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Fu-Gee-La
 Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:16 pm |
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Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Black Boys
by Michael-Louis Ingram, michaelingram@blackathlete.com
POSTED: Sep 20, 2007
| Quote: | | "What they attempt to do wouldn't matter if you had a strong family and a strong community. You know what they're saying is a lie. They've been lying about you a long time now, so you just keep moving. But if the family's weak, the community's weak, and can't resist the lie, you then believe the lie of inferiority." |
-- Dr. Cornell West, speaking on white supremacist stereotypes of mass media.
PHILADELPHIA -- There are a lot of places in America where almost nothing has changed from those days of the Civil Rights era -- except that segregation ain't legal.
In the rural Louisiana town of Jena in September of last year, a black student asked permission from school administrators to sit under the shade of a tree commonly reserved for the enjoyment of white students. School officials advised the black students to sit wherever they wanted and they did.
The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from the same tree. The Jena High School principal found that three white students were responsible and recommended expulsion.
The white superintendent of schools, however, over-ruled the principal and gave the students a three day suspension, saying that the nooses were a "youthful stunt" Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the tree to protest the lenient treatment given to the noose-hanging white students.
Racial tensions remained elevated throughout the fall. On December 4, 2006, Justin Barker, a white student who allegedly had been racially taunting black students in support of the students who hung the nooses got into a fight with black students. Allegedly, Barker was taken to the hospital treated, released, and reportedly attended a social function later that evening.
As a result of this incident, six black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were expelled from school in spite of the fact the school's own literature with regard to fighting cites the maximum penalty at three days suspension.
The six charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey, Jr. whose bail was set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theodore Shaw -- bail $130,000; 18-year-old Carwin Jones -- bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis -- bail $70,000; 17 year old Mychal Bell, then a sophomore in high school who was charged as an adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still unidentified minor.
On the morning of the trial, the District Attorney, Reid Walters, reduced the charges from attempted second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a dangerous weapon.
Prior to the incident, all of the indicted were good students who played on the school's sports teams with no prior criminal records.
It was later revealed Walters further sought to magnify other behavioral issues related to Bell into a criminal dossier. Not surprising for an individual who felt it was so important to come to Jena High School and announce to a full assembly that the " Jena 6" would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Walters was then allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered a dangerous weapon.
Bell' s parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, weren't even allowed to attend the trial, while Barker was allowed to remain in the courtroom.
The public defender appointed to speak on Bell never called any witnesses to testify on his behalf, saying afterward he put on the best defense he could.
When the pool of potential jurors was summoned, fifty people appeared, all white. After less than three hours deliberation, Bell was found guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison.
New information reveals Bell will now be tried as a juvenile.
The rest of the "Jena 6" now awaiting their trials as well, with Theodore Shaw due for appearance before the district court in nearby Alexandria after Bell's sentencing.
It has to be mentioned that LaSalle Parish, where Jena is located, was also the home of the a juvenile correctional center that opened in 1998, only to close its doors in 2000 after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the privately-run institution after it was revealed guards paid inmates to fight each other.
There were also charges of widespread brutality and racism, with further charges of guards laughing when teens attempted to commit suicide.
Continuous calls to Jena High School and the LaSalle Parish Prosecutor's office were not able to provide further input or response at press time.
A few hundred miles east in Atlanta, Georgia, Genarlow Wilson remains in a Fulton County jail. Wilson’s lawyer, BJ Bernstein, has championed the young high school honor student and homecoming king with no prior police record who was arrested and convicted for having consensual non-procreative sex with a minor at age 17. "We're still waiting -- and as of right now, nothing will change today," said Bernstein.
"Any new information coming out normally is out by 2 p.m. our time, so there's always tomorrow. But we've been on edge ever since we filed the appeal."
Bernstein's attempts to throw out the star student/athlete's case awakened the nation to the warped attitudes of sex and bad application of archaic laws. "It's bad enough Georgia state law considered oral sex between husband and wife a crime until 1998 (the crime punishable by 20 years in prison); the application side of this is simply that prosecutors should never have brought charges to this in the first place."
Wilson, who refused a plea which would have him register as a sex offender and reduce his time in half, has publicly stated he would never relent. "Genarlow has always stated that it's always been about doing what's right," said Bernstein.
Those words that Bernstein and Wilson want to hear so badly will have to come from the Georgia State Attorney General's office. Russell Willard, spokesman for the AG's office says it's now in the State Supreme Court hands. "What you have is the fact the State Legislature meets only 40 days a year, and the next session isn't until January of 2008.
"If the court rules in favor (of Wilson) he can be released on habeas corpus . If the court rules against a retroactive ruling, he will have to wait until they (Legislature) reconvene," Willard said.
A Mother's Pain
Bernstein knows what Bell and all the parents of the " Jena 6" are going through. "Juanessa (Juanessa Bennett, Genarlow Wilson's mother) wanted to travel to Jena to see Mychal Bell's parents as a show of support for their situation. But we feel we are so close to hearing a decision, it was best to stay put."
When asked if the actions of Dist. Atty. Walters in Jena were encouraged because of the previous ruling by Atty. Thurbert Baker in Georgia, Bernstein disagreed. "I don’t know if one thing is influencing the other; given the actions of both of the prosecutors in these cases, it comes back to the logic and/or motivation behind indictment."
While citing the Duke Rape Case and the actions of disbarred prosecutor Mike Nifong, Bernstein offered a subtle reminder that things have not progressed as far as we as a society would like. If you're asking whether prosecutors should be punished, I was on the other side of this, working as a prosecutor for seven years.
"What this should do is remind everyone how important your vote is, and how it is crucial you participate in the process as much as possible -- to know who your vote goes to -- at all levels."
It is crucial to remember the two things that intrinsically bind Genarlow Wilson and the " Jena 6": these young men are doing things the way they were taught to do. They did no wrong, and are standing up for what they thought was right.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit.
Blood on the trees, blood at the root.
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck.
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
-- Strange Fruit (1939). Sung by Billie Holiday.
Some "stunt", huh?
http://tinyurl.com/2sft6e
A Tennis Shoe.
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***Deactivated: Pending Review***
Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 7247
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:42 pm |
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In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree. (Please note, the tree above is not the tree, but a tree at Jena High School.)
The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."
Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 1 and two are juveniles.
Yesterday, I was in Jena for the first day of the trial for Mychal Bell, one of the Jena 6. The D.A., perhaps in response to public pressure, tried to get Bell to cop a plea. Bell refused, and today, jury selection began. After today, we'll know whether or not the case will be tried in front of an all-white jury. Jena's 85-percent white, and it remains to be seen whether or not the six can get a fair trial.
Both off-the-record and on, Jena residents told me racism is alive and well in Louisiana, and this is a case where it rose above the levee, so to speak.
http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml
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***Deactivated: Pending Review***
Joined: 03 Apr 2006
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Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:10 pm |
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Jena Six
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jena Six refers to a group of six African American teenagers who have been arrested and charged with crimes related to their alleged involvement in the assault of a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana, on December 4, 2006. The incident is one of many racially charged events that have occurred in the town since what has been called a prank involving the "white tree" on the Jena High School campus. Critics of how the case was handled, including civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, have claimed that the arrests and subsequent charges were racially motivated.[1] Many residents of the town, both Caucasian and African American, have expressed the view that the current problem is more the fault of outsiders using racial politics to influence the justice system. Additionally, U.S. Attorney Donald Washington, who is black, has expressed the opinion that although discipline was mishandled by the school, he found no reason to believe that there was any unfair judicial action.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six
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Concern for black defendants in Louisiana fills Texas buses
08:12 AM CDT on Thursday, September 20, 2007
By SCOTT FARWELL / The Dallas Morning News
sfarwell@dallasnews.com
More than 1,000 people from North Texas loaded into chartered buses, piled into rental vans and slid behind the wheels of cars Wednesday, joining an overnight caravan of national civil rights protesters expected to overwhelm a two-stoplight Louisiana town today.
Crowds began gathering under a lighted pavilion at Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas a few minutes before 10 p.m. Wednesday.
"You have to take a stand, or evil will prevail," said the Rev. Earl Bill of Rowlett. "Good men should not stand silent and let injustices rule."
For many activists, today's four-mile march and courthouse rally in Jena (pronounced Jee-nuh) is an expression of outrage with a criminal justice system they say is gutting the future of a generation of young black men.
In Texas, nearly one-third of black men in their 20s are in prison or on parole or probation. Nationally, black men are incarcerated more than six times as often as whites.
This morning, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King III planned to lead more than 40,000 protesters through the streets of Jena – population 3,000 – in singing and chanting in support of six young black men whom they say face a prejudiced prosecutor.
Black and white students have been going at it for more than a year in Jena. But the race-baiting – three nooses hung from a schoolyard tree, slurs and spasms of violence have resulted in misdemeanor charges against white boys and felonies against blacks.
"To some extent, what you can expect to see is a rebirth of the civil rights movement," said Ki-Afi Moyo, organizer of Dallas-based Internet community "Tx Supports Jena Six," which filled 20 chartered buses for the trip to Louisiana. "The grassroots response to this has been phenomenal. Even for those who can't be in Jena, you'll see people standing in solidarity in whatever way they can on this day. It's going to be powerful."
In all, there may be more than 5,000 Texans in Jena today, according to Deric Muhammad, a spokesman for the Houston-based Millions More Movement, which along with the NAACP mobilized most of the caravans rolling into Louisiana today.
Caravans left Wednesday from schools and churches around the state, including Friendship West Baptist in Dallas, Paul Quinn College, Prairie View A&M University and Texas Southern University in Houston.
"I don't know if I'll be going, but I know my 10-year-old daughter is paying attention to this," said Julius Thompson, a black attorney in Addison. "And I want her to watch this. You have to watch and learn before you know how to get involved and change things."
Some say the case of the "Jena Six" is a symptom of a diseased American legal system, in which laws are colorblind but lawyers and judges and juries see the world through prisms of racial bias.
But others, including many blacks and whites who live in Jena, say the opposite is true – that the case illustrates what happens when outside propagandists attempt to use racial politics to influence objective justice.
Consider the last year in Jena.
First, a black student asked an assistant principal at Jena High School whether he and his friends could sit under an oak tree, a favored meeting spot for white students. He was told to sit wherever he liked.
The next morning, three nooses were discovered hanging from the tree.
Two days later, black students staged an impromptu protest under the tree, prompting school administrators to call the student body into an assembly. Flanked by police officers, LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters stood before the student body and told them any further problems would be treated as a criminal matter.
"I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of my pen," he said. Black students said the white DA was looking directly at them when he made the remark, an accusation Mr. Walters denies.
Soon after, principal Scott Windham recommended the three white boys responsible for hanging the nooses be expelled from school, but a committee and Superintendent Roy Breithaupt disagreed.
Punishment for the incident was reduced to three days' in-school suspension.
That decision, according to Alan Bean, founder and director of Arlington-based Friends of Justice, set in motion a series of racially tinged fights that culminated with mirror-image gang-type assaults in December.
In an off-campus attack on a Friday night, one of the Jena Six – Robert Bailey – was attacked with beer bottles by a group of white men at a party.
The next Monday, white student Justin Barker taunted Mr. Bailey about the beating. Moments later, six black students knocked Mr. Barker unconscious and kicked him for more than a minute while he was lying in a school hallway. He face was badly swollen and bloodied, but he was able to attend a school function that night.
Five of the black students, including 17-year-old Mychal Bell, were charged with attempted second-degree murder with bail amounts ranging from $70,000 to $138,000. The charges eventually were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. In the attack on Mr. Bailey, one white man was charged – with simple battery.
Mr. Bell, the only one of the Jena Six still being held in jail, was convicted by an all-white jury of aggravated second-degree battery, a count that could have sent him to prison for 15 years. A state court overturned the June conviction, though, ruling he should not have been tried as an adult.
Mr. Bell remains in jail while prosecutors prepare an appeal. Four others among the Jena Six are awaiting trial. The sixth student is a juvenile, and his case is sealed.
"I think the bottom line is that none of these kids should have their lives destroyed by a felony," said Mr. Bean, a white Baptist minister who is credited with researching the story and serving it to the national press. "The tension here was created by the school superintendent and district attorney who put these kids in an adversarial position."
Mr. Walters, breaking a long public silence Wednesday at a news conference, denied that racism was involved. He also said the suffering of the beating victim, Mr. Barker, has been largely ignored.
"With all the emphasis on the defendant, the injury done to him and the serious threat to his existence has become a footnote," he said of Mr. Barker, who accompanied the prosecutor but declined to speak.
Mr. Walters also said he didn't prosecute the students accused of hanging the nooses because he could find no applicable Louisiana law.
"I cannot overemphasize what a villainous act that was. The people that did it should be ashamed of what they unleashed on this town," he said.
U.S. Attorney Donald Washington, who is black, criticized school officials for mishandling discipline at the school but told Jena residents during a public meeting last month that he found no evidence of unfair prosecution or sentencing.
The all-white jury was selected because none of the 350 blacks in LaSalle Parish who were called for jury duty showed up.
Today's rally was organized on the Internet, mobilized by black radio personalities and promoted by rap stars such as Most Def, Ice Cube and Common, who are all expected to attend.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama has called the charges "excessive.
"I hope the judicial process will move deliberately to ensure that all of the defendants will receive a fair trial and equal justice under the law," the Illinois senator said.
Law enforcement officers from across Louisiana and U.S. marshals are expected to be in town to help with crowd control. Jena's schools will be closed.
As for the oak tree in front of the high school, district officials cut it down for firewood last year.
The Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.
'JENA SIX' TIMELINE
Some details of events fueling racial tension in Jena, La., are in dispute. According to published news reports, here's how things unfolded:
Aug. 31, 2006: Black students at Jena High School seek permission to sit under a shady oak where white students traditionally congregate at lunch. They are told they can sit anywhere.
Sept. 1: Three nooses are found hanging from the tree.
Sept. 7-8: Jena High's principal recommends that three white students be expelled after they admit hanging the nooses. He is overruled by the superintendent and school board, who call the incident a prank. The students are suspended for two days.
Nov. 30: Fire destroys the school's academic wing. Later that night, a fight is reported at a party attended mostly by whites. A black student, Robert Bailey (who would become one of the Jena Six), is beaten with beer bottles.
Dec. 4: Jena High reopens. Mr. Bailey is taunted by a white student, Justin Barker, who is then attacked by several black students and knocked unconscious. Mr. Barker is treated at a hospital and attends a school event that evening.
Dec. 5-6: Six black students are arrested in the Dec. 4 fight and charged with aggravated second-degree battery. Deputies arrest a white student in the Nov. 30 fight; he's charged with simple battery and given probation.
Dec. 7: The district attorney upgrades charges against the six black students to attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. Bail amounts range from $70,000 to $138,000. A week later, the district attorney announces that Mychal Bell, 16, will be tried as an adult; his bail is set at $90,000.
June 25: Mychal Bell's trial begins before an all-white jury. His charges are reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same. Three days later, jurors convict him of the two charges.
Sept. 4: A judge drops the conspiracy conviction.
Sept. 14: A state appeals court overturns Mr. Bell's remaining conviction, ruling that he should not have been tried as an adult. His case will go back to juvenile court.
http://tinyurl.com/2ku47v
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Click your heels together...
Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 27633
Location: "Onboard" pathenry's desk
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:14 pm |
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http://www.freethejena6.org/
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 20849
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| Seraph
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:43 pm |
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Bowie supports US race row teens
Bowie said the donation was a "small gesture"
David Bowie has made a $10,000 (£4,981) donation to a legal defence fund for six black teenagers charged with assault on a white student in the US.
One of the teens, Mychal Bell, was found guilty of second degree battery in June by an all-white jury before the case was overturned by an appeal court.
The court said Bell, 16 at the time of the alleged incident in December 2006, should not have been tried as an adult.
Five others face charges. Bowie said Jena's judicial process was "unequal".
"A donation to the Jena 6 Legal Defence Fund is my small gesture indicating my belief that a wrongful charge and sentence should be prevented," said the 60-year-old in a statement published on his website.
The other students accused are Robert Bailey, 17, Theodore Shaw, 17, Carwin Jones, 18, and Bryant Purvis, 17.
A fifth teenager was booked as a juvenile and charges have not been made public
Racial tensions
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which is supporting the group's defence case, said it was pleased Bowie had got involved.
"We are gratified that rock star David Bowie was moved to donate to the NAACP's Jena campaign," said Julian Bond, chairman of the organisation's board of directors.
"Mr Bowie shares our outrage. We hope others will join him," he added.
Thousands are expected to march in protest through the small town of Jena on Thursday.
The Reverend Al Sharpton has helped organise the march and will later visit Mr Bell, who remains in jail because he cannot raise the $90,000 (£44,900) bail money.
The alleged assault followed a series of racial incidents between black and white students which began at Jena High School last summer.
A black student asked the school's principal whether he was permitted to sit under the shade of the school courtyard tree, a place traditionally reserved for white students only. He was told he could sit where he liked.
The following morning, when the students arrived at school, they found three nooses dangling from the tree.
The school's head recommended the noose-hangers be expelled but the governing board overruled him and the three white student perpetrators were briefly suspended.
BBC News
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Posts: 909
Location: United Kingdom
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| scheherazade
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:01 pm |
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September, 2006: A black student asked to sit under a tree on the school grounds known as "the white tree."
The next day, three nooses, representing lynching, are hung from the tree.
The school principal recommends expelling the three white students who hung the nooses.
The school superintendent overrules the principal, calling the nooses a simple "prank," and suspends the three students for three days.
Black students organize a sit-in under "the white tree" to protest.
Tensions mount throughout the fall. There are several fights between white students and black students.
In November, arsonists set fire to the school.
A white student beats up a black student after a party.
A young white man pulls a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store.
December 4, 2006: White Jena High School student Justin Barker, 17, is beaten during a fight with black students. Barker was temporarily knocked unconscious and suffered cuts and bruises. He was treated and released at a local hospital.
Six black students -- 17-year-old Robert Bailey Jr., 17-year-old Theo Shaw, 18-year-old Carwin Jones, 17-year-old Bryant Purvis, 16-year-old Mychal Bell, and a 14-year-old boy -- are arrested in connection with the assault. All but the 14-year-old are charged as adults with attempted second-degree murder. All six are expelled from school.
June 26, 2007 -- On the morning of Bell's trial, the district attorney reduces the charges against him to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. Bell is tried and convicted by an all-white jury. He faces up to 22 years in prison.
Sept. 4, 2007 -- A Louisiana District Court judge dismisses the conspiracy charge against Bell but lets the battery conviction stand, although he said Bell should have been tried as a juvenile. Charges against Jones and Shaw are reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy.
Sept. 10, 2007 -- Charges against Bailey Jr. are reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy.
Sept. 14, 2007 -- The Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals reverses Bell's aggravated second-degree battery conviction, ruling that he had been tried improperly as an adult. The local district attorney may appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court or refile the case in juvenile court
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** Banned **
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| tulsad
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:32 pm |
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U.S. Attorney: Nooses, beating at Jena not directly related
Created: September 20, 2007 09:19 AM Modified: September 20, 2007 11:17 AM
They are likely symptoms of racial tension, but there appears to be no link between the nooses hung by white students outside Jena High School and the beating of a white student by black teens in the town, U.S. Attorney Donald Washington said.
Washington, the chief federal prosecutor for the Western District of Louisiana headquartered in Shreveport, told CNN the events were separate incidents.
Washington has reviewed investigations into what has been happening in Jena. His office's jurisdiction includes Jena and Washington was there today for a protest rally that is attracting thousands of people.
"A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection," Washington said in an interview with CNN.
Nooses hanging from a tree are far from the norm, Washington said, but the racial tensions and fringe issues in Jena are "not far from the mainstream" in other parts of the country.
Some residents say nooses hung from a tree on campus sparked the violence that led to the beating.
The events occurred three months apart last year in the Central Louisiana town.
Critics of the way the case has been handled said the six black students, dubbed the "Jena 6," are being treated more harshly than the white students who hung the nooses. The whites were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges such as a hate crime. The black students face charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy in the schoolyard beating.
Washington, who is black, said that after the noose-hanging incident at the start of the school year in August, school routines went forward as usual and there was no apparent lingering anger.
"There were three months of high school football in which they all played football together and got along fine, in which there was a homecoming court, in which there was the drill team, in which there were parades," Washington told CNN.
Asked if the case had been blown out of proportion, he replied, "To a degree, I believe so, yes."
The noose hanging occurred after a black student asked whether he and some friends could sit under the tree, a place normally used by whites.
Washington said FBI agents who went to Jena in September to investigate the noose report concluded it had all the indications of a hate crime.
Washington said his office didn't prosecute the incident because it didn't meet the federal guidelines required for the teens to be certified as adults.
Washington said federal authorities examined the way the school handled the infractions, which involved school discipline for the noose incident, and whether black students were being treated differently than whites. The officials found it was not unusual for the school superintendent to reinstate students after the principal recommends expelling them.
Washington said he believes most people were disappointed the three students didn't get more severe punishment.
http://www.ktbs.com/news/U.S.-Attorney:-Nooses,-beating-at-Jena-not-directly-related-5110/
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
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| tulsad
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:39 pm |
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While critics contend the nooses and the beating are two sides of the same problem, U.S. Attorney Washington said a direct link would be hard to prove.
There was "no connection that a prosecutor could take into court and say, 'You know, judge or jury, we're prosecuting these white kids for these nooses, and look at all the damage they caused downstream, all the way down to the fight at Jena High School on December 4,'" he told CNN's Kyra Phillips on Tuesday.
"We could not prove that, because the statements of the students themselves do not make any mention of nooses, of trees, of the 'N' word or any other word of racial hate."
LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, who oversaw the local investigations into both incidents, rejected the idea there was "a direct linkage" between the hanging of the nooses and the schoolyard attack.
"When this case was brought to me and during our investigation and during the trial, there was no such linkage ever suggested," Walters said in a news conference Wednesday in Jena. "This compact story line has only been suggested after the fact."
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/19/jena.six.link/
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
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| tulsad
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:56 pm |
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Re: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Black Boys
[quote="]Fu-Gee-La"]by Michael-Louis Ingram, michaelingram@blackathlete.com
POSTED: Sep 20, 2007
| Quote: | "[snip]When the pool of potential jurors was summoned, fifty people appeared, all white. After less than three hours deliberation, Bell was found guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison.
New information reveals Bell will now be tried as a juvenile.[snip] |
Outside juries are often brought in to protect the rights of famous, generally white people; it would seem that in this case, that outside jurors should have been brought in for Bell's trial. Providing an unbiased jury of his peers is an guarantee to him. An all-white jury for a young man in a case linked to racially motivated behaviors is not a jury of his peers; Jena appears to have significant racial tension.
I've never understood bringing prior bad acts into trials. This kid - he will be retried as a juvenile - had his previous juvenile record brought up. Yet there are times when adults have serious crimes on their records, but they can't be mentioned. Can anyone help? Thanks.
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 3:57 pm |
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LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — A state appeals court has ordered a hearing on why one of the "Jena Six" defendants is still in jail, even though his conviction has been overtured.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal last week reversed the second-degree battery conviction of 17-year-old Mychal Bell in the beating of a white schoolmate, saying he should not have been tried as an adult.
But Bell has remained in jail following the district attorney's decision to appeal.
Bell was the first of six black teenagers to be tried in the beating at Jena High School, which followed the hanging of a noose on a tree. Thousands of protesters piled into Jena on Thursday to protest the charges.
http://tinyurl.com/ywy8c8
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| pausebreak
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 6:35 pm |
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A young white man pulls a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store
was this investigated? was he charged with a crime? Was he attempting to rob them? kill them? No charges filed?
How "young" was this white guy? Any younger than the 14 year old black student? Is "young" used in order to give some type of justification of his crime of pulling a shotgun on black students?
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Soopa Soopa Bitch !!
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 5550
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 6:55 pm |
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It's a southern thang pause.  Was that bad?
I bet that kid had a gun rack hanging and rebel flag sticker on the back winda too. 
I guess that is the dude who got his ass kicked for backing the hanging nooses on the "white tree" painted in school colors b/c that kid had the ballzack to ask permission to sit under a tree. Cry me a river.  Karma baby!
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered yesterday to take part in a rally which has brought racial issues to the fore across the US.
The march concerned the so-called 'Jena Six' – a group of black teenagers alleged to be involved in an attack on a white student.
The protesters were led by civil rights leaders, including the Rev Jesse Jackson and the Rev Al Sharpton.
Campaigners say authorities in Jena, Louisiana, have been harsh towards the six because of their colour and the episode shows racism is still prevalent in the US.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=66992&in_page_id=34
Shit whatever happened to the good ol' much needed ass kickin? I guess it has morphed in to guns and murder and such. It is quite ironic that in this particular case, the Jena 6 were threatened w/ rifles and when they finally "break" and deliver the much needed ass whoopin' in defense of themselves, they are charged w/ attempted murder w/ a deadly tennis shoe. Unbelieveable.
Last edited by Fu-Gee-La on Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:15 pm |
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People began massing for the demonstrations before dawn Thursday, jamming the two-lane highway leading into town and parking wherever they could. State police estimated the crowd at 15,000 to 20,000. Organizers said they believe it drew as many as 50,000.
Demonstrators gathered at the local courthouse, a park, and the yard at Jena High where the tree once stood (it was cut down in July). At times the town resembled a giant festival, with people setting up tables of food and drink and some dancing while a man beat on a drum.
Sharpton admonished the crowd to remain peaceful, and there were no reports of trouble. State police could be seen chatting amicably with demonstrators at the courthouse.
In Washington, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he would hold hearings on the case, though he did not set a date or say if the prosecutor would be called to testify.
Walters, the district attorney, has usually declined to discuss the case publicly. But on the eve of the demonstrations, he denied the charges against the teens were race-related and lamented that Barker, the victim of the beating, has been reduced to "a footnote" while protesters generate sympathy for his alleged attackers.
President Bush said he understood the emotions and the FBI was monitoring the situation.
"The events in Louisiana have saddened me," the president told reporters at the White House. "All of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice."
While Jena Six supporters were overwhelmingly black, young whites were also present.
"I think what happened here was disgusting and repulsive to the whole state," said Mallory Flippo, a white college student from Shreveport. "I think it reflected badly on our state and how it makes it seem we view black people. I don't feel that way, so I thought I should be here."
Other rallies in support of the black teens were held elsewhere, including Oklahoma City, where about 500 people gathered.
"It is time for us to express our outrage that such a blatant injustice should happen," said Roosevelt Milton, Oklahoma City NAACP president.
"I'm just glad people are starting to stand up for what is right," said Kiara Andrews, 15, of the Oklahoma City suburb of Midwest City.
In Jena, many white residents expressed anger at the way news organizations portrayed their town of 3,000 people.
"I believe in people standing up for what's right," said resident Ricky Coleman, 46, who is white. "What bothers me is this town being labeled racist. I'm not racist."
Mychal Bell, now 17, is the only one of the defendants to be tried. He was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, but his conviction was tossed out last week by a state appeals court that said Bell, who was 16 at the time of the beating, could not be tried as an adult on that charge.
He remained in jail pending an appeal by prosecutors. An appellate court on Thursday ordered a hearing to be held within three days on his request for release. The other five defendants are free on bond.
A group of about a dozen white residents and black demonstrators engaged in an animated but not angry exchange during the march. Whites asked blacks if they were aware of Bell's criminal record. Blacks replied that Jena High administrators mishandled the incidents.
Another white resident, Bill Williamson, 59, said he tried to convince visitors that the town was being treated unfairly and that Bell belonged in jail.
"I think we changed one man's mind," he said. "But most of these people don't want to hear."
As she trudged up a hill to a rally at a park, 63-year-old Elizabeth Redding of Willinboro, N.J., remembered marching at Selma, Ala., when she was in her 20s.
"I am a great-grandmother now. I'm doing this for my great-grandchildren," she said.
Alecea Rush, 21, a senior at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, said her grandmother used to tell her stories about the civil rights movement, including one in which she witnessed a lynching in Oklahoma City.
"I thought about every one of those stories being out here today," Rush said. "I never really felt the significance until today."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gMYhJ7JacdjJYgeND1hvXhK3vw0w
Why did they cut that tree down???
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| scheherazade
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:23 pm |
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A couple of my students took a bus to Jena; it left from downtown at midnight last night. They were both white. Most on that particular bus were black though.
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| scheherazade
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:26 pm |
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On Monday, December 4, at Jena High, a white student - who allegedly had been making racial taunts, including calling African American students "niggers" while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the black student at the off-campus party - was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that evening.
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=253
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| scheherazade
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:29 pm |
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| pausebreak wrote: | A young white man pulls a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store
was this investigated? was he charged with a crime? Was he attempting to rob them? kill them? No charges filed?
How "young" was this white guy? Any younger than the 14 year old black student? Is "young" used in order to give some type of justification of his crime of pulling a shotgun on black students? |
http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=253
On Friday night, December 1, a black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, December 2, a young white man pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested, no charges were filed against the white man.
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:53 pm |
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CASEPTLA BAILEY: That young black man was my son Robert Bailey. Him and some friends had gone to a party at the Jena Fair Barn. And to my understanding, it wasn’t an all-white party there. It was a few blacks that was already there in the party, and he asked to enter the party, if would it be OK for them to come in. And he said the lady responded as, “Sure, you know, as long as there be no fighting.”
So once he did enter the building, a gentleman asked him what was his name. He told him, “Robert Bailey” -- no, asked him, “Is your name Robert Bailey?” And my son said yes, and Justin Sloan hit him, as well as his sister Jessie Sloan. And from there, he was attacked by several white men in the Fair Barn. After the incident happened, his other friends came in to assist him. And once the police got there, the police told the black kids that they need to get back to their side of town. So that’s where a lot of racial tension is also coming from: our town cops in Jena, Louisiana.
AMY GOODMAN: And the incident where your son tried to get a gun from a man at a convenience store?
CASEPTLA BAILEY: Well, that incident happened on Saturday, December 2nd, the following day, where Robert and two of his friends, Theo Shaw and Ryan Simmons, were going to Gotta-Go Grocery. And once they got there, they say Matt Windham, who is a man, not a student at Jena High School, and Matt Windham -- I guess they had come upon each other, because Matt Windham was involved the previous night with the white gentlemen that beat my son the previous night at the Fair Barn, where -- rather attacked my son at the Fair Barn. So once they came upon each other, I guess it was on.
You know, Matt ran to his truck, from my understanding, pulled a shotgun, a sawed-off shotgun with a pistol grip, and my son wrestled with him to get the gun from him. And the other two gentlemen proceeded then to fight, and they took the gun from him and left the scene running. You know, I’m sure they were -- I know they were in fear of their lives. They were afraid that this man was going to shoot them, you know, especially in the back, running away from the scene. So they were scared. I’m sure Matt Windham was scared. You know, but he chose to run to the truck and pull the shotgun, not our children.
AMY GOODMAN: Were any authorities intervening at this point? And in the case of your son being attacked, did anyone get charged?
CASEPTLA BAILEY: In the beginning, no one was charged for the first three to four days. And then, thereafter, for the first -- probably the first couple of weeks after that. I don’t know when Justin Sloan was charged, but he was charged with just simple battery. But the other gentleman, as well as his sister, was not charged with any crime. I mean, you know, they talk about conspiracy and they talk about attack of a white student at Jena High School. What about my son, who was attacked at a function within the town city limits?
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413228
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***Deactivated: Pending Review***
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:55 pm |
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Authorities in Alexandria, less than 40 miles southwest of Jena, arrested two people who were driving a red pickup Thursday night with two nooses hanging off the back, repeatedly passing groups of demonstrators who were waiting for buses back to their home states.
The marchers had taken part in the huge protests in Jena that accused authorities there of injustice in the handling of racially charged cases -- including the hanging of nooses in a tree after a group of black students sat in an area where traditionally only white students sat.
The driver of the red truck, whom Alexandria police identified as Jeremiah Munsen, 18, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor -- a reference to the 16-year-old passenger. Munsen also was charged with driving while intoxicated
As officials were questioning the driver, he said he had an unloaded rifle in the back of the truck, which police found. They also found a set of brass knuckles in a cup holder on the dashboard, the police report said. Video Watch an I-Reporter's video of the nooses hanging from a truck »
The passenger told police he and his family are in the Ku Klux Klan and that he had KKK tattooed on his chest, the police report said. He also said that he tied the nooses and that the brass knuckles belonged to him, the report said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/09/21/car.nooses/?iref=mpstoryview
(video of truck at link)
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JENA, La. — Bail was denied Friday for a black teenager whose arrest in the beating of a white classmate led to this week's huge civil rights demonstration in the central Louisiana town of Jena, according to the father of one of his co-defendants.
The bond hearing for Mychal Bell, one of the group known as the Jena Six, was held this afternoon in a juvenile court in Jena. Lawyers would not comment because juvenile court proceedings are secret. But John Jenkins, the father of one of Bell's codefendants, said Bell's bail request was denied. Bell's mother left the courthouse in tears and refused to comment. A man accompanying her said, "Denied" as they walked out.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-21-jena_N.htm
I am just not so sure it would be the best thing for this kid to be out of juvie. It looks like his life could be in danger. GawdOMightyLawd. 
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| tulsad
Posted:
Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:58 pm |
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| Fu-Gee-La wrote: | | I am just not so sure it would be the best thing for this kid to be out of juvie. It looks like his life could be in danger. GawdOMightyLawd. |
That wasn't my first thought when I read he'd been denied bail, but the article you posted above has changed my mind. Just hope they have him in secure quarters. 
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:13 pm |
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| tulsad wrote: |
That wasn't my first thought when I read he'd been denied bail, but the article you posted above has changed my mind. Just hope they have him in secure quarters. |
Geeze no kidding, how about take Bell out of juvie and put him in to protective custody, and throw the future Grand Dragon of the KKK in to juvie w/ no bail.
Here is the police report-
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/09/21/police.report.pdf
Was this kid charged w/ posession? What was he charged with? Report says the kid was the one who put the nooses on the truck and had KKK tatooed on his chest- why was he read his rights?
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***Deactivated: Pending Review***
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| tulsad
Posted:
Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:36 pm |
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| Fu-Gee-La wrote: | | tulsad wrote: |
That wasn't my first thought when I read he'd been denied bail, but the article you posted above has changed my mind. Just hope they have him in secure quarters. |
Geeze no kidding, how about take Bell out of juvie and put him in to protective custody, and throw the future Grand Dragon of the KKK in to juvie w/ no bail.
Here is the police report-
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/09/21/police.report.pdf
Was this kid charged w/ posession? What was he charged with? Report says the kid was the one who put the nooses on the truck and had KKK tatooed on his chest- why was he read his rights? |
The report says that Det. Painter took over re: the juvenile; the record is probably sealed from that point on - at least for now. She's the officer called when they realized they had a juvenile in the truck. I would guess they read him his rights as a "cross-your-t's" precaution because he wasn't arrested or charged at that point; the whole country is watching them.
Sick, sick, sick.
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:40 pm |
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Roanoke neo-Nazi condemns Jena Six
William A. White posted the youths' addresses on a Web site that calls for lynching the group.
As thousands of people rallied in Jena, La., for six black youths charged with assaulting a white classmate, the FBI was monitoring a neo-Nazi activist in Roanoke who posted their names and addresses on a Web site that proclaimed: "Lynch the Jena 6."
William A. White also listed some of the defendants' telephone numbers, urging his readers to "Get in touch, and let them know justice is coming."
The leader of a Roanoke-based white supremacy group, White has a penchant for inserting inflammatory rhetoric into racially charged incidents that attract national attention, as the Jena Six case has done this week.
"He has done this kind of thing routinely, but probably never in such an outrageous way as this," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.
"It's appalling, but it's not surprising."
An FBI official said the agency is aware of White's posting.
"The FBI reviews information provided for possible violations under our jurisdiction, and would seek a prosecutive opinion at the appropriate time," said Sheila Thorne, a special agent with the agency's New Orleans division.
The review came as protesters gathered Thursday in Jena, the site of racial unrest since last summer. After a black student asked the school for permission to sit under a tree where white students traditionally gathered, three nooses were found hanging from the tree. Months later, the Jena Six were charged with beating a white student.
On his Web site, White complained of "agitators" who were demanding acquittals.
A posting Thursday afternoon that contained contact information for the six youths was headlined: "Addresses of Jena 6 N-----s; In case anyone wants to deliver justice."
In a second item, White was quoted as saying: "If these n------s are released or acquitted, we will find out where they live and make sure that white activists and white citizens in Louisiana know it ... in order to find someone willing to deliver justice."
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/132845
Oh my.
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***Deactivated: Pending Review***
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:55 pm |
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| scheherazade wrote: | | A couple of my students took a bus to Jena; it left from downtown at midnight last night. They were both white. Most on that particular bus were black though. |
RADFORD -- Nooses. A shotgun. Local law perceived by some as anything but colorblind.
The drama in Jena, La., is like a flashback to a distant, troubling time.
"When I first read the paper I couldn't believe what was going on," said Henry Kirby, a senior at Radford High School. "It sounded like I was reading something from history class about, like, the '50s. It was crazy."
Thursday, while tens of thousands of protesters converged on Jena, a much smaller protest was taking place nearly 900 miles away.
At least 85 of the 480 students who attend Radford High School wore T-shirts supporting the Jena Six. They signed letters they plan to send to LaSalle Parish, La., prosecutor Reed Walters and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
"I was thinking, 'How could our school make a difference to show these people aren't alone?' " junior Emma Kirby said.
The Jena story, according to what's been reported so far, began in August 2006 when a black student asked during a Jena High School assembly if it was all right for black students to sit under the oak tree where white students gathered for lunch. The next morning, nooses were dangling from that tree.
Jena High's principal wanted to expel the three white students who put up the nooses. The school board and superintendent disagreed. The students were suspended. There was an investigation, but no charges were filed.
A white student allegedly pulled a shotgun on a group of black students. The black kids took the gun away. The black student who took the gun home was charged with theft. The white student wasn't charged.
A black student was beaten by white students. No charges were filed.
Six black students -- the Jena Six -- beat a white student. They were charged with attempted murder. One of them, 16 years old at the time of the attack, was tried as an adult. An all-white jury convicted him of battery and conspiracy. An appeals court overturned that conviction, saying the student shouldn't have been tried as an adult.
There were other altercations, arguments and demonstrations in the town of 3,000. Jena officials cut down the noose tree. Someone set fire to the high school.
The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have taken up the cause. Singer David Bowie contributed to the Jena Six defense fund. Even Al Jazeera has covered the controversy.
In Radford, Kirby found T-shirts on the Internet, but they were expensive. Some people bought them, some made their own. Kirby's mother worked out a deal with a local T-shirt shop and bought 80 shirts with "Justice for the Jena 6" on their fronts. Kirby and others passed the shirts out to any student who would sign a letter.
"Even after all the T-shirts were gone, students wanted to sign the petition," junior Emily Reed said.
At lunchtime Thursday, they had more than 200 letters signed, not counting some Reed collected at Radford University. Other students are saying their piece into a video camera. Reed plans to produce a DVD for Blanco and Walters.
The students praised school administrators for their support. Principal Mark Lineburg praised the students for getting involved. The Black Awareness Club and the Diversity Club have been particularly involved in the Jena Six effort. "A lot of our clubs are taking stands and giving back to the community," Lineburg said. "And I think that's better than just raising funds and taking trips."
"Our students have gotten into it and they think we can make an impact," Reed added.
They want all the charges against the Jena Six to be dropped.
"Everyone knows it's wrong," Henry Kirby said. "We're trying to make things right again."
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/132825
Good for them. I think this just might only be the tip of the ice berg really. It just might be time to break out the tie dyes and mary jane. wahoo! Peace and Love with a little bit of Fire!
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***Deactivated: Pending Review***
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| Fu-Gee-La
Posted:
Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:20 pm |
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Message Boards for the Town Talk- Alexandria, LA
kuntryhick wrote-
| Quote: | | Treated fairly: I try so hard not to be predigest, but it seems I am forced to be that way because of there actions. They say they want equal rights, that’s what I want. For blacks to have equal rights they would have to give up some of what they have now. I now of no law that said you must hire me for a job because I am white. Everyone has the same opportunity to get an education b | | |
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