Plea Deal Reached for 'Jena 6' Teen

Hat Tip:Skeptical Brotha

Plea Deal Reached for 'Jena 6' Teen
Mychal Bell Pleaded Guilty to Second-Degree Battery; He Could Be Released in 8 Months

A black teenager may get out of a juvenile facility in about eight months after a deal was struck Monday with prosecutors in the beating of a white classmate that sparked a major civil rights demonstration amid cries that his treatment was unduly harsh.

Mychal Bell, now 17, originally was charged as an adult with attempted murder in the beating of Justin Barker in December 2006. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. In September, that verdict was thrown out by an appeals court that said Bell should be tried as a juvenile.

Under the deal, Bell pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery in return for an 18-month sentence with credit for the 10 months he already has served. Without a deal, Bell faced being placed in a juvenile facility until his 21st birthday.

Bell also must pay court costs plus $935 to the Barker family and he must testify truthfully in court if any other of his co-defendants in the Barker beating go to trial.

"This was a way to put a close to an event at a time when everyone had reasons to want it settled," said Louis Scott, one of Bell's lawyers.

Bell is one of a group of teens who came to be known as the "Jena Six" as word spread of their arrests on attempted second-degree murder charges, which could have landed them in prison for decades.

"We were prepared to go forward with the trial, but you have to do what's best for the client," said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys. A juvenile court trial was to begin later this week.

As part of the deal, Bell will undergo counseling and begin to be reintegrated into the school system, his lawyers said.

Rest of article here.

Just reporting. I'm too mad to really comment.

Michael Baisden Smears, Then Half-Ass Apologizes to Color of Change

Radio Disc Jockey Michael Baisden has been attacking Color of Change.org, an online activist organization formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Color of Change was one of the first blogs to give light and to raise money for The Jena Six.

Hat tip to Prometheus 6 and Jack and Jill Politics for alerting me to this situation.

From Jack and Jill:

Michael Baisden Attacks Color of Change and Jena 6 families

Michael Baisden is an emerging figure on African-American radio with a syndicated drive time show. For reasons that appear at best, self-serving, he and another DJ have gone on the attack against the laudable leadership Color of Change has shown in bringing needed attention to the plight of the Jena 6 families. They have provided real on the ground support. Despite direct communications with Michael Baisden and his staff, Baisden has chosen to air falsehoods promoted by one of the Jena 6 father, Marcus Jones. Other bloggers like Prometheus 6 and Eddie Griffin have the dope.

This is a shame. It's really a shame because it threatens to divide a successful organizing coalition that happened online among our own community and spread from there across the nation and the world. As a card-carrying member of Color of Change, I am outraged by the unjustified slander against them by a man known mostly for his advice to the lovelorn and not his civil rights activism. It's ok if he wants to be like Tom Joyner when he grows up. But not by climbing on the backs of sincere brothers and sisters trying to make a difference.

Rest of column is here.

Prometheus 6 has several posts about this situation. In order:

This is why I hate shit like this

We yield the floor to Chris Rabb

Baisden blowback

Wait...Mr. Baisden has collected money for the Jena 6??

Baisden issues part of an apology to Color of Change


Afro-Netizen has written a good post about the importance of issue between Baisden and Color of Change.

Jena 6, the Black netroots & the importance of media literacy

Recently, a storm has brewed over allegations by popular radio host Michael Baisden that progressive advocacy group, ColorofChange.org, has defrauded one of the Jena 6 families.

It is a serious, unsubstantiated and ridiculous charge from a man who took the lead in the corporate radio community to advocate for and promote the Jena 6. But that said, while we're all entitled to differing opinions, we're not entitled to different facts.

Afro-Netizen unequivocally supports ColorOfChange.org. They represent the future and power of renewed civic engagement in our communities. They honor the spirit of generations of Blackfolk and other freedom-fighters who organized around the message instead of merely venerating a given messenger.

ColorOfChange.org promotes and thrives on decentralization, diffusing influence and resources to individuals from all walks of life to get involved in ways that the cults of charismatic leadership discourage and corporate media fear.

I do not know Micheal Baisden, nor listen to his show (and rarely listen to corporate radio). So, this is really not a counter-attack. Because, really, this is not about whether Baisden is "good or bad". It's analogous to the common expression, "Do you see the glass as half-full or half-empty?". Because in actuality, any many contexts, the best answers come from related, but unasked questions like, "What's in the glass?" and "Who's glass is it?"

Michael Baisden may not be an employee for ABC Radio, but as long as ABC doesn't kick him off the air, he's doing their bidding. And doing their bidding is essentially producing consistently high ratings to increase their advertising rates and revenues towards maximizing shareholder value for what is a publicly-held media titan -- one of only a handful of such behemoths that is strangling our democracy and so-called "free speech".

ColorOfChange.org is a progressive, independent and under-resourced non-profit. It is a labor of love by its stakeholders, manifested as an innovative civic enterprise whose potential is only limited by the commitment, creativity and energy of its ever-growing membership.

ColorOfChange.org is an honorable and vital member of 21st Century freedom-fighters with whom Afro-Netizen stands shoulder to shoulder.

Interestingly, on Michael Baisden's own website, he chose to highlight his Jena-related activity with a photo of him & Rev. Al Sharpton, while giving no mention to ColorOfChange.org nor the Black netroots community whatsoever who predated his on-air efforts to promote the Jena 6 affair.

But again, this matter is bigger than both Baisden and ColorOfChange.org.

This is about whether we allow corporate media to facilitate COINTELPRO 2.0 to divide and conquer the emerging Black netroots community.

Many entrenched Negroes who have poo-pooed those of us in the Black netroots community as lap dogs of "white liberal activists" (read: MoveOn.org), are afraid that they will have to become accountable to the rhetoric they have almost begun to believe after all these years without the antiseptic of transparency.

The reality is, Afro-Netizen need not name names in this regard. But toward interested readers doing their own research on who's promoting whose agenda, as my late hell-raising activist maternal grandmother (inspiring the moniker "Geronimo" by Baltimore politicos) liked to remind me sternly: "Consider the source!" (Not unlike the ever sanguine pearl: "Follow the money.")

This is why media literacy is so important to disadvantaged communities who do not genuinely control their own media. Because if we knew who owns what and what they are are about, the current and future Baisden-like fiascoes would be taken for what they are: distractions from the much larger threat of media consolidation at the expense of widening and amplifying the diverse, autonomous voices of communities color.

And for all the good things Baisden may have said or done around Jena and other salient issues, if you haven't heard him mention "media literacy", "media consolidation" or "media justice", now you know why.

Chris Rabb on Thursday, November 08, 2007 at 03:34 PM

Michael Meyers Says Nooses Are No Big Deal

In a recent NPR interview Meyers says that Black folks should just let it go... that the recent rash of nooses is no big deal. According to Meyers, they could all be a practical joke for all we know. He also makes similar comments in a recent editorial.

No... I am not making this up. The head of a New York Civil Rights group (New York Civil Rights Coalition), says that the nooses are just a joke.

He seems to believe that these noose incidents are taking place in a vacuum... with no historical connection or no historical context attached. He seems to ignore Americas history of lynchings. He talks as if the hanging of nooses has no more meaning than random vandalism, such as a TP'd door or tree. It's just a practical joke as far as he's concerned.

He even had the nerve to say "We don't know why people are doing this" (referring to the hanging of a nooses).

Meyers is clearly either losing his mind, or he is having a serious bout of denial.
Now I am not one of these folks who is hysterical about this. I don't believe that the sky is falling. However, I am astute enough to recognize that there is a problem with race relations in this Country and that the noose incidents are- in many cases- a manifestation and representation of deep-seeded racial animosity and intolerance. And I recognize that more needs to be done in terms of improving relations, providing an education and a context to younger generations about lynchings & the significance of these symbols, and making sure that laws are changed and enforced so that those responsible for these kinds of incidents can be dealt with. Yet Michael Meyers, the leader of a Civil Rights organization, can't recognize this? He doesn't recognize that the hanging of a noose amounts to a threat.... and amounts to a hate crime (based on certain facts and the context of the specific incident)? He doesn't recognize that a noose is used as a symbol of terror, designed to intimidate and frighten? His comments were unbelievable. (Link to audio interview provided above).

I was disappointed that News and Notes did not bring on another guest with an opposing viewpoint who was equally as passionate as Meyers. But instead they allowed Meyers to ramble unchallenged. (Julianne Malveaux would have eaten him alive... although I often don't agree with her on a lot of her positions. She should have been on the program).

What exactly has to happen before Michael Meyers is convinced that these incidents are a serious matter? I guess Meyers is saying that the racists have to draw blood from their victims in order to be taken seriously. It's almost as if Meyers is encouraging racists to "get more serious" and to actually carry out their threats.

_________________________________

Related Links

Background On Lynchings

Without Sanctuary

More Background On Lynching

AmericanLynching.com

Duluth Lynchings

Lynching in Texas

Jena Six Update - Judiciary Committee Hearings

Per The Chicago Tribune:

U.S. official: Jena nooses were hate crime
by Howard Witt

Under pointed questioning from Democratic House members who decried the lack of federal intervention in the racially-charged Jena 6 case, U.S. Justice Department officials revealed Tuesday that they are now weighing an investigation into allegations of systemic racial bias in the administration of justice in the small, mostly white Louisiana town.

U.S. Attorney Donald Washington also said for the first time that the hanging of nooses from a shade tree in the Jena High School courtyard in September, 2006, by three white students—a warning to stay away from the tree directed at black students that triggered months of interracial fights in the town—constituted a federal hate crime, but that federal authorities opted not to prosecute the case because of the ages of the white youths involved.

Jena school officials dismissed the noose incident as a youthful prank and issued brief suspensions to the white students involved, angering black residents of the town.

“Yes, hanging a noose under these circumstances is a hate crime,” Washington, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, told a House Judiciary Committee hearing convened to examine the Jena case. “If these acts had been committed by others who were not juveniles, this would have been a federal hate crime, and we would have moved forward.”

But during the four-hour hearing boycotted by most Republican members of the House panel, many African American committee members said they remained dissatisfied with the reluctance of Justice Department officials to intervene more forcefully in what they regard as the excessive prosecution of six black Jena students for a Dec. 4 attack on a white student.

The white student was briefly knocked unconscious and was treated and released at a local hospital, but Jena District Attorney Reed Walters initially charged the black students with attempted murder. After public outcry about the case mounted, Walters reduced the charges to aggravated second-degree battery.But Walters’ refusal to charge other whites in the town who attacked blacks with similar crimes prompted national civil rights leaders, joined by more than 20,000 demonstrators who marched through Jena on Sept. 20, to assert that the town’s justice system was biased.

"Shame on you!" Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) shouted at Washington, the first African American to hold the U.S. attorney’s post in western Louisiana. "Mr. Washington, tell me why you did not intervene? Six broken lives could have been prevented if you had taken action.”

Rest of the article is Here.

Oh, so NOWWWWWWWWWW you see that the nooses were a hate crime.

Negro, Please.

I will not even comment on the Republican members who chose not to be there.

Watch The Hearing Below


Watch Part 1

Watch Part 2

(video may only be available for approximately 2 weeks after Hearing date of Oct. 16th, 2007)

Hear a related NPR Interview with Charles Ogletree

Jena Six - Color of Change Update

Hat tip:Jack and Jill Politics

The blog Color of Change, which has been at the forefront of The Jena Six situation from the beginning, now has a petition up to Governor Blanco of Louisiana requesting that she intervene.

Dear Governor Blanco,

I am writing to request your intervention into a situation of great injustice taking place in Jena, LA, as well as a written response to this letter.

Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the "white" tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could "take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen."

Racial tension continued to mount in Jena, and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student--who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses--taunted a black student, allegedly called several black students "nigger", and was beaten up by black students, six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Thankfully, Mychal Bell’s June conviction has been nullified but all 6 young men are still awaiting trial, and remain unable to return to Jena High School and get on with their lives.

I would like to believe that what is happening in Jena is not consistent with your values, or with what the State of Louisiana sees as justice. I have asked District Attorney Reed Walters to drop all charges against the six young men. You should act immediately to make clear your commitment to justice in this case, and announce that you will grant immediate reprieves to any of the young men who are convicted. And you must investigate the conduct of District Attorney Reed Walters, whose actions are a blatant and unacceptable abuse of power, to begin the process of healing in Jena and to make sure this never happens again.

Respectfully,

There is also a letter to the DA, Mr. " I can change your life with a stroke of a pen" Walters.

Please go here to find both of them as well as the petition.

FREE THE JENA SIX

Mychal Bell Back In Jail

They're at it again.

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!

An Open Letter to White Progressives About Jena

I yield the floor to Prometheus 6:

An open letter to white progressives about Jena

The Jena, LA controversy isn't over. I didn't expect it to be over this quickly, but a couple of things have happened since the recent demonstration that make me genuinely concerned about how it will eventually be resolved. What put my concerns over the top was the recent statements by the District Attorney and Mayor of Jena that indicate their sympathies are far too closely aligned with those of white supremacist organizations. But what first made me concerned was the reaction of progressive white folks...something I thought we might adjust over time by filling in the huge gaps the mainstream media has left in the story. The more I read on the Jena controversy the more I feel like the drowning guy who keeps getting water balloons lobbed at him.

I've had my emotional reaction to it already. Thinking about the entire situation I conclude I have a snowball's chance in hell of changing the minds of the Mayor or District Attorney. They are taking the hardest line possible, and as I said, there was those recent statements...

I've realized though that there are several issues conflated in most Black folks' reaction, and teasing them apart might help those progressives among you that find yourselves troubled by the Jena demonstration feel more at ease.

I'm going to start with the nooses. Yes, it strikes you as obvious, I'm sure you rolled your eyes. And you, well, you just don't think it's as bad as a kick in the head. Well, this is not an argument, it is a statement. To Black Americans, a hangman's noose send the same signal as a burning cross. There may be some differentiation with you but for most Black people there is not. And I heard that guy over there, he said they use nooses in plays, they play that “hangman” game, and I say yes the meaning of a hangman's noose is more contextual than that of a burning cross. But somehow when those nooses turn up, they are always in that context.

Again, this is not an argument, it is information for you. You should treat nooses like swastikas.

When you hear Black people say the kid got beat up because the nooses were hung, it means that is the wound that festered as opposed to the infection that was the months of subsequent brawling. That is one point.

Second, the domestic media coverage of this has been horrible beyond merely being absent. I am one of the folks who have been following the case from the first article in the Chicago Tribune. You have no idea how frustrating it was to read article after article saying “nooses were hung and a white kid got jumped,” when NPR, in the most detailed description of events I've seen, says the response to the nooses was a silent protest. The school called the police.

I watched every mainstream media outlet skip right over that. That's another point.

I can find no specifics about what happened between the beginning of the semester and Nov. 30; the NPR article just says “Fights began to break out at the high school. But that year, the football team was having an unusually good season and the black athletes were a major reason why. So while there were fights throughout the fall, nobody wanted to take any action that would hurt the team. “ All I know for certain is they bypassed a number of opportunities to resolve the issue during this time.

The next report was of a Black youth, Robert Bailey, being beat up at a mostly white party one Friday night. The District Attorney could have said that was the last straw. He did not. The next day Bailey got into an argument with one of the students at a store. The student went to get a gun from his car, and was disarmed. The District Attorney said that was the last straw...and had Bailey arrested for defending himself. Monday, two days later, Justin Barker “loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night,” incited a riot and got hurt. A high school brawl ensued.

Equal protection under the law would see Justin Barker compelled to identify the people that assaulted Robert Bailey, and have those people charged with the same crime. And it will not happen.

Don't worry. There's only one more point.

You, white progressives, must see that this is a real problem and not let it die. Because the discomfort of staring the reality of racism in the face so soon after Jeff Jacoby declared racism irrelevant has brought forth the inevitable diversion. The natural one is the disproportionate crime rate in the Black community. And I'm not having that discussion right now...later, perhaps. I just need you to see that this problem is not one Black people can address. It is one you must address if there is to be justice.

I need you to see that when you have a well defined issue and dump ninety-two other issues on top of it, you cannot even claim to be trying to help.

And if you're saying you need do nothing about racism until it is the last problem on Earth, I think ALL Black people need to hear that.

Thank you, P6, for your eloquence.

Will we continue to hear birds chirping from the White Progressive Blogopshere? Or, will they throw down their defensiveness and recognize the serious issue of UNEqual Justice that is NOT going away.

Mychal Bell Is Freed On Bail

Hat Tip: Skeptical Brotha:

Mychal Bell is freed on bail
September 27th, 2007


Hat Tip: Doug Simpson, Associated Press

A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate prompted a massive civil rights protest here walked out of a courthouse Thursday after a judge ordered him freed.

Mychal Bell’s release came hours after a prosecutor confirmed he will no longer seek an adult trial for the 17-year-old. Bell, one of the teenagers known as the Jena Six, still faces trial as a juvenile in the December beating.

District Attorney Reed Walters’ decision to abandon adult charges means that Bell, who had faced a maximum of 15 years in prison on his aggravated second-degree battery conviction last month, instead could be held only until he turns 21 if he is found guilty in juvenile court.

The conviction in adult court was thrown out this month by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, which said Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that particular charge.

Walters credited the prayers of people in this small central Louisiana town with averting a “disaster” when tens of thousands of demonstrators descended on the town. Some critics of Walters considered that a slap against the peaceful marchers.

Now, it's time to get after that DA. Call him before Congress, Rep. Conyers. Let him explain that NYTimes Op-Ed full of lies.

Mychal Bell's Bail Set at $45, 000

Hat tip: Skeptical Brotha

Mychal Bell’s bail set at $45,000
September 27th, 2007

Hat Tip: (CNN) — Bail was being posted Thursday for Mychal Bell, a black teenager accused of beating a white classmate, after a district attorney’s announcement that he would not appeal a higher court’s decision moving Bell’s case to juvenile court, according to the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Mychal Bell, 17, is accused with five others of beating Justin Barker in a school fight.

Bell’s bail was set at $45,000, Sharpton said. The paperwork was being worked out, he said, and the bail bondsman was at the courthouse.

Earlier Thursday, Bell was moved from jail to a juvenile facility, according to his attorney, Lewis Scott.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said his decision not to appeal was based on what he believed is best for the victim in the case.

“While I believe that a review would have merit … I believe it is in the best interest of the victim and his family not to delay this matter any further and move it to its conclusion,” Walters told reporters. Watch the district attorney say he won’t challenge the ruling. »

He said a march by 15,000 people last week in the small town of 3,000 residents led by civil rights leaders Sharpton and Martin Luther King III did not influence his decision.

Demonstrators were protesting how authorities handled the cases of Bell and five other teens accused of beating fellow student Justin Barker.

Many said they are angry that the students, dubbed the “Jena 6,” are being treated more harshly than three white students who hung nooses from an oak tree on high school property.

The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters say they should have been charged with a hate crime.

Bell, now 17, was the only one of the Jena 6 behind bars. His bond previously was set at $90,000.

A district judge earlier this month tossed out Bell’s conviction for conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, saying the matter should have been handled in juvenile court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, did the same with Bell’s battery conviction in mid-September.

Prosecutors originally charged all six black students accused of being involved in beating Barker with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. Walters reduced charges against at least four of them — Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw — to battery and conspiracy.

Bryant Purvis awaits arraignment. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he’s a juvenile.

Wednesday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced that Louisiana State Police officers will protect the families of the Jena 6 and investigate any threats they have received. A white supremacist Web site posted the names and addresses of the six black teens after last week’s march, calling on followers to “let them know justice is coming.”

Thursday, the FBI said it has been made aware of allegations of threats.

“Threats are taken seriously, and as these investigations are ongoing we cannot comment further,” said Sheila Thorne of the FBI’s New Orleans, Louisiana, office.

The December 4 attack on Barker came after months of racial tension, including at least two instances of fighting in the town, sparked originally when three white teens hung nooses from an oak tree on the town’s high school grounds.

Walters has said there was no direct link between the hanging of the nooses and the schoolyard attack, and defended the prosecutions ahead of last Thursday’s peaceful march. Blanco defended the prosecutor Wednesday, saying, “He has a solid record and is highly respected among his peers.”

Walters also addressed the stress and notoriety the town has been subjected to, saying the only way he and other residents “have been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community.”

He also suggested that some kind of “disaster” was averted when thousands of marchers came to Jena last week.

“I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened,” Walters said.

“The Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people and they responded accordingly,” he said, without explaining exactly what he meant.

Soon after the district attorney spoke, a local reverend took issue with his comments.

Obviously, we are serving two different gods here,” the Rev. Donald Sidley said. “My Bible says that we should do — we should be loving, love your neighbor as yourself.

“For him to try and separate the community like he is and then using Christ Jesus to influence the people that Jesus is working on their side, well, that’s — that’s absurd. … God is god of the human race,” said Sidley, of the New Evergreen Church.

Well, maybe some sort of justice is finally going to take place. He should have been out of jail the nanosecond his conviction was vacated.

Mychal Bell's Case to be heard by Juvenile Court

From CNN.com:

'Jena 6' teen's case to be heard in juvenile court, governor says

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- The case of Mychal Bell, a black teenager accused of beating a white classmate in Jena, Louisiana, will be heard in juvenile court, Louisiana's governor announced Wednesday.


Mychal Bell, 17, is accused with five others of beating Justin Barker in a school fight.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that she discussed Bell's case with LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters on Wednesday, and that Walters agreed not to challenge a state appeals court ruling that dismissed Bell's battery and conspiracy convictions.

The court ruled that Bell, who was 16 at the time of the beating, should have been tried in juvenile court instead of having the case transferred to adult court.

Blanco made the announcement with civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton.

Last week, they led about 15,000 marchers to Jena, a town of 3,000, to protest how authorities handled the cases of Bell and five other black teens accused of beating white high school student Justin Barker.

Many said they are angry the students, dubbed the "Jena 6," are being treated more harshly than three white students who hung nooses from an oak tree on high school property.

The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters say they should have been charged with a hate crime.


Prosecutors originally charged all six black students with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy

The black students now face charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy in the schoolyard beating.

The altercation was the culmination of racially tense events in the town, including two fights sparked by the hanging of the nooses.

CNN's Eric Marrapodi contributed to this report.

A Few Thoughts On the Jena 6 Protest

I have not really touched on this topic because I have not devoted the kind of time to it that I probably should have. I was occupied with other concerns during the week of the protest.

I liked the fact that so many African Americans were able to mobilize to highlight what appears to be a miscarriage of Justice in Jena. I support the idea of a level playing field for the 6 young men involved in the altercation with the White student. Yes, they should be punished, but not with such harsh prison sentences. The White students should have been held accountable as well. The authorities could have dealt with the problem more effectively, but it appears as though they were either incompetent, or had no desire to do so.... or both.

With that being said.... the first thing that I thought when I saw so many people gathering that day was why in the hell can't Black Americans gather like this for so many other worthy causes that need attention? As bad as the Jena situation was and continues to be, there are much more urgent problems that Black Americans should be mobilizing against. Now I will probably get hate mail for stating that....but I have to write what I feel.

The so-called "Black Community" has a lot more to be concerned about than a group of White kids, and bigoted officials from a little Town in Louisiana. There are probably dozens of Jena's in this Country....but they are not the most pressing threat to Black Americans. The most urgent problems for the so-called "Black Community" today are intracultural. They don't come from "The White Man". Yet we have the good Reverend Al Sharpton stating recently that the Jena case "Marks the Beginning of a 21st Century Rights Movement". Oh Please Reverend Al!!... Save it for those Black folks who are willing to swallow that nonsense.

Obviously Reverend Al is more interested in maintaining a niche for himself, and making sure that Civil Rights remains a viable business for him. "Civil Rights Inc.".... that's what I often think about when I see Reverend Al and Jesse Jackson.... although I respect Jesse's early work. Neither man has adapted effectively to the times that we live in today. This is the same problem that the NAACP is facing.

I just hope that the "Black Community" puts the same amount of effort into mobilizing against the more urgent intracultural problems that it faces. 300 people have died in Philadelphia so far this year, and most have died as a result of Black on Black violence. White kids from Jena did not take all of these lives.... but I suspect that if they had... we would have seen riots in cities across the Country. But when it is Black on Black violence, it is somehow seen as not warranting any serious mobilization. I just don't see nearly the same level of urgency on that front. And this problem of Black on Black violence is plaguing cities around the Country.... New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, Newark, Washington DC, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Oakland, Atlanta, and so on..... Where is the urgency?

We also have the problem of a degenerate Rap Culture that is poisoning the minds of Black youth, who are internalizing the negative images that they are bombarded with on a daily basis. And the message from many of the Black adults in their lives is either we don't care...or the messages are somehow not all that bad. In addition, we have Black youth who are failing to graduate at a rate of nearly 50% in some urban areas.

And we have heard about the problem of crime... the level of out of wedlock births, the AIDS rate for African American young women, and other problems. Another blogger has recently mentioned some of the same ironies and problems with the protest. Now I don't often agree with African American bloggers in general when it comes to issues of race & politics, but I agreed with the overall gist of this bloggers message regarding this particular issue.

With that as a backdrop, the Jena 6 issue seems disjointed... not that it isn't important... it just seems problematic from the standpoint of proportionality relative to the bigger picture.
Why couldn't Black folks mobilize more against BET, or against the brutal Dunbar Village gang rape in Florida? Why can't Black folks mobilize in such large numbers to demand fair voting practices, and better political representation (perhaps joining with non-Black Americans to form new viable political Parties). Why can't Black Americans mobilize more to demand a change to the negative way that they are portrayed in the media? Why can't Black Americans mobilize in such large numbers to take back their own neighborhoods, clean up their streets, and to fight back against this degenerate "no snitching" culture? Why can't Black Americans mobilize in such large numbers to highlight the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina... not just for New Orleans, but for the Gulf Coast as a whole... questioning a nations responsibility towards the well being of its citizens regardless of color? Why can't Black Americans mobilize in such large numbers to highlight the disparities in healthcare and demand solutions? Thousands of African Americans die each year unnecessarily, due to problems with this Country's healthcare system. The folks down in Jena are not to blame for that....although I suspect that the same kind of racism and indifference may be a common thread between the folks in Jena and the Healthcare policymakers in Washington DC. But my point is... So called "Black America" needs to get its priorities in order.

I'm all for protesting against racial injustice in Jena Louisiana.... but that injustice pales in comparison to some of the other evil and injustice that Blacks are unleashing against their own. The Black on Black violence, Black on Black misogyny, Black on Black negative media images are a much bigger threat to me than the incident in Jena.

Jena Six Update - Mychal Bell Denied Bail

From USAToday.com:

Teen in 'Jena 6' case denied bail
Updated 7m ago
By Alex Brandon, AP



JENA, La. (AP) — A relative of one of the Jena Six says a judge has denied bail for Mychal Bell, the only one of the teens who is jailed in the beating of a white classmate.

Attorneys would not comment because juvenile court proceedings are secret. But the father of one of Bell's co-defendants said Bell's bail request was rejected.


Bell's mother left the courthouse in tears and refused to comment.

Bell is the only one of the group known as the Jena Six to have been tried so far in the December beating of a white classmate.


Bell was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, which could have led to 15 years in prison. But his conviction was thrown out by a state appeals court that said he could not be tried on the charge as an adult because he was 16 at the time of the beating.

Rest of story here.

Another ' Noose' Incident Near Jena

Two arrested in noose incident near Jena, Louisiana

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Authorities in Alexandria, Louisiana, arrested two people after nooses were seen hanging from the back of a red pickup Thursday night, the city's mayor told CNN.


A photograph taken by I-Reporter Casanova Love shows a noose hanging from a red pickup.

Alexandria is less than an hour away from Jena, Louisiana, and was a staging area Thursday for protesters who went to the smaller town to demonstrate against the treatment of six black teens known as the "Jena 6" in racially charged incidents.

Police say the 18-year-old driver of the truck was charged with driving while intoxicated and inciting to riot and also may be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor -- the 16-year-old passenger.

As police were questioning the driver, he said he had an unloaded rifle in the back, which police found. They also found a set of brass knuckles in the cup holder on the dashboard, according to the police report.

The passenger told police he and his family are in the Ku Klux Klan, the police report said. He also said he had tied the nooses and that the brass knuckles belonged to him, the report said.

Rest of story is here:

And, as my fellow blogger yogo so aptly put it:

Didn’t somebody say nooses were a prank in Louisiana? They’re arresting folks for pranks now?

Bloggers Inspire New Civil Rights Wave

This was one of the headlines on the front page of The Chicago Tribune today. In a story by Howard Witt, he puts forth that none of this would be happening with The Jena Six without Black bloggers. He wrote:

JENA, La. - There is no single leader. There is no agreed schedule. Organizers aren't even certain where everyone is supposed to gather, let alone use the restroom. The only thing that is known for sure is that thousands of protesters are boarding buses at churches, colleges and community centers across the country this week, headed for this tiny dot on the map of central Louisiana.

What could turn out to be one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in years is set to take place here Thursday, when Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, popular black radio talk show hosts and other celebrities converge in Jena to protest what they regard as unequal treatment of African-Americans in this racially fractured Deep South town.

Yet this will be a civil rights protest literally conjured out of the ether of cyberspace, of a type that has never happened before in America—a collective national mass action grown from a grassroots word-of-mouth movement spread via Internet blogs, e-mails, message boards and talk radio.

Jackson, Sharpton and other big-name civil rights figures, far from leading this movement, have had to scramble to catch up. So, too, has the national media, which has only recently noticed a story that has been agitating many black Americans for months.

As formidable as it is amorphous, this new African-American blogosphere, which scarcely even existed a year ago, now comprises hundreds of interlinked blogs and tens of the thousands of followers who within a matter of a few weeks collected 220,000 petition signatures—and more than $130,000 in donations for legal fees—in support of six black Jena teenagers who are being prosecuted on felony battery charges for beating a white student.

Rest of the article is here:

Mr. Witt is the journalist that brought Shaquanda Cotton to the attention of Black bloggers. Sometimes when I feel discouraged or overwhelmed, I think about the community that is forming everyday. I think about the Black minds that I have the pleasure of reading. And, even if I am frustrated, what blogging has meant to me is to get in touch with other people with a similar spirit and fight. I have learned a great deal from bloggers, and the ability to connect with others is one of the greatest benefits from blogging. Whatever happens tomorrow, however many people show up in Jena, Louisiana, they are there because we were able to find a common voice and display our collective displeasure over obvious injustice.

And, if people think that Black-owned media isn't important, this story and others should point out that that's simply not the case. They might not have been the leaders, and had to be pushed into it, but pushed into it they were, and far earlier than the MSM, who still doesn't quite get it. While I have been blogging about this case for some months, I have routinely sent notices to other ' mainstream' bloggers with links and information about the case. Their willingness to completely disregard this case only makes me more determined in my own blogging. They have the 'option' to disregard cases like The Jena Six, while we, as a community, simply don't have that 'choice', because we know that if we don't speak up for these young men, the NEXT TIME, it will be a young Black male that WE KNOW. There are no six degrees of separation for Black folk and bad stories about the Criminal Justice System. If there are two degrees, you feel lucky.

This case, at its core, is about a town and system that continues to think that they can abuse our children, have two sets of rules, and judge our children more harshly while we stand around doing nothing. Doing nothing is no longer acceptable, not that it ever was.


FREE THE JENA SIX!

Support The Jena Six on Thursday, 9/20

Thursday, September 20, 2007, there will be a march in Jena, Louisiana in support of The Jena Six. For those of us who cannot march tomorrow, show your solidarity by wearing all Black clothing.


FREE THE JENA SIX!

Jena Six Update-Bell Conviction Tossed!

From CNN.com:



(CNN) -- A Louisiana appeals court Friday vacated the remaining conviction of a teenager accused in a violent, racially charged incident in Jena, Louisiana, his attorney said.


Mychal Bell's defense team will be filing a motion to get him out of prison.

Bob Noel said the 3rd District Court of Appeals in Lake Charles threw out the conviction for second degree battery against Mychal Bell, saying the charges should have been brought in juvenile court.

"We're happy now, but tomorrow is another day," Noel told reporters.

The future of the case against Bell is up to the district attorney, who must decide whether to refile the charges in juvenile court, Noel said.

"We have to wait and see what the other side's going to do, how they're going to react," he said. Watch CNN's Susan Roesgen explain the case »

Bell's defense team would be filing a motion to get him out of prison, where he has been since his arrest in December, Noel said.

"The primary concern is to get Mychal Bell out of jail and into school where he needs to be," he said.

Bell, who is now 17, was 16 at the time of the fight in December 2006.

Earlier this month, a district court judge vacated a conviction for conspiracy to commit second degree battery, saying that charge should have been brought in juvenile court.

He left standing the second degree battery conviction, however.

A sentencing hearing that had been scheduled for September 20 is now off, he said.

The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton had been planning to join a rally in support of Bell on that date, The Associated Press reported.

Bell and five other members of what has become known as the "Jena 6" were initially charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit attempted murder in connection with the December 4 beating of a white student.


Charges against Bell were reduced, as were charges against Carwin Jones and Theodore Shaw, who have not yet come to trial.

Robert Bailey, Bryant Purvis and an unidentified juvenile remain charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.


Read rest of article at link above.

This is but a start.

FREE THE JENA SIX!!

Related articles:
Petition to Disbar DA in Jena Six Case

Update on The Jena Six Case

Schools Ban Shirts in Jena Six Case

Update on The Jena Six

Free The Jena Six

Petition to Disbar DA in The Jena Six Case

Over at YourBlackWorld.com....

There is a petition to disbar the DA, Reed Walters.

Remember:

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, flanked by the police, informed the black students at an assembly later that day that he could end their lives “with the stroke of a pen.”

If Mike Nifong can go down for what he did with the Duke Lacrosse team, surely Mr. Walters can be held accountable for his actions in this sham.

FREE THE JENA SIX!

School Bans Shirts in Jena Six Case

Hat tip - Prometheus6:

As per the Chicago Tribune:

School bans shirts in racially tinged case
Associated Press
August 30, 2007

JENA, La. - Officials at a central Louisiana high school have banned T-shirts supporting six black students accused in the beating of a white schoolmate, saying the shirts are disruptive.

About nine students at Jena High School wore the "Free the Jena 6" T-shirts on Tuesday, and the slogan caused too much of a stir on campus, said LaSalle Parish Schools Supt. Roy Breithaupt.

John Jenkins said his three daughters wore the shirts to make a statement, not to cause trouble.


"They weren't doing anything other than wearing the shirts," Jenkins said. "The school doesn't have a dress code. They were covered. They're trying to tell them what they can and can't wear."

Read rest at link above.

Interesting, they ban t-shirts, but have no problem with allowing the circumstances that precipitated the need for the t-shirts.

FREE THE JENA SIX!




Related Articles:


Update on the Jena Six

Free the Jena Six

Take Action to Stop the Legal Lynching of the Jena Six

Legal Lynching and the Jena Six