Mychal Bell of 'Jena 6' ordered to juvenile facility
(CNN) -- A black Louisiana teenager at the center of the racially charged "Jena 6" case was ordered Thursday to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility, after a judge ruled he had violated his probation for earlier juvenile convictions, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings said.
Supporters joined Mychal Bell after he was released from jail last month.
Mychal Bell, 17, who was freed two weeks ago after his adult criminal conviction for beating a white classmate was overturned, was sent to the Renaissance Home for Youth in Alexandria, Louisiana, the source said.
The decision came at the end of a two-day juvenile court hearing that was closed to the media and public.
Carol Powell-Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys, said the judge's decision would be appealed.
Bell was freed on $45,000 bail on September 27, after an appeals court threw out his conviction on battery and conspiracy charges in adult court and remanded the case to juvenile court.
But Judge J.P. Mauffrey agreed with prosecutors that Bell had violated the probation he was given for four previous juvenile offenses, including two simple battery charges, the sources said.
Bell had been placed on probation until he turned 18.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who has championed Bell's case, denounced Thursday's decision as "revenge" by the judge and called on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.
Rest of article here.
I told you in my very first post about this case, that this case was enough
To Turn A Negro Into a BLACK PANTHER.
It's time for Congress to have some hearings about this bunch of jokers down in Louisiana.
FREE THE JENA SIX!
3 comments:
We’ve all been discussing “justice” in America and recently I was having conversation (action word meaning: learning) about our children and our history and our future. I think for me over the past few months I’ve become increasingly alarmed with the outright and completely blatant sense of acceptance. What I mean by that is that “we” meaning all of us as a community, whether Black or white, parents or not, have come to expect that this sense of injustice that we feel is normal or that nothing can be done to change it. That feeling is almost somehow worst than the actual “injustice” done to us! It seems as if we feel that this is it and it gets no better. Even worst than that, some of us have actually begun to doubt our own common sense! In reading and watching about the “Jena 6”, we are enraged but still impotent. Yeah, we all wore Black on September 20th to show our support, and I believe in my heart that a display of solidarity, regardless of color, is a major accomplishment. But now Mychal Bell has been ordered to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility, after a judge ruled he had violated his probation for earlier juvenile convictions. Now here’s my prospective on this… As the mother of a teenage son, I’m not for a moment condoning violence; however as the mother of a teenage son, I completely understand a child’s “rite of passage”. And I don’t know of many 17 year old boys who haven’t been in school fights. Moreover, as the mother of a Black teenage son, I completely understand the struggle that this child must have endured in this community and the feelings of rage, disbelief, and incomprehension that this boy must have felt to be forced to even battle this war against racism in his own school. You’ve all heard the quote, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”. I believe in my heart that this wasn’t simply a fistfight gone horribly wrong, I believe that it was an eruption of pent up frustrations by these young men over the injustice that they were expected to face and at some point in time, as we all well know, you’ve turned the other cheek so many times that one more slap will push you right over the edge. You’ve all felt that way, I’m sure. If one more person says my name wrong, if one more person asks me how did my hair get long today when it was short yesterday, if one more person asks me if my children are “mixed” because of their eye color, if one more person asks me “you listen to rap music?”, if one more person asks me “you go to that side of town”! If one more person…! Don’t act like it’s never bothered you! And so even though I’ve never in my life spoken with Mychal Bell, I know exactly how he was feeling and my heart goes out to him. And this e-mail goes out to all of you, so that you can remember that it is like this for “our” children all of the time! So that you can remember that there is still work to be done! So that you can know that this struggle does not belong to his mother alone, but to all of us. We may have lost the battle, but we’ve wounded many of our enemies. We’ve shown that we won’t stop talking about it, that we won’t stop trying to come up with ideas and solutions, and that we won’t allow it to remain “normal”, that we refuse to be bullied and complacent any longer! I can’t speak for everyone, only for myself, but I’ve learned that education and persistence pay off. I’ve learned that when I speak with my son about Mychal Bell going back to jail, it will be with the intention of teaching him alternate methods of fighting this war. This highly unconventional war that has gone on much too long. I will hopefully give him the tools to become a fierce warrior and stay within the parameters of “acceptable” conduct! I know that there are no guarantees and that often the “enemy” himself does not follow the “rules of engagement” or the “conventional boundaries” but I pray that maybe, just maybe, one of the warriors that I help to educate makes the difference that my generation has failed to make!
I don't know Rikyrah...
It's hard to say that this is somehow directly connected to the assault charges.
Apparently Bell was no angel. He is back in jail for the probation violation on a previous drug related case.
The Angry Independent, you're correct that Bell is back in jail for violating his probation on prior offenses, but I think the drug charge is just a rumor.
Bell has 2 assault convictions and 2 destruction of property convictions, all garnered within the year BEFORE the Dec 4, 2006 assault.
AFAIK, Bell was violated on his original assault from Dec 25, 2005 based on his 3 subsequent convictions before the Jena HS incidents even occured. The charges for the Dec 4 fight haven't been adjudicated yet (in juvie court), so I don't think he was violated because of that.
It does make one wonder, though - why did it take the courts so long to violate him in the first place? His 2nd charge should have been enough to have his ticket jerked.
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