Well I guess I am going to have to make some comments about the JENA 6 fiasco.
I hope you know what I am talking about since it has been in the news BIG TIME and has lead to a black protest and march to Jena, a small town in Louisiana and the involvement of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton; the race issue flies.
My wife is convinced that racism is at work here so now I have to find out what the hell the reality of the situation is. I just want to remind you of the “DUKE” case and the terrible racism in that case that also drew Jackson and Sharpton and provoked marches and cries of outrage at the injustice for the wrong person – oh my!
You can tell I already have an attitude – I hate when the race card is played. I will fight injustice to the death (black or white) but it better be valid injustice and not some hyped up crap by race players like Jackson and Sharpton; they were at DUKE and did they apologize for being DEAD wrong about the Duke students? – Hell no!
I have a problem with PROSECUTORS in general. I think many of them don’t care about justice – just conviction. They also care about being elected to the next highest office and will do what is popular and not what is just and I have many examples to prove what I say including the DUKE case.
I am also not naïve about racism and the fact that it does still exist in both black and white forms. I think we have come a long way but there are hard core racists out there and they will be with us forever.
Also, there are many blacks that will milk the race issue as long as they can. Whites have deep guilt feelings that can be exploited over and over again until they put a stop to the milking by saying enough – history is history and now is now!
So what about the JENA 6 case – what really happened and can the truth be known.
At this time the case has been spun so much and so blatantly skewed and so out of proportion that I doubt the truth will ever come out – the media is only interested in sensationalism so they won’t help much but let us try.
Snopes.com is a web site for “rumor control”. They are usually pretty good about taking email pass-along letters and designating them either “true” or “not true”. I have friends that pass on conservative bull shit letters about issues close to the heart of social conservatives; they usually turn out to be blatant lies.
The JENA 6 story is basically true but not entirely accurate.
Yes a black kid asked a teacher (jokingly) if he could sit under a tree that has been a “traditionally” white “spot”. The teacher said sit where you want to and yes, a couple of nooses appeared on the tree the next day (August 31, 2006).
Principle wanted to expel the white students that did the noose thing but was overridden by the school board that called it just a “prank” and suspended the three students responsible from school for a few days – end of story?
Here is where it gets a little cloudy. People say that because of the “nooses” incident and subsequent “non-punishment”, racial tensions flared.
Officials claim that the “noose” incident and later incidents of violence are not connected.
November 30, 2006 fires are set at the school no arrests made.
Also, black vs. white student fights occurred in and near the school – some serious. In one, whites with beer bottles beat a black student – only one white student charged and that was with a misdemeanor.
December 2, 2006 – hope you are paying attention to the dates and the time that has elapsed between the original incident and later incidents, a confrontation at Gotta-Go-Grocery involved a white student, a shotgun and three black students.
The white student said he was jumped and beaten and tried to defend himself with a shotgun; the blacks say they were just defending themselves from a guy with a shotgun. Witnesses stand behind the white student’s version. The black students were arrested and charged with second-degree robbery.
On December 4th, 2006 a fight broke out in the high school between a white and black student. The white student was jumped from behind by other black students and pummeled – had to go to ER.
That high school assault resulted in five (5) black students being charged AS ADULTS with “attempted” SECOND-DEGREE MURDER and given very high bonds – a sixth student was charged as a juvenile hence the Jena 6. Two of the above six (6) were also involved in the Gotta-Go-Grocery incident and that’s why their bonds were higher.
STOP - I am already feeling uneasy about this affair. This was a high school fight between teenagers not adults and second degree murder – what is that about?
MYCHAL BELL, the only teen tried so far and convicted by an all white jury (since no blacks that were called for jury duty bothered to show up) of a reduced second-degree aggravated battery – more like it but as an adult he could face 22 years – not fair! Sentencing scheduled for September 20th, 2007.
Prosecutors revealed that ole’ MYCHAL was convicted of assault a year earlier and was on probation. Then he committed three (3) more crimes while on probation giving him five (5) convictions for VIOLENT crimes – not a good boy!
On September 4, 2007 prosecutors in the Jena 6 case decided to reduce all charges to aggravated second-degree battery while on September 14, 2007 an Appeals Court vacated Mychal Bell’s conviction saying he should have been tried in Juvenile Court.
And this is where it stands so far…
A number of people including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana claim that the “nooses” incident and subsequent fights and charges were NOT related. Since August 2006 when the noose incident took place till December 2006 when the high school fight broke out – things at the high school were NORMAL.
But as we know, the Jena 6 issue became a cause celebre among blacks looking for an issue. The town of Jena was invaded by protestors, Jackson and Sharpton made speeches and the NAACP provided lawyers and public relations assistance. And get this, John Mellencamp wrote a song about the case.
The official black position was that the hanging of the nooses was a “hate” crime and should have been prosecuted as such. Because the white students were not punished, racial tensions escalated as time passed. A “skirmish” between a taunting white student and a black student led to the involvement of six (6) black students “roughing up” the white student. The black students were unjustly charged as adults and were to receive ridiculous sentences.
Well there you have it. Let’s talk about the hoopla that ensued.
I hope you know what I am talking about since it has been in the news BIG TIME and has lead to a black protest and march to Jena, a small town in Louisiana and the involvement of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton; the race issue flies.
My wife is convinced that racism is at work here so now I have to find out what the hell the reality of the situation is. I just want to remind you of the “DUKE” case and the terrible racism in that case that also drew Jackson and Sharpton and provoked marches and cries of outrage at the injustice for the wrong person – oh my!
You can tell I already have an attitude – I hate when the race card is played. I will fight injustice to the death (black or white) but it better be valid injustice and not some hyped up crap by race players like Jackson and Sharpton; they were at DUKE and did they apologize for being DEAD wrong about the Duke students? – Hell no!
I have a problem with PROSECUTORS in general. I think many of them don’t care about justice – just conviction. They also care about being elected to the next highest office and will do what is popular and not what is just and I have many examples to prove what I say including the DUKE case.
I am also not naïve about racism and the fact that it does still exist in both black and white forms. I think we have come a long way but there are hard core racists out there and they will be with us forever.
Also, there are many blacks that will milk the race issue as long as they can. Whites have deep guilt feelings that can be exploited over and over again until they put a stop to the milking by saying enough – history is history and now is now!
So what about the JENA 6 case – what really happened and can the truth be known.
At this time the case has been spun so much and so blatantly skewed and so out of proportion that I doubt the truth will ever come out – the media is only interested in sensationalism so they won’t help much but let us try.
Snopes.com is a web site for “rumor control”. They are usually pretty good about taking email pass-along letters and designating them either “true” or “not true”. I have friends that pass on conservative bull shit letters about issues close to the heart of social conservatives; they usually turn out to be blatant lies.
The JENA 6 story is basically true but not entirely accurate.
Yes a black kid asked a teacher (jokingly) if he could sit under a tree that has been a “traditionally” white “spot”. The teacher said sit where you want to and yes, a couple of nooses appeared on the tree the next day (August 31, 2006).
Principle wanted to expel the white students that did the noose thing but was overridden by the school board that called it just a “prank” and suspended the three students responsible from school for a few days – end of story?
Here is where it gets a little cloudy. People say that because of the “nooses” incident and subsequent “non-punishment”, racial tensions flared.
Officials claim that the “noose” incident and later incidents of violence are not connected.
November 30, 2006 fires are set at the school no arrests made.
Also, black vs. white student fights occurred in and near the school – some serious. In one, whites with beer bottles beat a black student – only one white student charged and that was with a misdemeanor.
December 2, 2006 – hope you are paying attention to the dates and the time that has elapsed between the original incident and later incidents, a confrontation at Gotta-Go-Grocery involved a white student, a shotgun and three black students.
The white student said he was jumped and beaten and tried to defend himself with a shotgun; the blacks say they were just defending themselves from a guy with a shotgun. Witnesses stand behind the white student’s version. The black students were arrested and charged with second-degree robbery.
On December 4th, 2006 a fight broke out in the high school between a white and black student. The white student was jumped from behind by other black students and pummeled – had to go to ER.
That high school assault resulted in five (5) black students being charged AS ADULTS with “attempted” SECOND-DEGREE MURDER and given very high bonds – a sixth student was charged as a juvenile hence the Jena 6. Two of the above six (6) were also involved in the Gotta-Go-Grocery incident and that’s why their bonds were higher.
STOP - I am already feeling uneasy about this affair. This was a high school fight between teenagers not adults and second degree murder – what is that about?
MYCHAL BELL, the only teen tried so far and convicted by an all white jury (since no blacks that were called for jury duty bothered to show up) of a reduced second-degree aggravated battery – more like it but as an adult he could face 22 years – not fair! Sentencing scheduled for September 20th, 2007.
Prosecutors revealed that ole’ MYCHAL was convicted of assault a year earlier and was on probation. Then he committed three (3) more crimes while on probation giving him five (5) convictions for VIOLENT crimes – not a good boy!
On September 4, 2007 prosecutors in the Jena 6 case decided to reduce all charges to aggravated second-degree battery while on September 14, 2007 an Appeals Court vacated Mychal Bell’s conviction saying he should have been tried in Juvenile Court.
And this is where it stands so far…
A number of people including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana claim that the “nooses” incident and subsequent fights and charges were NOT related. Since August 2006 when the noose incident took place till December 2006 when the high school fight broke out – things at the high school were NORMAL.
But as we know, the Jena 6 issue became a cause celebre among blacks looking for an issue. The town of Jena was invaded by protestors, Jackson and Sharpton made speeches and the NAACP provided lawyers and public relations assistance. And get this, John Mellencamp wrote a song about the case.
The official black position was that the hanging of the nooses was a “hate” crime and should have been prosecuted as such. Because the white students were not punished, racial tensions escalated as time passed. A “skirmish” between a taunting white student and a black student led to the involvement of six (6) black students “roughing up” the white student. The black students were unjustly charged as adults and were to receive ridiculous sentences.
Well there you have it. Let’s talk about the hoopla that ensued.
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