that the n***** was useful after all, even if he ain't invited
to the parties after they catch the winning touchdown pass at
the Homecomin' game. Sheeit. Well, 'lease it was a white boy that
threw it. Maybe he wouldna wanted to come anyways, as it was all
Skynrd and Fabulous Thunderbirds on the CD player.

(We won't talk about how them steeroids someone's been slippin'
the n***** might have sumptin' to do with them con-vittions.)

And yeah, Dr. King was into non-violence...look where it got him.

Shot dead by some cracker.

Non-violently sit under the 'white tree' at George Wallace high
school in Jena, and look what it gets you: a noose.

Don't tell a man to be non-violent after your kids threaten to
lynch him and for their punishment have to pick up litter for
3 days.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 06:10 PM

Sorry, left a gap in the first link-
Town Talk LA

(and don't nobody mention cutandpaste)

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Peace
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 05:57 PM

Looks like the rabble-rousers actually live in Jena.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 05:54 PM

Mychal Bell's juvenile record. (Only the proceedings are sealed, the charges and the results are public record).

Bell committed battery on Christmas, 2005. He was on probation following this assault, when in Sept. 2006 he was adjudicated (juvenile conviction) for two violent crimes, assault and battery (Sept. 2), and criminal damage to property (Sept. 3). He prevously had been charged for criminal damage to property in July, 2006. Another adjudicated case exists, but I haven't seen any information.
He was still allowed to play football! He was convicted for second degree battery for the beating of Justin Barker on December 4, the fifth crime.
The probation was in effect during these crimes, to end in to January, 2008, when Bell would be 18.

(From the Alexandra-Pineville (LA) "The Town Talk." Abbey Brown and reporter Bob Tomkins, Sept. 22, 2007.
Town Talk

I am surprised that bail was offered to a person on probation and in light of the subsequent crimes. It looks to me like the Attorney General bent over backwards to offer it, although it is permitted in certain circumstances under the Louisiana code.

School authorities apparently ignored and covered up the criminal record because of Bell's football ability. The football coach was not informed until late, and kept quiet because the school authorities had.

Following the refusal of bail, C. J. Cary, of warfamily.org, VA, said the next demonstration should be held at the Governor's Mansion in Baton Rouge. Report by Abbey Brown, "Town Talk," September 22, 2007, in "The Town Talk," Alexandria-Pineville newspaper.
Bell Again Denied Bond

Looks like the rabble-rousers may invade again.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Riginslinger
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 05:04 PM

"But if I were to do the dumbass stuff then I sho nuff would have to be willing to suffer from the consequences..."

                But what was it they did? It might have been dumb, but it didn't hurt anybody. Like I said, if somebody took it as a threat, that's what they should have been punished for -- not thinking.

                If it had been the other way around, and black kids hung nooses in a tree after white students sat there, it wouldn't have meant much of anything at all. If people want equal treatment under the law, they have to settle for equal treatment. If we want different laws for every group in the country, we're going to have one hell of a lot of laws.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: John Hardly
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 03:29 PM

Too bad these guys lost to gansta rappers.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Peace
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 03:02 PM

Excellent opinion piece here.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 02:15 PM

If Mychal Bell was charged as a juvenile in the previous cases, how did they come to light now? Or, was he charged as a juvenile? Was that why they tried him as a an adult, so they could bring up his past record, if it even works that way, I don't know? I thought juvenile records were always sealed. Did someone "leak" them? just wondering.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 01:43 PM

Well, Rigster...

One can think about puttin' up a "noose" 24/7 fir his or her entire life... Fine... (Well, not really...)...

It when the thinkin' ends and the acting begins...

Hey, I'm sure everyone has thought about some real dumbass stuff... I know I have... But what occurs is that I have this little debate within me and as long as I don't do the dumbass stuff then, ahhhh, all is well... But if I were to do the dumbass stuff then I sho nuff would have to be willing to suffer from the consequences...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 01:39 PM

Mychal Bell's record of violence cannot be ignored or whitewashed. His request to be freed while an appeal is being reviewed by the judge at a juvenile court hearing was refused.
Like all juvenile court proceedings, the hearing (Friday, Sept. 21, La Salle Parish Courthouse)) was closed.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 01:13 PM

More about hate crimes: click.

And, clickety.

Subject: RE: BS: The Jena 6 Controversy
From: Riginslinger
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 12:27 PM

Frankly, I'm a little suspicious about the concept of "Hate Crime." It seems like the system is trying to condemn someone for what they are thinking.

          One could argue that hanging the nooses was a threat, and try to make something out of that, but I'm not sure how you get to the actual intent of the noose hanging without a confession.

          On the other hand, I would certainly agree with the principal's original punishment. I don't see how the superintedent et al were justified in changing that.