I haven’t covered this story thoroughly, mostly because so many others have done a great job. It’s great to see the power of African American blogger activists.
At this point, I’ve read so many posts on the story that I don’t even remember where I first heard about it.
Here are a few links. If you still don’t know the story, here’s a summary on the background of the race.
Elle PhD has the list of contacts and the petition so you can support the Jena 6.
This case, and the Shaquanda Cotton Case are glaring examples of criminal justice inequality. Next stop the war on blacks drugs.
It’s hard to say what the worst thing about the case is, but the one that sets off the most alarms for me is the D.A.’s response to the ACLU’s request. From here: “District Attorney Walters stonewalled the ACLU’s “open records request” for months. He took the extraordinary step of suing the ACLU of Louisiana in state court so he would not have to comply with the order, but recently released some documents. The ACLU of Louisiana is currently reviewing them.”
Yeah, it makes you wonder why he’s stonewallig.
I just wanted to register that we’re getting white supremacist comments in favor of the original sentencing.
Mandolin, meaning on sites you’re associated with, or just that the usual idiots are still out there?
What I find most frustrating is that I had hoped that the Duke Lacrosse case would bring attention across political affiliation to the dangers of prosecutorial overreach and unchecked discretion. Of course, it most often negatively affects black and minority defendants, but sometimes a case of clear misconduct against three rich white boys is enough to get the “mainstream conservative” to think, “Hey, this could happen to us too!” Sure, it’s 1% of the time that the system is structurally biased against the rich and caucasian, but drawing attention to that 1% is often a good way to draw attention indirectly to the ignored 99%.
Instead, in the midst of the Jena events, Conservatives are talking about . . . the Duke lacrosse case.
On this site. I’m not letting them through mod.
Hopefully this doesn’t count as a “white supremacist comment.”
I have a very hard time seeing beating someone unconscious as a legally-permissible response to any taunt (spoken or performed).
I can see that maybe the charge should have been “assault” vs “aggravated assault” (I’m not an expert on the distinction), but I’m not comfortable with “he deserved it” as a justification for beating someone unconscious.
I don’t think that this case is very parallel (as far as prosecutorial over-reach) to the Duke non-rape case. There, the issue was “was a crime committed, and if so, by whom.” Here, everyone appears to agree that the beating happened and the accused were the ones who did it.
As I don’t know what prompted the six young men to attack the white fellow, I can’t comment on whether he “deserved” it or not. Most people don’t deserve being beaten for much of anything. However, there is another local case worth mentioning, concerning a white man beaten by three white youths. The victim ended up in the hospital for three days with swelling in his brain and unconsciousness as a result of his beating. The three youths who beat him received an aggravated assault charge and probation. The Jena Six (with no prior records) were charged with attempted murder, and the victim didn’t even spend a whole day in the hospital. If they attempted murder, they did a poor job of it.
The Texas juvenile justice system is currently under scrutiny for other such wild proescutions, and even wilder sentencing. Read the case of Shaquanda Cotton for more outrageous behavior towards black youth in Texas.
Jim Crow lives on.
Rich, I’m not sure if you count Libertarians as conservatives or not, but I first read about the jena 6 on http://www.theagitator.com and have noticed that other conservative blogs have picked it up.
I think i’ll get less coverage. I think part of that is there’s no real fight over the case. Most people seem to agree that the murder charges are crap. So less drama=less blogging. But we’ll see.
This is another good example of too much police power.
and racism in action.
The “Jena 6”, however, are just one hot-point, and can’t be looked at in isolation. In another related incident, a white student brandished a gun a several black students. The black students wrestled the white student to the ground and took his gun.
The white student was not charged with any crime, while the black students were all charged with theft.
Given any set of facts, there is a nearly limitless array of possible criminal charges that prosecutor chose to make or not make. The murder charges are the most extreme, of course, and therefore can garner more publicity, but the theft charges (combined with no charges against the instigator) actually strike me as the most egregious.
The point has nothing to do with whether or not the young man deserved to be beaten up for yelling racial taunts. No one is saying he deserved to be punched.
What people are saying is that this case should have been treated like the high school fight that it was. The injustice is charging a 16 year old with with attempted murder after a high school fight that resulted in a black eye and a bruised ear. The charges were later reduced to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery.(I don’t understand the exact distinctions on this either.), and this is what Mychal Bell was convicted. But this has been overturned by a judge, who noted that the case should have been conducted in juvenile court. Seriously, can you imagine how many of you or your classmates would be in jail (for up to 22 years) because you got in a fist fight? I know about 1/3 of the people I went to school with would be in jail.
Furthermore, this was the culmination of events where white youths were getting much more lenient punishments. The noose hangers were expelled and then allowed back. A similar fight were white students attacked a lone black student went relatively unpunished, as did a case where a white man threaten a group of black teens with a gun. Here’s a little summary of those events:
And then we also have to ask how the hell can a school have a shade tree for whites only. That’s what started this whole thing. A black student asked the principal for permission to sit under the whites shade tree (Should you even have to ask permission?), and suddenly we find nooses on the tree???
Rachel, according to snopes.com, the boy was unconscious. Murder charges are insane, and the whole thing has been mishandled since the principal was overruled by the school board, but saying the boy was “knocked down, punched and kicked” doesn’t convey the full degree of what was done to him. It’s understandable why this went to court. It’s just a shame it didn’t go to a smart court, but there doesn’t seem to be much smart among the folks running things in Jena.
I’ve been hearing about this case, but didn’t look into it. Thanks for the links.
This fool has his head up his a$$. Also, this whole business of a “white tree” and telling the kid to just go ahead and sit under there is pretty curious to me. The school administrators didn’t think that such a situation would need some monitoring?
Ah, I think something has to be a crime to be a hate crime. “Hate Crime” is a legal term, let’s use it correctly. I’ll sign on to the hate part, mind you. Even if that wasn’t their intent, it was certainly the message.
Were there any police reports or complaints made? I’d like to see more docs on this. If not, I imagine that the people involved could still make them.
Oh yeah? Gee. I’d like access to that computer, the database it operates off of and the program used to choose the data. Also, the system whereby the database is populated. I’m not normally one to cry for Federal intervention, but it might be justified here if the State of Louisana doesn’t step in. This is just the kind of thing that leads to uncovering official malfeasance.
What happened to the people that didn’t show up? Try that in Cook County Illinois (don’t show up for a jury summons) and see what happens.
Rachel S., six on one is not just a high school fight and it needs to be punished. I don’t advocate letting these kids off; they committed a crime (not attempted murder, mind you). But apparently a number of other people have as well, and they need to be held accountable. There seems to be something very wrong in LaSalle Parish.
I don’t know anybody who says there should be no punishment. The question is hte severity of the punishment. Perhaps expulsion from school, and probation, some time in youth detention, alternative school. Something like this would be appropriate for a fight, but my point is that this is much bigger than just the fight.
The real question is why are black youths being treated much more harshly than their white counterparts.
Well, using Occam’s razor I’m going to say it’s because they’re black. I’ll take a better explanation (politics, nepotism, bribery) if it’s supported by the facts but this one seems pretty clear cut to me.
“…background of the race.”
I have to ask: Freudian slip, honest mistake, or clever writing?
Thankfully, there is finally coverage…
We can all continue to live a life of denial regarding race. Yes the young men need to face punishment. However, the individuals who hung the nooses did as well.
The fact is, certain whites of this town were completely complacent with the race relations as long as blacks did not get out of line. As long as our children did not “sit under a tree.” A tree… God’s creation. They were even fine, as long as the blacks did not make a big fuss about the retaliatory hate crime committed because these children sat under the tree. As long as blacks did not “fight back” race relations were fine. The minute, children get into a school yard brawl, and the one with the lumps ends of being white, then these same whites want to destroy 6 young black men.
When you come from a seat of privilege in this nation, you obvious do not see race when it comes to explaining your ill actions and the subjugated race is compliant. When you come from a seat of privilege you immediately see race, however when you sense an element of “fighting back.”
Remember you also feared non-violence. You fear fighting back and non-violence equally because what you are ultimately fearing (subconsciously) is change.
Whether non-violent or fighting, African Americans and other minorities expressing disapproval will ALWAYS be threats to certain privileged whites because whenever we express disapproval in numbers or put forth a concerted effort, you get a real sense that your seat of privilege may be toppled. In turn, your efforts to “smother” the disapproval is amplified, because you are now utilizing resources to stump out 6 blacks or a group of marchers, as opposed to attacking them one individual at a time. There was a science to burning crosses in one yard at a time, or terrifying one family at a time. It becomes a bit of a different animal when you are put in a position whereby you feel you have to get 500 or 5,000 marchers underfoot at one time.
A schoolyard brawl equated to mob violence in the DA’s mind – leading him to want to make a grand example out of six of our children and destroy their lives. Why? To ensure that blacks get the picture and never rise up in numbers like that again in Jena, Louisiana.
http://www.supportjena6.com
Made it on to Instapundit:
http://instapundit.com/archives2/009597.php
I think the problem that people have talking about this case is the fact that the six boys aren’t innocent. They really did beat the ever-loving-crap out of another boy. So it’s hard to stand up and say, “yeah, but it’s the fault of the SYSTEM”.
Obviously, the police and judicial system in Jena need to be purged of the racists that have handled this whole affair… but the issue of what, exactly, to do about the little lynch-mob that received the original charges is pretty divisive.
That’s the problem. Obviously, a grave injustice happened here, but the whole “free the jena 6” thing looks, on the surface, like people want them to get off scot-free. This is why only the black activists are rallying behind them.
Imho, if you made the issue “Justice for the Jena 6” instead of “free” them, you might get more traction.
Silenced, there may have been as many as 50,000 people protesting. See here.
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3084081&ok=1
“Local Jena 6 demonstrators circled by trucks with nooses”
Holy living fuck. Okay, I take it back. That town is completely insane… and by extension, anything those black kids did to survive was perfectly reasonable. Jesus, I’ve just completely lost all confidence in the human species.
Just set them free and pave over the whole town.
I initially posted something snarky here, but after Silenced is foo’s last comment, I’m replacing it with utter agreement with his last sentence.
—Myca
Where the hell is the State of Louisiana in all of this? Are they investigating what’s going on in LaSalle Parish?
I second Ron’s point. If the local governments are not living up to their responsibilities to uphold civil rights then the state needs to step in.
If you take the race issue out, these events look like a bunch of bullies controlling the population.
Is there a valid argument to be made that race issues justify a group attack on a single person that included stomping on him after beating him to the ground?
I have to wonder why so many people feel the need to point out that beating up this kid was illegal/wrong/unjustified/etc, when I don’t think that anyone here has claimed otherwise.
The issue isn’t that what the Jena 6 did was justified.
The issue is one of unequal justice, undercharging white students while overcharging black ones, and of the local government turning a blind eye to everything that was going on, allowing it to escalate, escalate, escalate, until finally everything blew up . . . and yeah, the black kids got blamed for it.
Which is typical.
—Myca
I mean, I think a perfect illustration of the situation is that according to the Jena police, sneakers are a deadly weapon, but a shotgun isn’t.
—Myca
Myca, some people are hearing “Free” and thinking that means giving the six a free pass. What they don’t realize is that the six have already paid a lot of dues going through the legal hassles.
Well, not to mention that beyond going through the legal hassles, at least one of them has been in jail for quite some time now.
I’m not minimizing what happened there, and 6-on-1 is out of line regardless . . . but if the standard that’s set is that ‘all of this is youthful pranks’, and that only changes when it’s black kids on the giving end rather than the receiving end . . . well, that’s the definition of racism.
—Myca
Pingback: Sadly, No! » “That’s Different; They’re White Guys,” Pt. Eleventy-Squillion
I think the misunderstanding is the sign that says “free them” as though they shouldn’t be or have been punished. The one of the guys has been jail for 9 months. That seems like fair enough punishment (if even a little long) for the assault. Hell, in Vermont you can rape several children many times and get much less than that.
As for the others, I don’t know the extent to which they participated or to what length they have been punished for it. The DA pursuing different punishments for similar crimes depending on the race? A whites only tree? Nooses used as intimidation? WTF? Its starting to turn into a twilight zone episode. Maybe that dump is the last bastion of the Klan.
Myca, yep. We agree on this one.
It’s sad, really, that we can’t even control race issues here in the US, but some firmly believe we can dispell religious issues overseas. Kinda ironic actually.
That said, this isn’t surprising. If you’re black, in a hick town, this is pretty standard. The reverse is also true in predominantly black urban centers for whites living there. It’s sad, that 40 years after the Civil Rights Movement, racial tensions still exist. Though half the problem lays at the hands of the leaders of the differing groups for continuing, rather than expelling, the anger and hatred.
I agree though, if the local government fails, the state should do something. But given the issues surrounding that state already, I’m not holding my breath.
I have to say that at first I jumped on the “free the jena 6” bandwagon and even signed a petition or two, but as I read more and more about the facts of this case some red flags are starting to appear in front of my face.
The white kid that was beaten was only in the hospital for less than a day but he was knocked unconscious, kicked in the head, and left blinded in one eye for over a week.
Also, this was wasn’t a “fight,” as it is being reported. The white kid that was beated was punched in the head from behind and was ganged up on. One person being beaten without provocation isn’t exactly a fight. This particularly kid that was beaten had nothing to do with hanging the noose or any other racist actions against the black students. He just happened to be a white kid that was an easy target.
Mychal Bell was on probation for other assualt charges at the time of the beating. In fact, this was his the third time before the court on assault charges in a two-year span.
I think that the original sentence was excessive but I do believe that Mychel Bell needs some serious jail time or else the next person he beats up might end up dead instead of just temporarily blinded.
“The reverse is also true in predominantly black urban centers for whites living there.”
A) Prove it. Go to an open thread and provide me with sociologically accepted figures indicating that racial discrimination for whites in urban centers is exactly the same as discrimination against blacks in the rest of the damn country, and it better be parallel on every point. Otherwise back off your ridiculous claim.
B) Could this little side note be any more “what about the white people?”
Jamila,
Again, by focusing narrowly on the fight that culminated in the attempted murder charges, you are missing the bigger picture.
The argument is that the punishments for the white kids were too light (on three other occassions), and the punishments for the black kids were too heavy handed. Furthermore, had the school not shown so much indifference earlier many of these problems could have been avoided. (I think the principal was reasonable, but the people who overruled his recommendation were not.)
The problem is that the school board and the criminal justice system have let down this kids. How does Mychal Bell’s lawyer call no witnesses? That is not adequate representation. We already know the court unfairly tried Bell in an adult court, when he should have been tried as a juvenile.
There are numerous cases where the criminal justice system and the school board could have done better. This is the greater picture. Until whites and blacks are treated similarly in the justice system (and we could also argue a class angle here too), there will continue to be thousands of Jena’s all over the country.
Nobody is saying Bell should win the peacemaker of the year award. I think he probably needs some anger management, and I think he’s served more than enough time in jail by this point.
I know sometimes it’s kind of hard to feel bad for somebody who you think has done something wrong, but the question is not, “Should there be any punishment?” The question is, “What punishment should there be?”
PS- On a different but related note. Many people have ignored the fact that there are likely widely differing levels of involvement for each of the six young men accused, which hopefully will come out in a trial. So we can say hey Mychal Bell had previous legal problems, but that says absolutely nothing about the other young men involved in this case. They should be judged individually based on their participation and their records. Everybody seems to be forgetting this.
A big problem is that the treatment both the white kids and the black kids isn’t so far out of the realm of normality as to claim “unjust” absent the comparison.
We see kids who have prior convictions or who have done bad things (like being involved in a group beating) get treated very harshly quite often-not saying it’s good (it isn’t) but it’s common. So thinking that all such sentences are “unjust” is, for many folks, more difficult to do.
We also see the system treat people with leniency when it feels they’re able to be rehabilitated or haven’t committed a gross harm. In fact, I’ve argued for that myself. So again, the treatment the white kids are getting isn’t itself unjust.
Finally, we often see vast sentence disparities. Hollywood stars who get drug sentences don’t do time; poor people who get caught with drugs go to jail. Paris was an exception. As a result, the mere fact of a sentence disparity isn’t (sadly) taht unusual either.
Obviously this IS unjust. But I have to admit that the spin doesn’t seem to be as effective as it could be. By focusing on result rather than process I fear we’re finding some folks inured to the complaint.
Ron and Robert ask where the state government is in this case.
Here is the response I got when I emailed Governor Blanco a while back:
When I responded to this email asking if Louisiana actually had no rules for clemency or pardons, and if the state DOJ actually had no ability to investigate a racist parish DA, I got exactly the same email back in response.
Kathleen Blanco is a shameful excuse for a human being.
Kathleen Blanco may or may not be a shameful excuse for a human being. However, as governor she doesn’t have the authority to issue a pardon on her own. She can only do so upon the recommendation of the Board of Pardons, one of whose requirements is that the person concerned has to apply for it. I don’t know whether such an application has been filed. My guess is that Bell’s attorneys have decided to wait at least until after his new trial is concluded (which, depending on the outcome, could result in the question of a pardon becoming moot).
Actually, it’s not unusual for defense lawyers, as a matter of strategy, to rest upon the conclusion of the prosecution’s case without calling any witnesses. Instead, they argue at closing that the state has not met its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Whether it was a good move in this case is hard to tell without knowing what witnesses were available and what kind of impression they were likely to leave on the jury. Besides, if the defense doesn’t call any witnesses, the prosecution can’t call rebuttal witnesses.
If you were to tell me that Bell’s attorneys didn’t object to the case being heard in adult court instead of juvenile court, didn’t object to the racial composition of the panel from which the jury was chosen, didn’t cross-examine the witnesses presented by the prosecution, and made no closing argument, I would have serious doubts about whether Bell had received adequate representation. However, the mere fact that they didn’t call any witnesses does not automatically mean there was ineffective assistance of counsel.
Rachel S Wrote:
I would have given him a few years, maybe 3 to 5, but definitely not 20. The kid ( isn’t he 18 years old now?) has several assault charges under his belt so I have no pity for him because he has been sitting in jail for 9 months where he belongs.
I’ll take a pass on evaluating the process for executive clemency/pardons in the State of Louisiana. But it’s still an open question why the Louisiana Attorney General hasn’t investigated what’s going on with the D.A. there.
I also think that the AG should take a look at how jurors are selected in LaSalle Parish. Something stinks there. “It’s done by computer”? BFD. It was a person who wrote the program, and it was a person who decided how to select the data that the computer uses.
It might also be worthwhile for the State Board of Education to evaluate the local School Board and what they thought of their Superintendent’s actions in cutting off the suspensions of the students who hung those nooses, and why a “white tree” is permitted at the local high school.
Now, it’s not at all unusual for kids to self-segregate for a lot of reasons, race included, at schools. “Why do all the black kids sit together in the cafeteria?” has been brought up on this very blog. But having someone who decides to step into that space met with the reaction that occured and not doing anything about it is not a good way to run a school.
The State Constitution provides for three branches of state government – Legislative, Executive, and Judicial – and the Constitution prohibits anyone in one branch from exercising the powers of anyone in another branch.
True. The executive branch cannot hold trials. But if it’s like the U.S. Constitution and any other State Constitution I’m familiar with, it also provides for checks and balances, so that when one branch either fails to act or acts in a fashion so as to exceed it’s authority the other branches can act.
So, for example, I’d guess that the executive authority can act to investigate the judges involved to see if there is any reason for the legislature to impeach them. That would get their attention.
Certainly, the Governor hopes for and expects fairness.
Sitting around and hoping sounds like what she did when Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, too. WTF is up with this woman? Sounds like another politician who’s great at campaigning but lousy at actually doing something.
Jury pool manipulation isn’t just seen in La Sallie Parish. It’s found elsewhere as well. In my county, we have several jury pools. Five of which were majority White by quite a bit. One which was 69% Black and Latino, which reflects the demographics of that area. When “consolidation” was done, that particular jury pool was mixed in with one of the majority White ones and so is now majority White. It seems that some individuals including those at the prosecutor’s office didn’t like the verdicts coming out of that particular jury pool, so they pressured the consolidation which actually made the judicial process in that area of the county more inconvenient. It wasn’t cost-cutting, or closing facilities down or anything normally associated with consolidating pools.
But if you are from the area that’s roughly 70% Black and Latino and once had a jury pool that matched that, now you’re shuffled off to a jury of your peers that will be drawn from a jury pool that is about 20% Black and Latino.
The county prosecutor takes great pride in having the highest conviction rate in the state, but another county was breathing down his neck so he pushed for appropriate measures to keep his lead.
I’m leery of State Attorney Generals. In many states, the ties between them and county prosecutors is just too close but it should be a resource that is used in circumstances such as this one if that’s not the case.
Mandolin,
Rediculous claim, eh? So, if I understand your logic, unless minority whites (that is, white’s living in predominantly black areas) experience exactly the same discrimination as minority blacks, then their experiences are void to you and not worth dealing with, in a minimum, at a contextual level? Unless that’s wrong, you’re just as racist as the whites in the above mentioned town.
Discrimination is discrimination, regardless of who perpetuates it against who, and is never justifiable. As a regular here, I’d expect you to at least understand that much.
No, I’m not going to quibble numbers, because ultimately it’s irrelevant to the broader discussion of our societies racial problems. It exists on both sides of the line, and without that acknowledgement, we might as well be talking about how evil Muslim’s are treating Jews in the middle east without a single word of how Jews pepetuate the exact same actions. Discussing what party perpetuates the most is akin to quibbling over who threw the first punch. It’s irrelevant, it’s the fact that the fight happened that we’re dealing with, and for their to be continuous animosity means that there is some level of hatred on both sides.
And for the record, I’d lock up all the kids who were involved in the connected incidents, white or black, to put an example that non of it will be tolerated.
B: I honestly don’t care about any group, be it white, male, woman, straight, gay, black, ect. I find dealing with “group identity” to be grossly bigotted at the core, and I have no room for bigottry, it distracts from the facts.
What I was saying is that the issue of racism should only be tackled from both sides, otherwise it will continue to perpetuate.
Bryan,
I’m not a regular — I’m a moderator. Substantiate your claim or get out.
I’d just like to remind everyone that five of these boys have yet to go to trial. So while you are certainly free to assume they are guilty, this has not been proven. There were many people at the rallies last week that didn’t realize that. Only one boy has gone to trial and his conviction has been overturned. The other five have not had their day in court yet. Hopefully, when they do, they will have adequate counsel and reasonable charges. I’m fairly certain Bell will be retried, as a juvie. The fact that he’s been in trouble before shouldn’t be ignored, but it also shouldn’t completely color the issue. And it certainly shouldn’t be enough to throw his life away for the next 20 something years.
I don’t doubt that minority whites in heavily minority neighbourboods may face discrimination and racism. The reason why it doesn’t have the traction you want it to have, is that no one sees it as an issue. Oh, some see it as a *line of argument* – to deflect claims of racism against minorities, or dilute a call to action against the same. But until we see the individual people who keep bringing it up advocating against racism against whites in minority neighbourhoods, starting up awareness groups, putting in time, money, and effort, you can see why we can’t really see it as much of an issue – how can we, when its strongest pullers apparently don’t treat it as such? So in the meantime we’ll triage our attention to what we see are greater issues.
There are others here who are more knowledgeable about this issue, but it seems to me that black against white bigotry is more a matter of individual attitudes (and sometimes actions), while white against black bigotry, is more institutionalized. It’s hard to imagine a Black D.A. threatening the kids at the school the way the D.A. in LaSalle Parish did (because they know they wouldn’t get away with it).
Here is another link about the Jena Six. It’s from the Christian Science Monitor, not exactly a right-wing or racist source. It says:
Note that the above is a selection from that web page, not the whole thing.
So, what’s going on here? Is this a case where people looking for racism (be they activists or the media) either neglected to do the proper research or ignored the facts in order to promote their narrative? What’s the real story here?
RonF,
Right, and the single person interviewed has no bias…
P6 has a rebuttal here.