Blue Collar Muse

When I first read the story about The Jena 6 at Trying to Follow’s post, Update: The Jena 6 Need Your Voice, I thought to myself, “This will likely end up being another non-story that promises sensational special effects and delivers bad soap opera scenarios.” The only thing remotely close to true about that statement is that it is something one would expect to see only on TV. Preferably in a documentary covering history - ancient history.

But it’s not. It happened here in the USA within the last year. The facts are stunning and the conclusion of at least one of the stories is enough to make your blood boil. Never heard of the Jena 6? Neither had I until I read Ariah’s post. If there is any justice at all in our country, we’ll be hearing about them a lot in the days ahead. You’d think that this sort of prejudice and racism would be dead in our country. But you’d be wrong.

There are lots more facts to be found at some links I’ll post at the end of this post. To bring everyone up to date, these are the basic facts:

In the courtyard of the Jena High School there is a large shady tree. When students congregate in that courtyard, the tree has traditionally been used by white students only. At the beginning of the school year in the Fall of 2006, a black student asked school officials if it was OK if he, too, used the tree. He was told that he could sit wherever he liked. The next day, three nooses, painted in school colors, were found hanging from the tree. Presumably because burning crosses in the courtyard would have caused too many problems.

Three students were quickly identified as having hung the nooses and they were expelled. Black students held a demonstration of sorts under the tree a few days later which prompted a hastily convened school assembly where the District Attorney and police attended and, at which, the DA, Reed Walters, is reported to have told the black students from the demonstration under the tree, “I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of my pen.” The next day, the expulsion penalty against the noose hangers was reduced to a few days suspension based on the premise that the nooses were nothing more than a silly prank. Black parents and family members were not permitted to seriously address the school board’s decisions after the fact as it was decided that the matter was essentially closed. These events took place between 8/31/06 and 9/7/06.

In early December, following almost 3 months of escalating, smoldering below the surface, racial tensions in the predominantly white (85%) Louisiana town of 3,000, things exploded. On November 30th, the academic wing of the High School was ravaged by a fire which officials strongly believe was set intentionally. A day or so later, a young black student entered a mostly white party at a public location and was struck without warning by a 22 year old, white adult ( I use the term adult in only the legal sense). The black student was then set upon by other white party goers with beer bottles, fists and feet. The fight was quickly broken up by other adults. Despite knowing the identity of the white, adult attacker throwing the first punch, the man was not charged with any crime at all. Reports that he might have been charged with a misdemeaor in the matter cannot be confirmed.

The next day, one of the white males involved in the fight the night before pulled a pistol grip, pump action shotgun from his truck in a confrontation with 3 black high school students at a local convenience store. The students wrestled the gun away from the man and they were subsequently charged with assault and theft. I have not found any evidence the white pulling the shotgun was charged with anything.

On Monday, 12/4/06, the black student assaulted by the white adult at the party a few days before was being taunted, in school, for having his butt kicked and things got out of hand. The incident ended with a white student being knocked unconscious and then being kicked by black students. The fight broke up quickly. The injured boy was taken to the hospital, treated for minor wounds to the face and head and released. He attended a social function later that evening.

This last incident finally prompted a resonse from Jena’s legal and law enforcement establishment. DA Walters filed charges shortly thereafter and arrested 6 black high school students for Attempted 2nd Degree Murder and Conspiracy. Each of the 6 faced near 100 years in prison for their crimes. Bail was set at from $70,000 to $90,000; far beyond the reach of some of the boys’ families. At least two of the students are still in jail, almost 8 months later, as they were unable to make bail.

By the time the first trial took place in late June of 2007, after mounting pressure both nationally and internationally, the charges were reduced from attempted murder and conspiracy to Aggravated 2nd Degree Battery and Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated 2nd Degree Battery. While an improvement over the initial charges, these still carry the potential for 22 years in prison for anyone convicted of the crimes. Despite confidence that the Defense should win easily, if for no other reason than the ‘Aggravated’ part of the charge requires the use of a weapon in the crime and none was used, Mychal Bell, the first student tried, was convicted and is expected to receive the maximum 22 year sentence.

To say that the Public Defender representing Bell was ill prepared would be a kindness. From what I’m reading, my pet dog could have put on a more capable defense.

We all know that racism still exists in this country. Most of us are both ashamed and angry about it and confront it wherever we find it. It seems the good folks in Jena, from the DA to school officials and on to many townsfolk, are bent on preserving the good ol’ days when lynching and other pleasantries involving negroes for sport and amusement were all the rage. This cannot be permitted to continue without outrage and without action. Mike Nifong accused 3 white men of raping a black woman when he knew (or should have known) the charges were false. It appears this DA is similarly charging 6 young, black men with assault and conspiracy when the charges are way out of proportion to the crime, when the charges themselves are not in agreement with the facts of the case and in which it appears the DA knew things that should have kept him from bringing the charges in the first place. As if this weren’t bad enough, while no one is condoning the actions of the black students who assaulted the white student at school, the incredible disparity between the official response to the black attackers and the non-existent official response to white attackers starts at reprehensible and goes downhill from there.

Ariah’s post, ‘Update: The Jena 6 Need Your Voice’, contains some YouTube video links with more information on the incidents. In addition to that, please see Laura’s posts at Pursuing Holiness, ‘Jena 6 Update’ and ‘Jena 6 Collateral Episode on Blip TV’ for some excellent background on the case and more vlogs. Finally see The Chicago Tribune’s story on the reduction of the charges here and an incredibly detailed timeline of the events and documentation of the pale imitation of representation that Mychal Bell got from his Public Defender over at Friends of Justice and their post ‘Ineffective Assistance of Counsel: What Blane Williams Should Have Known’.

Anyone who has read anything I’ve written here over the last 6 months knows that I’m firmly and deeply planted in the soil on the Conservative side of the political debate. As such, things like the Duke Lacrosse Case, The Tawana Brawley Incident and all the rest make me want to pull a Glenn Beck and duct tape my head so they can find most of the pieces when it explodes. The word ‘Racism’ gets tossed around so often for so little in our society that it has lost its capacity to outrage us. All decent human beings should be outraged by racism when it is truly present. This is one of those cases. Please don’t remain silent or uninvolved. Support the Jena 6, donate to their cause, blog about what is happening, pray for the people of Jena - black and white - that godliness and justice will prevail and, whatever you do, please don’t forget the Jena 6!

Thinking that a meeting between Nifong the Lesser and Vlad the Impaler might be appropriate …

Blue Collar Muse

Thanks to JJ at Outside the Beltway for hosting the Beltway Traffic Jam!

Popularity: 27% [?]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 4:00 am and is filed under Blogroll, Conservative, Family, Individual Responsibility, Law Enforcement, You'd Be Wrong. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.