Jena 6

[Mark Husar]

This morning I reviewed the news over a cup of coffee. A demonstration about the Jena 6 hit the airwaves, a short blurb about the beating to death of a white kid by six black youths.
Anybody know of this? It seems to have been hushed up, or at least not carried in the news until the demonstration.
Please jump in with any information you may have.

[cobra de capell]

This is how it started:

Two nooses were found hanging from a tree at Jena High after a black student asked in a “jocular fashion,” according to U.S. Attorney Donald Washington, if the black students could sit under the tree where white students sat. It was discovered who were the three students who placed the nooses, and the school principal recommended expulsion for the students. A committee of the LaSalle Parish School Board overruled the decision, and the students were suspended. Details of the suspension aren’t a public record. Washington said in none of the statements of the accused or the witnesses from the Dec. 4 incident included anything about the nooses. The “Jena Six” supporters and family contend that the noose incident is what precipitated the Dec. 4 incident.

December 4th 'event':

"Who was the victim? What happened to him?

Justin Barker was a student at Jena High. He was knocked unconscious and suffered several injuries to his face during the attack. Barker was transported by ambulance to a local hospital where he was treated for three hours. That evening he attended a ring ceremony at the high school.

Just a few days before the end of the school year, months after the Dec. 4 incident, Barker was expelled after a hunting gun was found in his car on the school grounds. He was charged as an adult for possessing a firearm in a firearm-free zone. His expulsion carried through to this
school year."

Was he involved in any of the previous incidents?

Barker wasn’t one of the three students disciplined for the noose incident, and he hasn’t been named in any of the fights in Jena leading up to the Dec. 4 incident.

Was the arson at Jena High School connected to the nooses or other incidents?

Police have no leads in the investigation into the November arson that destroyed the main building of the school.

Who are the “Jena Six?”

The six black Jena High School students charged in connection to the beating of a white student (Justin Barker) have been referred to as the “Jena Six” ever since a June rally at LaSalle Parish Courthouse where supporters were chanting “Free the Jena Six.”

Jesse Ray Beard, Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw were all originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same, according to LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters. Those charges came after Justin Barker was hit and then repeatedly kicked by a group of students at the high school on Dec. 4.

All of the students, but Beard who was 14 at the time, were charged as adults. Bell, who was 16 at the time of the incident, was convicted as an adult in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. Walters reduced his charges just before the trial.

Since then, both of those convictions have been vacated and tossed back to juvenile court.

Charges against Bailey, Jones and Shaw have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. Details about Beard’s case are unknown as it is being handled in juvenile court, though he is back at Jena High and participating in athletics.

Was it really an all-white jury that convicted Bell?
Yes. There were 150 people summoned for jury duty, although only about 50 appeared. That ratio is normal for LaSalle Parish, court officials said. In those 50 who appeared, none were black. There was no effort to find the nearly 100 who didn’t appear, both black and white. That too, is common in LaSalle Parish. Punishment for dodging jury duty is at the discretion of the judge.

Community members have squabbled over how many minorities appeared on the list of 150 potential jurors with numbers ranging from four to more than 20. There is no entry in the juror database for race to ensure that bias isn’t used in jury selection, a court official said.
_____

I'd say the payback was unjustified, therefore the Jena 6 need to pay the price for whatever they did to an innocent party - Justin Barker.

[imagine2frolic]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trey-e...o_b_65010.html

Possibly this will give a few more details?

[imagine2frolic]

http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml

One more with some links................

[DAVID GAGNARD]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trey-e...o_b_65010.html

As I expected, very one sided and inaccurate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I'll be real nice and say the article has way more fiction in it than truth!!!!!!!!!!!

I live one hour from Jena and work there 3 to 4 times a month for the last 12 or so years, have a number of friends and relatives in law enforcement in the area, some whom have been directly envolved in this case, lets just say the stories the media have put out make for good stories, the truth not withstanding!!!!!!!!!!!

The part I like the most is about the party,basically what was in the article is fiction at best.......
the facts are: 2 of the Jena 6 tried to crash an invitation only, private party given and attended by whites and chaperoned by adults....there was a scuffle between the 2 Jena 6 and one adult chaperone outside the party when they tried to enter after being told they were not invited and asked to leave, the cops were called and the 2 guys left, no arrests were made, no gun/guns were ever invovled.........a few days later the same 2 guys saw the chaperone at a burger joint and began harrassing him and then as he tried to leave, they attacked him, he made it to his truck and pulled out a gun to protect himself, in the scuffle the 2 guys took the gun from the man and left...the cops were called and all three people involved were arrested.........later after statements were taken from a number of witnesses,charges against the adult that was attacked were dropped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't see anywhere in the report anything about Bell's past criminal history,here are a few more facts regarding that:
By his 15th birthday he had been convicted of 4 violent crimes, one of which was when he beat a 14 year old black girl with a pipe, she almost died from the beating,as of now,he still has 2 arrests for violent crimes which he has yet to stand trial for, does that sound like a good kid????
he is the leader of his own street gang that has been harrassing blacks as well as whites and has said on many occasions he and his gang "rule the streets of Jena".....not quite a boy scout IMHO....

His past criminal history and the fact that he is already on probation for his other convictions are the reason he was tried as an adult, the reason he stayed in jail all this time is he could not make his $90,000.00 bail for attempted murder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all of the Jena 6 were/are football players on the high school team with 2 being over six feet tall and in the 200 pound range,the boy beaten was a little keeky looking kid surrounded by a mob of black students when he was attacked going from the school parking lot to school.

Yes, there were nooses hanging from the tree and the students responsible were punished as stated, the District Attorney refused to press charges against the boys responsible as jesse/al/naacp wanted, stating "it is not against the law in Louisiana to hang a rope from a tree, no crime was committed",which is a fact......

This whole thing has been blown way out of porportion by the media and a handful of civil rights activist.

The media was predicting from 25 to 50 thousand people for the march/protest, I have yet to see or hear a figure from them, wonder why??? according to people there, maybe 5 thousand showed up...........

Was it really an all-white jury that convicted Bell?
Yes. There were 150 people summoned for jury duty, although only about 50 appeared. That ratio is normal for LaSalle Parish, court officials said. In those 50 who appeared, none were black. There was no effort to find the nearly 100 who didn’t appear, both black and white. That too, is common in LaSalle Parish. Punishment for dodging jury duty is at the discretion of the judge.

Community members have squabbled over how many minorities appeared on the list of 150 potential jurors with numbers ranging from four to more than 20. There is no entry in the juror database for race to ensure that bias isn’t used in jury selection, a court official said.

Yes it was an all white jury,yes blacks were sent notices for jury duty, they did not show up, this was orchestrated before hand thru the blacks churchs in the area......I did not see anywhere that all the witnesses of the beating were other black students, they were the ones that destified under oath as to what they saw and that's how Bell was convicted!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

[J. T. Toad]

wow.

Thanks David.

[Buzz]

I thought this thread was about this group of 6 - don't hear much noise about this one either. http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_w...ry/700939.html
It's interesting how these issues polarize everyone into different camps based on each person's particular point of view. I've never lived in the Southern states, but It's obvious racial tension and division persists deeply to this day. I don't condone any gang beating anyone to death regardless of who happens to be what color - however, given the old penchant for lynching "Negroes" in the South, if some good ol' boys displayed a hangman's noose directed at me, I just might be inclined to take that as a death threat and react accordingly. Some of you guys seem to think nothing of it since "It ain't against the law to hang a rope from a tree" and you may find it difficult to relate to the impact that such a gesture may have on a person of the , ah, "colored" persuasion; but to some people that may be akin to pointing a gun and to others it's just a bunch of good ol' boys doin' what good ol' boys do. Me, I don't condone violence of any kind so I would never want to lynch anybody - if some redneck shook a noose at me - heck, I'd just walk away (dragging his carcass behind me with the noose tied around his ballz).

[DAVID GAGNARD]

[quote]however, given the old penchant for lynching "Negroes" in the South, if some good ol' boys displayed a hangman's noose directed at me, I just might be inclined to take that as a death threat and react accordingly. Some of you guys seem to think nothing of it since "It ain't against the law to hang a rope from a tree" and you may find it difficult to relate to the impact that such a gesture may have on a person of the , ah, "colored" persuasion; but to some people that may be akin to pointing a gun and to others it's just a bunch of good ol' boys doin' what good ol' boys do.

Never said I condoned any of this, just tried to present the facts and not what the media wanted to tell the world....The white boy that was beaten had nothing to do with the noose hanging event at the school days earlier, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!!!!!! The Jena 6 were not the ones that wanted to share the tree with the whites and not the ones the noose incident was directed towards, they are nothing more than a bunch of thug wanna-bees.

I thought this thread was about this group of 6 - don't hear much noise about this one either. http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_w...ry/700939.html

I agree, and my personal opinion is the people that did these horrible things to that women SHOULD HANG for their offences!!!!!!!!!, but, where was Jesse and Al??????

It's interesting how these issues polarize everyone into different camps based on each person's particular point of view. I've never lived in the Southern states, but It's obvious racial tension and division persists deeply to this day. I don't condone any gang beating anyone to death regardless of who happens to be what color - however, given the old penchant for lynching "Negroes" in the South

I was born and raised in the south and probably will live out my life here...When I started school in 1961, we still had segregated schools, in my area intergration came about in my freshman year in high school...... The four years prior, we had "freedon of choice", anyone could attend any school in the district, in those four years we had a total of three blacks come to the white schools!!!!!!!!!!We had ZERO problems all thru my four years in high school....had many black friends then and still do today, but one thing I found interesting then and even today is that when asked, a very large majority of blacks prefer segregated schools,in fact some groups of blacks have asked the federal judges in charge of the segregation laws to reverse the laws so that black only schools can be re-opened.......

Yes, in some areas racial tensions still do exist,unfortunately.......Go to Jena and ask both black and white residents what they think about the NAACP/Jesse/Al coming to their town numerous times when things seemed to be getting back to normal and stirring the pot some more....You wil be surprised at the answers......

While in grade school as well as high school we read in the history books and were taught about the same "lynchings" you speak of, I'd bet I know more about them than you'll ever know due to what we were taught in school and to this day I'm sorry those things ever happened....but if my memory is correct, those things took place about 100 years ago......

I think the "events" in Jena were handled with the interest of the community in mind and according to the law, considering the violent criminal history of some of the participants....

David

[Buzz]

Wow Dave, we have a lot in common - I have black friends too! Don't assume that because I present a different perspective, that I am blind to reality and incapable of objective rationalization. I see the two "reverends" as nothing more than a couple of self serving idiots who are so nasty that they would keep race relations in the dark ages just so they can have a situation to exploit and keep themselves relevant. It would definitely not suit them if everyone decided to just get along. The point I try to highlight, though, is that many times people who are not so fundamentally different inside often end up at each others throats simply because thier "take" or perspective on a given issue is colored (no pun - honest ) by their particular life experiences. For example it might be easy for you to accept the viewpoint that says (wink wink) "what's all the fuss - there's nothing illegal about hanging a rope on a tree" as a simple truth while someone else will see that as tacitly and coyly endorsing and approving of a well established, threatening gesture that means "I'll kill you, you black bastard."

[Excaliber]

I see Obama is taking some heat over this one, he says it's about whats right and whats wrong. Hillary leans toward a 'race' issue and is doing better.

...I've got a headache trying to figure it out...

[Buzz]

When I started school in 1961, we still had segregated schools, in my area intergration came about in my freshman year in high school...... The four years prior, we had "freedon of choice", anyone could attend any school in the district, in those four years we had a total of three blacks come to the white schools!!!!!!!!!!We had ZERO problems all thru my four years in high school....had many black friends then and still do today, but one thing I found interesting then and even today is that when asked, a very large majority of blacks prefer segregated schools,in fact some groups of blacks have asked the federal judges in charge of the segregation laws to reverse the laws so that black only schools can be re-opened.......

These facts do not surprise me one bit, David. Put yourself in the shoes of a young black kid "back in the day". Would you personally want to go into a hostile environment and bear the brunt of dealing daily with slurs, isolation, white only proms, threats or even just living with the constant knowledge that you are NOT welcome? Hell no! Just because the nature of the environment makes someone uncomfortable about being there, it doesn't mean they think it's ok to institutionally deny them the right to be there if they so choose. It is absolutely no shock to me that many black students even today in certain parts of the South would prefer to be in an all black school for the same reasons. That does not mean that blacks want to go back to the days of segregation or that segregation is a good thing.
BTW, I am not heated, angry or uncomfortable about discussing this - it's just an interesting topic and I don't take any of this personally. The subject is interesting because we have two different points of view to share. I do not expect your P.O.V. to be any less legit and correct to you than mine is to me. At the very worst we each get some food for thought to chew on.

[Buzz]

Hey Ernie! I was going to say stay outta this - theres no black people in How-a-ya but I forgot about the guy that flew the chopper in Magnum P.I.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

BTW, I am not heated, angry or uncomfortable about discussing this - it's just an interesting topic and I don't take any of this personally. The subject is interesting because we have two different points of view to share. I do not expect your P.O.V. to be any less legit and correct to you than mine is to me. At the very worst we each get some food for thought to chew on.
__________________

Buzz; Glad to hear that, I feel the same way......you make some very valid points and great food for thought....

I see your point about segregation and certainly would not be happy had I been bused across town to an all black school for racial equality....An old saying comes to mind: "the more things change, the more they stay the same". I certainly don't have all the answers and I don't think anyone does. Racial problems will be with us to the end of time, unfortunetly.....

As a young kid growing up in the late 50s and early 60s, I can remember eating at places that had a white section and a black section, same for the rest rooms, now I go eat with black co-workers and friends, hopefully things will continue to improve and someday we will not have to even discuss this anymore.....

As I think back about my youth and today, I wonder what people my grandparents age would think if they were here now....So much has changed in the south (for the better) that the older folks would turn over in their graves if they knew.....
One example: when I was in high school there was this white girl that secretely started dating a black guy, this was unheard of at the time and not accepted, when they finished high school, they were married and basically had to leave town, today no one gives a second look or thought to mixed racial marriages...

As bad as the South was, great strides have been made in race relations, but sometimes the stigma of the past is hard to forget and live down.....

I was supposed to be working yesterday in the Jena area, but put it off until today as I knew the town would basically be shut down with the traffic and people...The state police were prepared for the worst and thankfully the march when on without any problems, which knowing the people from Jena really suprised me.....

David

[Excaliber]

Hawaii is a 'rainbow', we got ALL types around here. Strangely, that includes a rather large number of Mexicans and Native American Indians! Go figure...

A customer left his back pack in the store the other day. I looked through it to see who it was, came across his birth certificate. 'RACE' was about a paragrah long. Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indian and MORE. I had to chuckle, this guys GOTTA be 'local'.

[imagine2frolic]

Ernie, Myself being Italian, German, English, Portuguese, and at last Hawaiian. That I will fit right in, and there will be no nooses in my front yard?...LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. If I can ever afford to move there that is?

[Roscoe]

Another good source for accurate news on this issue

http://michellemalkin.com/2007/09/21...al-narratives/

[imagine2frolic]

Roscoe, really good post!

[Roscoe]

Here's another good one

Gangsters and fools in Jena...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=57779

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Things seen to be quitening down, now, that the judge with a US Attorney present (he is black BTW) has ordered Bell held without bond pending his new trial as a junvenile, reason being, they have revoked his probation, which is standard procedure.......
Bell will now be tried again for the same crime, but this time as a juvenile.....The trial dates for the other 5 have not been set.

He has also issured a gag order to all involved...

PS: has anyone seen the photos of one of the five he posted of himself on MySpace????? He was laying on his bed with a fistful of 100 dollar bills hanging out of his mouth and many,many more covering his body and all over the bed, bragging that was money people sent to him to help with his defense....Once his attorney got wind of this, he made his client remove all those pictures,someone did copy them first and they are floating around the net....another really nice,good kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

[Buzz]

Somehow, whatever happens in the trial, I see nothing but trouble in that kid's future. Maybe locking him up for a good while will at least prevent him from taking innocent others with him as he self destructs. The saddest part of it all is that no child starts life that way. Neglectful, absentee fathers/parents allow their kids' minds to develop on their own, along the path of least resistance with no guidance or nurturing. The day that society and the law has the ballz to hold parents fully responsible or accountable for everything their child does or is done to them from birth to adulthood, we will see the start of a rapid decline in juvenile delinquency. Parents would be forced, if only in their own interest, to play a more active role in guiding the lives of their offspring. The birth rate in poor/depressed communities would probably decline as well.