Jena 6 All-purpose thread

what I've found interesting is the DA stating that he couldn't find a crime to punish those who hung the noose with. Do they not have harassment or indimidation in Louisiana?

 

Unless Jason was there for the voir dire, he doesn't know fuck all what he's talking about. Again. There are any numer of studies demonstrating that the resegregation of juries is continuing apace because judges are unable or unwilling to enforce precedents regarding what can or cannot be used for challenging a juror.
This was a slow simmering race riot for three months and nobody in local law enforcement seemed to give a damn until a white kid, who was bragging about his part in one of the earlier racial incidents, got beat up. And the catalyst was that two black kids had the audacity to sit under :the white tree."
Welcome to 1952.
(Wow, four replies since I started typing.)

 

Didn't read Whitlock's piece but it's been reported in other outlets no African-Americans showed up for jury duty.

 

That's not entirely true. The white kids were punished. Certainly, an argument can be made that they weren't punished severely enough. But they were punished. Also, I believe I read that another white kid was arrested for attacking a group of blacks kids going to a "white" party.

I'd also like to point out that the media isn't helping shit any either. All of these stories that are slanted in one direction or the other are only adding to the problems. These are freakin' high school kids. There's no such thing as a "white" party. And blow me for writing that dumb shit. What did happen -- the same as it happens in thousands of towns all across the country -- is that a white kid threw a party and his white friends showed up. Works the same for the black kids. Sometimes, there's some intermingling of the two groups, but not often. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the two groups dislike one another. They just don't want to hang out together. BFD.

People act like all of this shit was premeditated when it obviously wasn't. It was simply a societal norm: White kids and black kids don't often hang together. Doesn't mean they hate on another. Doesn't mean they don't like one another. Kids hang in groups in which they feel most comfortable. That's the way it works.

That, of course, makes it easier for shit like this to spiral out of control quickly. Someone might want to mention that.

 

How many nooses did you hang from a tree the last time two black kids sat under "the white tree" at your local high school?

 

Oh so it's their fault. Because, white juries are incapable of making fair decisions. The only way to avoid biased judgements is to have black people on juries because white people are inherently racist and we shouldn't expect them to make the correct decisions.

 

Being suspended from school = being charged as an adult for attempted murder?

One is school discipline and the other is the judicial system being involved.

So, no, I wouldn't say the original pricks who started this were punished at all.

 

Ummm...no. Jesse and Al are up to their race-baiting best implying that the jury was rigged because it was all white, when in reality the only reason that happened was because none of the black people called for duty showed up.

 

There are problems, small-minded people, racist people and all manner of ugliness in Jena. That doesn't change the reality that what Whitlock wrote needed to be said.

 

Given the history of that place, and given the demonstrable and obvious disparity in the enforcement of the law -- something that even the appeals court repeatedly has noticed -- and given this little episode from the local prosecutor:

"According to testimony in a later motion in court, the D.A. reportedly threatened the protesting black students, saying that if they didn't stop making a fuss about this "innocent prank I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." The school was put on lockdown for the rest of the week."

...I'd say the "all-white jury" in Jena means pretty much what it's always meant.

 

The DA is a racist piece of shit but he's not the reason it was an all-white jury.

 

Blow me.

Is that how you do it? When you can't come up with good answers to the questions, you toss out a backhanded racism charge?

They beat a kid. Six on one. Tough to spin that shit.

And Ace, same answer. They beat a kid. Hanging nooses is hanging nooses. Beating someone in a six-on-one attack is a whole different matter. Schools have started doing this now. Whenever there's a fight, even the standard one-on-one, the cops show and fill out a juvenile offender report.

Seems right to me. Having the police involved often stops the escalation. Now, the charges are a different story. Those were bullshit. The white kids should've been punished more severely. The black kids should've been punished by the precedent set. Surely this isn't the first fight in the town. There has to be a precedent.