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Tragic indeed....
Residents: Nooses spark school violence, divide town
JENA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Mychal Bell was like a lot of boys his age, his mother says.
The always-smiling 16-year-old often spent weekends on the couch, munching Little Debbie snack cakes, watching football and dreaming of a day he might join his heroes in the NFL.
That was before police arrested the star running back and five other teens -- dubbed the "Jena 6" -- on attempted murder and conspiracy charges after a December 4, 2006, fight at the local high school.
Bell, now 17, sits in a cell in Jena, Louisiana, waiting to learn later this month if he will spend the next two decades in prison.
"He's not the same. He's grown up a lot since he's been in there. He's not the same ol' smiling Mychal he used to be," his mother, Melissa Bell, says. "I pray that the judge will go easy on him."
Mychal Bell wasn't convicted for attempted murder. The charges were diluted to aggravated battery and conspiracy, but undiluted is the outrage over the fates of Bell and the rest of the Jena 6.
Many in this sleepy town of 3,000 are calling Bell's July conviction a case of Jim Crow justice.
They question why Bell's public defender never called a witness in the trial. They question the all-white jury that took three hours to convict him. They question charges they say are wildly overblown. They question why the teen was tried as an adult.
And they say the fight never would have happened if not for the nooses.
A threat or a prank?
In September 2006, as the school year kicked off, a black Jena High School student asked the vice principal if he and some friends could sit under an oak tree where the white students typically congregated.
Told by the vice principal they could sit wherever they pleased, the student and his pals plopped down under the sprawling branches of a shade tree in the campus courtyard.
The next day, students arrived at school to find three nooses hanging from those branches.
"I seen them hanging. I'm thinking the KKK, you know, were hanging nooses. They want to hang somebody. Real nooses, the ones you see on TV, are the kind of nooses they were," Robert Bailey, 17, one of the Jena 6, told the syndicated radio show "Democracy Now!"
According to The Town Talk in nearby Alexandria, the school's principal recommended expulsion for those behind the nooses. Instead, the newspaper reported, a school district committee overruled the recommendation and suspended three white students for three days for hanging the nooses, a gesture written off as a "prank."
"Toilet paper, that's a prank, you know what I'm saying?" Bailey told the radio show. "Nooses hanging there -- nooses ain't no prank."
A series of scuffles ensued over the next three months as racial tension at the school became palpable.
The district attorney was summoned to address the student body. Off-campus fights were reported. Bailey said he had a beer bottle broken over his head in one incident, a shotgun pulled on him in another.
On November 30, someone torched the school's main academic building. The arson remains unsolved, but many suspect it's linked to the discord strangling Jena High.
The attack
Four days after the arson, several students jumped a white classmate, Justin Barker, knocking him unconscious before stomping and kicking him.
Parents of the Jena Six say they heard Barker was hurling racial epithets. Barker's parents say he did nothing to provoke the beating.
Barker was taken to the hospital with injuries to both eyes and ears, as well as cuts. His right eye had blood clots, said his mother, Kelli Barker. Justin Barker was treated and released that day.
Bell, Bailey, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unidentified juvenile -- all black teens -- were arrested and charged with attempted murder. The weapons used, according to the charges -- shoes. Their bails were set at between $70,000 and $138,000.
Only Bell remains in jail, on a $90,000 bond, and the judge has refused to lower it, citing Bell's criminal record, which includes four juvenile offenses -- two simple battery charges among them.
Read the rest here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/04...six/index.html
Tragic indeed....
Seems a bit stiff, but sounds like they beat the crap out of that kid.
The White kids should have gotten a stiffer penalty, obviously, for the nooses; but beating somebody that severely, when not in self defense, can't be ignored. Dude, apparently, has other assaults on his record.
Tragic, yes.
Miscarriage of justice that this violent individual is still locked up? I don't know.
from a previous article on the subject...
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthre...highlight=jena
On Friday night, December 1, a black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, December 2, a young white man pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested, no charges were filed against the white man.
On Monday, December 4, at Jena High, a white student - who allegedly had been making racial taunts, including calling African American students "######s" while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the black student at the off-campus party - was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that evening.
Typical, and people wonder why there's a disproportionate number of black people in prison.
UPDATE:
Thousands rally to support 'Jena 6'
JENA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Thousands of protesters gathered in Jena, Louisiana, Thursday to show support for the "Jena 6," six black teens charged in the beating of a white classmate.
Thursday was the day Mychal Bell expected to find out his punishment for his alleged role in the school beating.
"This is a march for justice. This is not a march against whites or against Jena," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and one of the protest organizers.
Sharpton called Jena the beginning of the 21st century civil rights movement.
"[The Rev. Martin Luther] King went to Selma. That wasn't the only place you couldn't vote. That was the point of action," Sharpton said. "They went to Birmingham. That wasn't the only place we didn't have public accommodations. It was the point of action.
"Jena is a point of action for the Jenas everywhere," Sharpton said.
"There's a Jena in every state," the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the crowd in Jena on Thursday morning.
JoAnn Scales, who brought her three teenage children on a two-day bus journey from Los Angeles to Jena, made the same point.
"The reason I brought my children is because it could have been one of them" involved in an incident like the one in Jena.
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/20...six/index.html
I understand that people are pissed that the punishment is too harsh, but I still think what is lost in this is that six kids beat up one kid, and badly at that.
What a bunch of pussies..........what'd you need six for?
They should have tasered him and gotten it over with.
some people just need to get their butt kicked by six guys.
I would have to agree. I think attempted murder is too harsh of a charge. Those kids who hung those nooses and thought its just a prank should see some time in the hole as well. You don't screw around like that especially in the south. I'm sorry though, six kids beating the crap out of one kids deserves punishment also.Seems a bit stiff, but sounds like they beat the crap out of that kid.
The White kids should have gotten a stiffer penalty, obviously, for the nooses; but beating somebody that severely, when not in self defense, can't be ignored. Dude, apparently, has other assaults on his record.
Tragic, yes.
Miscarriage of justice that this violent individual is still locked up? I don't know.
It just proves the theory about the pussy-fication of today's youth. Back in the day, if you had a problem with someone, you and that person went somewhere, beat the crap out of each other one on one and it was over. Now you have kids with guns and knives and walking around in packs because they are too scared to face an issue alone. The sad thing is, adults are the biggest reason behind this. Too many "time outs" and not enough actual punishment.
Last edited by samikeyp; 09-20-2007 at 10:11 AM.
He got released the same day and went to a party that night....how badly could they have really beaten him up?
true...but still 6 on 1?He got released the same day and went to a party that night....how badly could they have really beaten him up?
Weak.
If you can't handle your business one on one, you are a pussy.
No doubt about that. But if this kid was really the racist prick he appears to be, then he deserved alot more than a mild 6-on-1 beatdown.
in' Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.......goddammit those assholes make it so ing difficult for any progress to be made. They need to be as far away from this as possible. All they do is make worse.
I agree with that.No doubt about that. But if this kid was really the racist prick he appears to be, then he deserved alot more than a mild 6-on-1 beatdown.
Sounds like this case is a lot of hearsay on both sides.
Amen.in' Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.......goddammit those assholes make it so ing difficult for any progress to be made.
They seem to hinder these causes, not hurt them.
I only watch Fox news. No mention of any rally. I could have blinked and missed it, but not likely. What kind of people are at this "supposed" rally?
if it's not on fox, then it's not "newsworthy".
it's about black people so i'm not surprised fox news ignored it.
You mean, Fox isn't impartial?it's about black people so i'm not surprised fox news ignored it.
the bottom line is they assaulted somebody. now the cir stances should definitely be a deciding factor in the punishment, but an assault still happened. and if there's any other retaliations then the punishment should be incredibly severe from here on out.
i don't want hear a bunch a in from a loada them spooks.
we need yoni to run'em off.
agreed. I would also like them to get those dumbasses who thought it was funny to hang nooses and see them in the pokey for a bit.the bottom line is they assaulted somebody. now the cir stances should definitely be a deciding factor in the punishment, but an assault still happened. and if there's any other retaliations then the punishment should be incredibly severe from here on out
Are you serious?
yeah. they tell it like i like to hear it.
Alright, I got the sarcasm.
Seriously though, do you really only watch Fox news?
only when i'm looking for amusement. i need my dose of billo, rush. ann and mic e malkin to get through the day.
I always think that is funny how we do that to ourselves. Pick your least favorite politician or talk show host and inevitably, we watch it.
, look at this website for example, you and I agree on pretty much nothing and yet I'm always sure to read your takes.
Wonder why we do this to ourselves?
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