Locals Dispute Growing Story of Jena 6

[MannyGoldstein]

Interesting article on the Jena case in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-A-Place-Called-Jena.html

[Recursion]

1. You mean reality can be more complex than an activist's retelling of events?

Shocking!

[Dr. Strange]

3. Just when I thought I had an idea of what was going on in Jena...

These two lines stood out to me:

--The so-called ''white tree'' at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.

--Two nooses -- not three -- were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students ''were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them,'' according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.

I guess reality can be complex.

[Kuni]

21. Like when the guy who was already on probation for 2 previous assaults get’s let go?

Those who got out and protested for the release of someone who was already on probation for 2 earlier assaults should have done something useful for the country like protesting in favor of the Move-On Ad and against the lies being told by Dumbya and his enablers.

[flashl]

22. Knowing that Reed Walters is like District Attorney Mike Nifong on steroids ...

why is there any credibility in ANY of Bell’s previous charges?

Anyone who have the wherewithal to publicly make a threat to black student and say, "I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of my pen" is probably speaking from the position of drunken abuse of power.

[hedgehog]

2. According to the article, Bell was a problem before all this started,

but as long as he kept his criminal activities confined to the black community, law enforcement looked the other way. It's when he had a white victim that the law came after him.

This raises the question: not just in Jena but across the country; how do we ensure proper protection under the law for everyone when some criminals can hide behind the fact that their victims can't trust the law? Black on black violence is a major problem that's going on under the radar. Fights escalate until someone is shot dead (often an innocent bystander) because the police aren't called or when called, they don't respond, or when they respond, the witnesses refuse to testify or else the police themselves are seen as the enemy. Whites fear young black men they don't know; the dirty little secret is that blacks fear young black men they don't know. How do we untie this knot?

[BOSSHOG]

4. Vicious cycle in New Orleans

Blacks kill blacks, Police, led by Black Chief arrests suspects, suspects get lost in the garbage bin which is the district attorney's office, led by a Black DA. Revolving door justice. A recent black male murdered in the streets of New Orleans had previously been charged with multiple murders and yet was roaming the streets once again. I'll give the DA the slightest benefit because katrina disrupted his operation mightily but its been two years.

[flashl]

12. The knot will be united when selective prosecution ends. n/t

[Dr. Strange]

23. I'd like to think that...

but it's pretty much a lose-lose. If they prosecute, then it's selective because of his race. If they don't prosecute, then it's selective because he's a football star.

[flashl]

24. This case reveals some of the ugliness of selective prosecution

Recently, three OxyContin execs were fined $634.5M. Purdue, its top lawyer and former president and former chief medical officer pleaded guilty in May to claiming to doctors that OxyContin was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications.

In the open, a company sold and made billions for more than 12 years from a drug that competes with the addiction and death rate of street heroin.

Jails and prisons today are overflowing with street corner drug dealers and marijuana users. Yet, somehow no one is suppose to notice the difference in sentencing.

And, for further reading, look up school to prison pipeline.

[flashl]

5. The revisionist are indeed busy

There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.

This is true only if you leave out that moments before the incident Justin Barker had been taunting Robert Bailey with racial slurs and defending the noose-hanger. Only, then can the revisionist repeat their enhanced version of the story.

In addition, the revisionist can pretend that Justine Barker's actions that incited the Jena 6 incident is not chargeable as ethnic Intimidation - a "hate crime" (felony) and inciting a riot (felony).

[Judi Lynn]

6. Thanks for your comments. Any residents who hope to continue to live there

who are NOT members of the overlords in the town are undoubtedly doing their best to downplay things because it could get very rocky for them if they seem to remember these events very long, if at all.

Also missing in the NY Times recount is the incident in which a black kid was beaten badly by a group of whites who used beer bottles to get the message across to him, which happened well before the one the papers seem to mention in which poor, sweet, angelic Justin Barker got scuffed up, but was still able to overcome in time to go out for the evening.

[flashl]

9. There is another reason to "clean up" Jena's image

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 and other activities that makes Abu Ghraib prison scenario look tame.

The Dept of Justice had to file for emergency relief to get the youths out of Jena.

Later, Katrina jail evacuees were sent to the closed Jena youth correction facility. Shortly, complaints were filed stating that Jena guards "treated the prisoners like animals".

Now, the misunderstood citizens of Jena are going to get another chance. GEO plans to open an immigration detention facility in Jena, La.

No, there is nothing unusal is going on in Jena.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Jeez. It's going to be necessary to keep your post for future reference. Had no idea.

It's really hot, remembering that strange little bit from page #2 of the N.Y. Times article (good god!):

Here, one refers to elders as ''Sir,'' and ''Ma'am.'' Children still pull catfish from creeks; couples court at Jena Giants football games; families rope goats and calves at weekend rodeos.

In a place where per capita income is $13,761, there aren't any swank, French restaurants, but rather, family eateries such as the Burger Barn, Ginny's and Maw & Paw's. Most of Jena's 14-odd churches stage Easter egg hunts. On summer afternoons, sweet tea and lemonade on a neighbor's front porch are obligatory.

And there are endearing figures, like the designated town sweeper who mountain bikes around town with a wagon full of rakes, brooms, dustpans and cleaning fluids, stopping only to sweep shopowners' parking lots or to distribute complimentary bubble gum to grade schoolers.
(snip)

You've added some much needed CONTEXT. Thank you.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

32. I"m a bit confused, Why do you say "Good God?" regarding that excerpt?

I don't see anything in there that isn't typical of a lot of small towns in the south, including the per capita income. That's why so many move away!

[midlife_mo_Jo]

31. Residents don't have to speak to the press

Things are always more complicated than they seem, and while I think there's racism here, you have to put it in it's context.

For instance, first time I heard all white jury, I was furious.

However, if no blacks showed to serve on the jury, that does provide much more context. That doesn't mean I don't think there's a HUGE problem with Bell being charged as an adult, and with the sentence imposted.

[democrat_06]

7. Read this weekend

that they went easy on Bell in his other crimes because he was a great football player, not because the crimes were black on black. Remember nothing gets in the way of high school football in the south. Also, it was said that the nooses had nothing to do with the Black kids hanging under the tree, it was done against a rival football team they were playing that weekend, the Cowboys, and the noose was a reference to "hang 'em high".
I don't have time to search for the link, but there could be more to this story than meets the eye.

Regardless, the charges of attempted murder were ridiculous but nonetheless when six kids gang up on one there is a problem whatever color you are. If it's just a high school brawl a long string of Saturday detentions would work for me.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Take time to start reading about events which happened earlier.

You may as well. It can only help.

You certainly right that there IS more than meets the eye. Far more. It doesn't support the racist behavior of the District Attorney, either.

Just jump in there and start researching in order to get a grasp of the situation. It's something you'll have to do for yourself. People can't just explain it all to you. No one has that kind of time.

[flashl]

11. If you read anything about this by now you would know

that it wasn't a 6-1 fight.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

29. The nooses were for the "Cowboys" Hmmmm?

"that they went easy on Bell in his other crimes because he was a great football player, not because the crimes were black on black. Remember nothing gets in the way of high school football in the south. Also, it was said that the nooses had nothing to do with the Black kids hanging under the tree, it was done against a rival football team they were playing that weekend, the Cowboys, and the noose was a reference to "hang 'em high".
I don't have time to search for the link, but there could be more to this story than meets the eye.

If that's true, it would make a lot of sense, and certainly bolsters the story about black and white kids were playing with them.

[sandnsea]

10. denial

It's just a coincidence in a town that won't hire black professionals that black kids are charged with crimes and white kids aren't. Sure. It's not racism at all. You betcha.

[hedgehog]

14. Not denial, simply pointing out that there are other things going on

besides racism. I think the post suggesting that Bell was given a long leash because he won football games may have a point. I still want to know if the attack on the black kid at the party was reported to police and if he received medical attention. If the incident was never reported and the only information the police had was gossip the next day, what would we want them to do? I am reminded of the complaints here in Syracuse about police inaction when affluent parent in a white suburb host drinking parties for underage teens. Sure, "everyone knew" that so-and-so would be serving liquor on Saturday, but does that mean the police knew?

I would suggest that racism was the accelerant added to an already burning fire.

[flashl]

15. You appear to have a willful bias against the truth n/t

[sandnsea]

16. denial

Racism isn't the accelerant. Racism is the fire.

The black kids took a gun from a white kid to the police, and they were charged with theft. That town is so racist they can't even see it in themselves. The racism is so insidious that the NYTimes doesn't even understand the kind of minimization and rationalization necessary to cover up the racism.

No blacks showed up for jury duty? Maybe it's because they know they never get chosen anyway.

Notice the article also doesn't acknowledge that the punishment for the noose hanging was changed because of the school board.

And doesn't mention that there have been 3 other noose incidents in the last few days.

This country is rotting from within.

[hedgehog]

17. You apparently have new information; do you have a good source?

If true, the information about the police action/inaction is damning. If rumor, it adds more heat than light.



Maybe a better metaphor is to consider this several blazes coming together to turn into a wild fire. Many other communities suffer from fights among teenagers of the same race and socioeconomic background. If that's all that had happened in Jena, we'd never had heard of the place. It's when that situation was compounded by racism that it took on deeper meaning.

As for the new nooses, consider the possibility that they mean far more to the intended targets than to the jerks that displayed them. To those jerks, the nooses may have meant some vague resentment that their town is being given a bad reputation. To the targets, the nooses threaten lynching. Again, these people may be Kluxers or they may simply be the kind of jerk who thinks it a hoot to smash mail boxes with a baseball bat. When racism enters the picture, what is a trivial act for the perpetrator becomes a major problem for the rest of us.

[sandnsea]

25. Excuse me?

You are making excuses for hanging nooses?? Is that really what you're doing?

[tkmorris]

26. A NOOSE signals vague resentment?

Holy guacamole. I've read enough.

[hedgehog]

27. Let me explain a little further

When I was a kid back in the early 60's, some kids would draw swastikas on the fogged up windows in school buses. These kids had fathers and uncles who had fought in World War II. They had a vague notion that a swastika was a bad thing; they had no concept of everything it symbolized. Drawing a swastika on a window was a means of stepping over the boundaries. I saw the same thing back in the mid 80's when teenagers painted pentagrams all over the place. They had no idea about Wicca or Satanism. They had no idea which end was up on a pentagram. They just knew that leaving pentagrams around scared the bejeezus out of a lot of adults.

Now, the person displaying the noose could be a full fledged Kluxer out to intimidate the black community. Or it could be some jackass with only a vague notion that anyone displaying a noose is an outlaw and the jackass thinks it's cool to adopt that image. Unfortunately, people seeing the noose have no means of determining the motivations behind it.

[hedgehog]

18. As an example of what school boards get up to -

Here there is a tradition of senior skip day. It's been getting out of hand as each class has members determined to top whatever last year's class did. The principal made it clear that anyone participating in skip day would be punished. Sure enough, some seniors skipped. The principal declared that these seniors would serve an in-class suspension instead of attending the festivities on the school sanctioned, school supervised senior day. Parents whined to the school board, so the school board over rode the principal.

Here again - a typical school board action ( ignoring the on-site professionals and giving in to whining parents) is made much worse due to the racism surrounding the incident.

[flashl]

20. This been a mystery to me ...

if Jena’s alleged automated??? jury randomizer selected the jurors, how do everybody know that approx. 50 blacks selected did not show for jury duty?

[midlife_mo_Jo]

30. It's both - it's racism and lack of black applicants

If you haven't lived in a small southern town, you may not realize how many college educated kids never go back to live there. There's just not that many opportunities.

[Mass]

19. Why is an AP article more honest that what we have read before?

[CitizenRob]

28. Jena 6, Norfolk 7, and the Moore 3, true civil rights heros.

Moore 3: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1856076/

Norfolk 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hej4UTITDQI

Jena 6: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

33. This article exposes something very troubling to me.

It seems the article talks about instances of white people habitually receiving more lenient punishments than black people. My question - why hasn't there been any statistical analysis? Lazy reporting leaves loopholes, whereas if some time were actually spent to quantify these claims, there'd be no dispute.

And it'd be easy to do. Measure the number of reported disturbances against the average punishment. Disaggregate by race. Simple as pie and far more reliable than the he said, she said mess these articles keep perpetuating.