Jena 6 All-purpose thread

Gee, an awful lot of that didn't make JW's column.
Space limitations can be rough.

 

At least Whitlock paints the full picture for us. I also like the way he points to the source of the problem.

Think about it; three months to retaliate for the nooses?

What high schooler waits three months to retaliate to anything?

Granted, I have not followed this story that closely, but here is what I learned by reading Whitlock's column:
1. Three months passed
2. Dad was in Dallas and has now popped up.
3. It was a sucker punch from behind.
4. The kid had already assaulted someone else

That makes it worth its space to me.

 

Oh, the school system has very dirty hands on this as well. No one is an angel in this story.

 

OFF SETTING PENALTIES? DO OVER?

 

1) There are no rules stating that you are not allowed to start a thread on this. Instead of complaining that one didn’t exist, you could have started it yourself.

2) There already was a thread on this. It can be found here. I linked to it earlier in the thread.

It was the original thread on this topic. I only brought it up since it existed. I have much higher hopes for this thread.

 

Uh, when the charge is attempted murder because they define sneakers as a deadly weapon, and then the kid who was beat up goes to a party that same night, then yeah, I think that is a pretty good argument.

If they had been charged with assault or something, there's no story. They were charged with murder with one kid possibly sent away for 20 years.

 

It seems like racial tensions boiled over in the school. Counselors, teachers, school board and administrators are paid to do a better job of handling these issues.

There are hundreds of potential Jena's in America. Those schools are just doing a better job of quelling tensions.

 

Wrong. If you read the story, there were a series of events since the initial nooses incident:

 

Except that, by eliding all the other episodes that took place between the hanging of the nooses -- the natural response to black kids standing under the "whites only" tree, I think we all agree, especially in 2007 -- and the assault, he doesn't tell anywhere close to the entire story. Of course, those other episodes undercut the "three months to retaliate" strawman of which JW is so fond.

 

But I have assumed that the beating happened the next day or the same week as the noose. That is why it was new information for me.

 

Good. So the response is to excuse the violent behavior in question?

 

No.

The kids were wrong. The school was wrong. The town is wrong. Everyone screwed this up, and now it keeps growing and growing.

I cannot find a person in this entire event with clean hands.

Can anyone?