Just on CNN – Mychal Bell’s bail was denied.
The big “Jena 6″ protest is over, Sharpton and Jackson got their glory, at the expense of people who did the work, including Mychal Bell’s lawyers. The media played it like a faith-based event, even using the word “pilgrimage” repeatedly. Mid-day, the news reported that Mychal Bell will have another bond-hearing. That had absolutely nothing to do with the protest, Al Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson. It was just fortuitous timing. Nobody paid attention to the dog that didn’t bark:
It had many of the signs of the early civil rights protests — militant slogans, upraised clenched fists and multitudes of police — but none of the hate and fear-drenched campaigns in Selma, Little Rock and Montgomery.
Could that possibly be, because in spite of the fact that there is still injustice, it’s no longer public policy and that takes the heat and the urgency out of it? Why yes, it could. A lot of change has taken place in the last 40 years. Not enough, as evidenced by the morons who put nooses on the back of their pickup truck and drove around the protesters trying to start trouble.
police in nearby Alexandria said they arrested two whites after officers noticed a pair of nooses dangling from the rear of the driver’s pickup truck.
The driver, identified as 18-year-old Jeremiah Munsen of Colfax, was charged with inciting a riot, driving while intoxicated and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, authorities said. A city attorney will decide whether charges against the 16-year-old passenger from Dry Prong are warranted, said Alexandria Police Sgt. Clifford Gatlin.
“I wish we had a charge in Louisiana for aggravated ignorance, because this is a classic case,” Gatlin said.
Lot of that going around… but less than there used to be, and I’m hopeful for the future. In this case, CNN reports that Munsen was arrested for inciting a riot.
I originally started blogging about the Jena 6 because I was outraged at the 2nd degree attempted murder charges. I thought then they should receive “at most” time served, although my opinion has changed since then. I think it’s wrong – and I think it was deliberate – they were kept in adult court, even after the charges were lowered. I’ve posted my concerns about the jury – not that it was composed of white people, but at their possible connections to the prosecution. I was unimpressed with Justin Barker’s testimony, and his injuries. I spent time studying other cases that were relevant. I’ve been infuriated by DOJ attorney Donald Washington (who lied again on CNN last night) and frustrated by those who invoke the Gospel of Washington. In short, I’ve spent far too much time on this case. And I’ll be spending even more, because I’m now in possession of documents and details that the media has chosen not to cover; more on that on Monday.
Over time my opinion of what punishment is appropriate for the Jena 6 has changed, and I’ve gone from “at most” time served in that original post to just wanting to see fair trials in the juvenile system and letting the chips fall where they may. But there are no easy answers in this case, and those who make a poster boy of Mychal Bell as the symbol of racial injustice should find another symbol. To put him on a pedestal is yet another type of aggravated ignorance. The point isn’t the person, the point is whether the original charges were appropriate and fair. Although I have a great deal of sympathy for Alan Bean, I think he’s dangerously naive to call the Jena 6 “fine young men.”
Part of the reason I’ve taken all this so personally is my own family’s racial history. And to follow up on that post, although we were able to get L into an experimental cancer treatment program at Duke University last spring, the treatment didn’t work for her and she died on Tuesday. I haven’t been able to write about it before now. I can barely think about it. Please keep her family – her blood relatives and my family, her adopted family – in your prayers.
