Jena 6 All-purpose thread

[poindexter]

Lash out, react, do anything you want. This is the thread to do it.

 

[JR]

For those who don't know what Poin's referring to, here's the article from today's Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/us/21jena.html

The subject's getting bounced around on the still-not-dead taser thread, but here's a quote from the Times piece that I posted over there.

A marcher, Latese Brown, 40, of Alexandria, said, “If you can figure out how to make a school yard fight into an attempted murder charge, I’m sure you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime.”

Read about this story a while back. Wondered when the **** would hit the fan.

 

[Pastor]

Sorry, I didn't get to bring the thread back up upon original mention...
Race and prejudice in America.

 

[JackyJackBN]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/284511.html

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I can't believe it's taken, what, four days, to start a thread on this here. And I know that starting this on the taser thread took that thread off track, but sonofabitch, how can this topic not have a thread while "The" Andrew Meyer has 18 pages of arguing. And how's this for amusing. From AP.

Hours later, police in nearby Alexandria said they arrested a white man after officers noticed two nooses dangling from the rear of his pickup truck. The driver, identified as Jeremiah Munsen of Colfax, was charged with inciting a riot.


Maybe they should charge the people who hung the noose with the same.

 

[JR]

Sorry, I didn't get to bring the thread back up upon original mention...
Race and prejudice in America.

You had to ressurect that pathetic thread?

 

[outofplace]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/284511.html

Oh...this should be fun.

Obviously, this was badly handled, from the failure to properly address the incident with the nooses to the attempted murder charge. Still, how many assault charges does Bell have to face before we wonder about him, too?

And BYM, you know how it is with this place....not always a rhyme or reason to things.

 

[JackyJackBN]

http://averagebro.blogspot.com/2007/09/averagebro-blogs-live-from-jena-la.html

There's a link in the "Epilogue" for a contribution to the legal fund for the six black students.

Neither of the links I've posted is by way of commentary; just to provide something you may miss otherwise if this subject interests you. I've been following it for a while, from straight news to all sorts of opinion pieces.

That's enough from me.

 

[heyabbott]

So the argument is: they beat the boy, but not that bad?

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

"And I am in no way excusing the nooses."

Of course he is, in the context of the subsequent events.

 

[Beaker]

You would have hoped the days of nooses and all-white juries were a thing of the past. Apparently not.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/younge

 

[Sportsbruh]

Black people don't want to discuss this with you. We have our OWN bloggers - thanks anyway.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

You would have hoped the days of nooses and all-white juries were a thing of the past. Apparently not.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/younge

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

 

[93Devil]

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.

 

[93Devil]

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

 

[heyabbott]

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?

 

[Pastor]

I can't believe it's taken, what, four days, to start a thread on this here. And I know that starting this on the taser thread took that thread off track, but sonofabitch, how can this topic not have a thread while "The" Andrew Meyer has 18 pages of arguing.

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.

Sorry, I didn't get to bring the thread back up upon original mention...
Race and prejudice in America.

You had to resurrect that pathetic 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.

 

[andyouare?]

So the argument is: they beat the boy, but not that bad?

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.

 

[93Devil]

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?

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.

 

[andyouare?]

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...

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

The overwhelmingly white school board judged the nooses a youthful prank and punished the culprits with brief suspensions. Black parents and students were angry, and months of racial tension followed. Police were called to the school several times because of fights between black and white students.

The principal called an assembly at which the local district attorney, Reed Walters, warned, "See this pen? I can end your lives with the stroke of a pen." The black students say he was looking at them when he said it; Walters denies it.

In an unsolved arson case, a wing of the school was burned down. A few days later, Justin Sloan, a white man, attacked black students who tried to go to a white party in town. Sloan was charged with battery and put on probation. A few days after that a white boy pulled a gun on three black students in a convenience store. One of the black students wrestled the gun from him and took it home, only to find himself charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who produced the gun was not charged.