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.
I would like to say as an african american raised in an african american family, that the punishment fits the crime. If it was my child beaten, I would want the same thing to happen. By the way bailey the only one be harshley punished has 6 criminal violence records. I think we (african americans) need to not blame everyone on the past. them days are over, and now we seem to be the ones making white people feel scared. My coworker is white and she said she honestly don’t want to express her opinion “even though she is married to a black man”, because she feels she will be called prejudice for saying her feelings, because she’s white. But if we say something about a white person,then people think its supppose to be our right. This isn’t right nomatter who you are. We are now the ones harrassing white people. Everyone needs to pull together no matter what race. Love is blind to colors.
ghettoone- personally I think you’re full of it. I think you’re yet another white person pretending to be black in order to say what you want to say. My opinion is not based on some idea that all black people think alike. Far from it. Black people of my acquaintance as well as black pundits online have a variety of opinions. But not only are your facts wrong, (Bailey hasn’t even been tried yet), what you’re saying is ludicrous and ignorant. “we seem to be the ones making white people feel scared” – you’ve got to be kidding. And your convenient white coworker… if you only knew how many of these types of comments I have failed to approve – because they click through from websites promoting white racism. I didn’t bother to look up how you got here because I just don’t care. I know BS when I read it.
One thing I don’t understand (and I genuinely hope someone can use some reasoning based not in racially-motivated propaganda, but in actual FACT to educate me) is what makes anyone think, for a second, that these young men deserve to be free from any punishment for their crime. Assault is a crime. Period. In the state of Louisiana, anyone over the age of 17 is legally classified as an adult. And at least four of these individuals were, in fact, 17, when they were in this fight.
Across the country, schools have added “zero tolerance” programs, under which students are, in fact, carted off to jail and charged with assault for fighting. In an age where students bring guns, knives and drugs to school, in a world where not only inner city schools, but suburban and rural schools as well, require metal detectors, on-site police officers and things called “zero tolerance policies,” it’s reasonable for those in charge to assume that a simple fistfight could escalate quickly into more. So the arrest, I absolutely understand and support.
The charges? I’m not so sure about the charges. They do seem a bit overblown. But I don’t pretend to know, under Louisiana law, where the lines are. In Texas, for instance, they might have also picked up charges for “Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity,” for the group aspects of the assault. And under Texas law, those charges would not have been unreasonable. But again, I don’t know Louisiana statutes.
Whether the student who was assaulted “asked for it” or not, why are so many rallying around the alleged perpetrators and paying the victim no attention? Is that not also a brand of racism? Would we not be rallying around the victim, rather than the alleged perpetrators, if the six boys doing the beating were white, or if the victim, too, was black?
Mostly, what I’m hoping someone can explain is how, whether we support the Jena 6 or want to see them jailed, whether we agree with the charges or think them excessive, how can we NOT acknowledge that continued focus on the race issue will continue to make race an issue, not just in Jena, but everywhere? Take a look in the mirror, and be really honest with yourself.
When this news broke, would anyone have turned a hair, really, had it been black-on-black or white-on-white violence. I have my doubts. And why was it necessary to bring the race issue to the news reports in the first place?
Are there clearly racial tensions in Jena? Yes. It’s obvious. And racism itself is a wound that needs healing.
But in much the same way a scab won’t heal if you pick at it, neither will the cancer of racism. It requires removal, treatment and education. But continually poking at it with a stick won’t help.
Laura,I enjoyed your posts on this subject at HA. Unfortunately there are several people that can only focus on their rage for things totally unrelated to the issue at hand. Don’t let them get you down. I’m from North Louisiana and know that in two or three days most of the commenters will have forgotten the important details and only remembered the leaders of the march. The ugly mindset that has been displayed leaves behind a higher hurdle for the citizens of the state to overcome in order to live together peacefully.
[Thanks, Bradky. Likewise.
]
I’ve only recently become aware of what transpired in Jena, LA, but since that time I’ve become consumed with trying to understand exactly what happened. I’ve read a lot of accounts of events that transpired from different perspectives, and as is usually the case in situations like this, it seems the truth lies somewhere between two extreme points of view. I don’t believe for a moment that ANY of the young men involved is a particularly innocent victim. It’s easy to root for someone who is innocent, but I submit that sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. Sometimes we have to support the guilty in the interest of “justice for all.” The fact that someone isn’t exactly pure as the driven snow is not justification to forfeit our ideals. Regardless of whether the Jena 6 are squeaky clean, or deeply troubled, the way this has been handled doesn’t do many of the adults involved credit. It sets our young people a poor example in decision making on the part of adults.
As a mother, what bothers me is that the adults in this scenario seem to be missing the point. What lies at the heart of this issue, aside from obvious racism, is the inherent injustice in an educational system that refuses to hold adults responsible for their decisions. Our young people are not fools. They are keenly aware of when they are being treated unjustly. We, and our schools, expect our young people to live up to high standards that we seem to be incapable of living up to ourselves. Hypocrisy, anyone?
We expect them to make good decisions and to accept the consequences when they make bad ones. Yet, adults, charged with their education and the inevitable disciplinary actions that come with that job, get to skate when it comes to making decisions. Adults institute Zero Tolerance Policies that supposedly remove the decision-making process entirely, and remove accountability from adults, who should be wiser. Then, once they’ve forgotten what it is to make a responsible decision, we give them the discretion to make a decision when they really, really want to make a decision, like calling something a prank, instead of what it really is. Sooo…what we end up with is swift and decisive zero tolerance for your son’s misbehavior, and a measured decision for someone else’s son. Letting schools keep zero tolerance in their school policy books is just a recipe for allowing adults to mete out the most severe punishments possible in a selective manner. Let’s ask our educators to make a decision each and every time and then be accountable for their decisions. We don’t ask any less of our children. The truth is, a decision not to make a decision, is a decision. Let’s stop parsing our words, mmmkay?
The school board members who called hanging nooses a prank should be held accountable for allowing this whole thing to escalate as it did. It takes an uncomfortable level of mental contortion to see nooses as anything less than a racially charged threat. To deny it, is to deny our history. Whether it could be prosecuted or not is irrelevant. Wisdom would seem to dictate that three days of in-school suspension would be laughable if it weren’t so.very.wrong. Whether anyone was upset by the nooses is immaterial. The intent is clear. We have students regularly getting expelled from our nation’s schools for possessing so much as a Tylenol, or drawing something that sort of maybe resembles a gun. Those aren’t criminal acts, but they’re treated as if they were. Yet, a clear hate crime amounts to three days?
The initial adult 2nd degree murder charges in this case were preposterous. The fact that it got to trial and conviction for any of them is disgusting. Did Mychal Bell get a fair trial? I think…not. Hopefully, juvenile court will provide him with real justice, the kind where the punishment fits the crime. But, it shouldn’t stop there. The people of Jena have a certain amount of responsibility for setting their town to rights.
In the words of Edmund Burke, “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” I don’t believe for a second that everyone in Jena, Louisiana is a racist, but where is the outrage from Jena citizens for the actions of its school board? Educators had a teachable moment the morning those nooses were found hanging from the “white tree” and completely fumbled it. Citizens of Jena, do the right thing! Dismiss the incompetents who voted for the three-day mockery of your African American citizens, and maybe you’ll have the beginnings of some healing. It’s not about correcting the errors of your ancestors, it’s about correcting your own errors.
The next step is to do something about that District Attorney. Do we really want our children taught that a prosecutor can take away someone’s life with the stroke of a pen? What is that telling children about the judicial system? There is something to be said for a prosecutor having confidence in his ability to do his job, but what he basically told those children is that a trial is a mere formality. Unfortunately, what our children are being taught in school, and the original verdict, pretty much backs up his assertion. Many students in our schools are being taught they are guilty. Period. Full stop. Schools, through their decisions not to decide, are acting as judge, jury, and academic executioner with impugnity. Yet, the students don’t even have an advocate. There’s no such thing as innocent until proven guilty in school. The fact that the District Attorney was consulted and asked to speak to the student body is symptomatic of schools that have gotten too cozy with the criminal justice system. It’s just too easy to dump troubled students into it. We’re supposed to be educating all of our children, not just the ones who are easiest to educate.
When Congress created a mandate for Zero Tolerance Policies to keep guns out of schools, I believe their hearts were in the right place. It’s just time we called these draconian policies, which have been expanded to ridiculous proportions, what they are. They are a failure, and worse, they have compounded the tragedies of Columbine, Jonesboro, and similar incidents to an intolerable degree. The atmospheres of our schools are toxic because of them. The irony is that there really isn’t any reason to believe that they’ve made our schools safer. Zero Tolerance Policies only give us a false sense of security.
So, here’s a breakdown of some of things I’d suggest Jena’s citizens consider to ease tensions–
What this boils down to is personal responsibility. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has some responsibility for what happened. The Jena 6 are responsible for beating Justin Barker. Kicking a fellow when he’s down is fighting dirty. They should be disciplined accordingly, but fairly. Treating them with anything but fairness only perpetuates the idea that dirty tactics are acceptable.
The young people who hung nooses from the “white tree” are responsible for fanning the flames of hatred that until that moment were somewhat banked. They could probably use some longterm counseling to adjust those attitudes. Sorry, I’m not buying the “Lonesome Dove” defense. It’s beyond ridiculous. Please stop asking the world to believe it.
The school board members who made the egregious error in judgment that a hate crime is only worthy of three days in-school suspension should be told their services are no longer needed. They should be asked to resign, or failing that, legally removed by Jena’s citizenry by whatever means their local goverment allows.
The District Attorney is responsible for aggravating an already tense situation with threats he had no business making. He is not an employee of the school system. His job is unrelated to education. He had no business there. He’s an officer of the court, not an officer of the peace. He should address the student body again and apologize for his ill-conceived remarks. They were out of line. I’ll refrain from commenting on his other possible transgressions until someone publishes some hard data.
As parents, we should all be fighting for the rights of our students. It’s our duty. Our nation has to stop criminalizing its children with the most extreme, and often outlandish, interpretations of their youthful transgressions. The first step down that path is abolishing Zero Tolerance Policies. We’ve let it go on for too long already. Let’s ask our educators to live up to the same standards expected of our children. A little tolerance…please!
“When this news broke, would anyone have turned a hair, really, had it been black-on-black or white-on-white violence.”
texaskat, I agree. But you must understand, had it been black-on-black or white-on-black, it wouldn’t have made the news because they would’ve never been charged with attempted murder in either of those scenarios; I (and many others who really sit back a second and think about it) firmly believe that. Black victims of crimes like these (from most black people’s perspective) are hardly ever seen as victims in the eyes of the judicial system to the extent that whites are, for reasons I still don’t understand. Blacks bleed and swell up just as whites do. They experience hurt, pain, and emotional distress, just as whites do. I’ve never heard of a black-on-black or white-on-white crime of this nature being prosecuted to this extent. Have you?
Whenever I see that Sharpton or Jackson comes to town, I know that the true focus will be lost. I give no credit to these Martin-wanna-be’s. They are still living off of MLK’s legacy and will until the end. Who pays them? Forget them – Over my lifetime (51 years), I have learned that poorly educated whites use their mouths to be tall, poorly educated blacks use their fists to be tall. The cycle continues. The nooses were horrible, very poor choices, and should have been dealt with more harshly. I think when the day comes that blacks can walk tall and go beyond whatever is put before them, these minority (because I think they are few in number), will find another outlet for their stupidity. When blacks beat, fight, hit (whatever you want to call it), a person for words, they also have to be dealt with through our justice system – just or unjust – it is all that we have that stands between us, a civilized world, and a barbaric world.
There are two reasons it has gone as far as it has… 1) it happened at a school, and 2) two opposite colors were involoved. I think the same scenario would have happened if it had been white on black – sharpton and gang would have come to town to declare injustice if they had not put the whites away and thrown away the key.
Lets talk about fair:
Blacks feel that the Jena situation was unfair. Lets talk about truth. If the Jena 6 were white, the balck populace would be crying “Lynch Mob”. Imagine – 6 WHITE guys beating up one Black guy. That would easily be called a lynch mob. That would assuredly be called a hate crime. Well it isn’t and everyone on this post knows why – It is only a lynching if blacks are beat up.
How about this fact you rarely hear on TV – Mychal Bell has not been granted release because he was on PROBATION when he committed a violent act by partcipating in a lynching. Sorry – but for someone to say he wasn’t given every chance by the courts to clean up his act is ludicrous. Bell is already a violent offender on probation for 2 counts of BATTERY and a count of criminal damage to property. Sorry – but I have kids and would prefer any juvenile delinquent who has a rap sheet of violent crimes to be kept incarcerated once accused of a 3rd violent crime. He was given as fair of a trial as anyone could get in that town.
Yes – it was an all white jury – however, there were blacks on the the courts roll and they decided not to do their civic duty that day – so no blacks showed up. Seems that when duty (Jury duty) is required they all had somethiong better to do. But, I am quite sure that they made the time to march in the protest.
This is utterly ridiculous. The Jena 6 are trying to make their crimes (YES – the Jena six are criminals and no one wants to realize that because then they argue so passionatly to free criminals – and violent ones at that) be discounted because of “Racial Tension” associated with mutually exclusive events other that their crime of Lynching a white kid. The courts are doing what they are supposed to do – which is keep criminals off the streets that cannot even adhere to the stipulations of their probation.
Keep marching, protesting, raising cain by telling 1/2 truths so your stories, the Jena Six’s stories will look almost good enough to get them off the hook for their crimes – but don’t be surprised when one of them beats your kid, who is mutually exclusive, unconscious.
Texaskat: The reason people are rallying is because of the injustice of the whole thing. People are saying Mr. Bell should be free because he has been in jail for over 10 months, which is long enough for beating someone up in my opinion. I attended a school where there was a lot of racial tension and this resulted in some fights. Sometimes 6 on 1 by both blacks and whites. A white person actually stabbed a black person during one fight. The white person was arrested and wasn’t charged with any type of murder charge. He served a little time (under a year) and then got out. I think that was appropriate because the white kid wasn’t trying to kill the black kid, he just got caught up in the moment with his friends. The reason for the outrage amongst blacks is purely because of the injustice of it all. Black people are tired of it. Black people have been in this country just as long as whites and are still second-class citizens. That is inexcusable. White people are Americans, while blacks continue to be African-Americans (Africans living in America).
Emaline1: I understand the frustration of white people with the seeming double standard when it comes to black people. But you know what, the “Jena 6” have been white plenty of times. There have been hundreds upon hundreds of times when six white guys have beat up one black guy. This may come as a shock to you but there are also plenty of times when the white guys are the police and they gang up on black guys. There’s been times when the police unload about 50 bullets in black guys only to find out it was only his wallet in his hand. When I read these posts by people who think that black people shouldn’t be rallying around the Jena 6 I wonder about the amount of sensitivity in your bodies. I wonder if it could be possible that you fall asleep and dream that you were black and wake up screaming. Maybe then you would understand how it feels. America is a country where the KKK and other hate groups are allowed to have websites, hold rallies, and congregate as much as they like and the law leaves them alone. If anyone of Middle Eastern descent acted like the KKK they would be charged with something related to terrorism and locked away without a trial. But white people can terrorize and spread hate all they want to as long as it’s directed towards blacks. Can anyone tell me the difference in hate and terror between the KKK and any other terror cell in the Middle East? Just because blacks were finally let in white schools and the police quit attacking blacks with dogs and water hoses several years back doesn’t mean that there are less racist practices in America. White people just got better behaved.