Jena, Deep-Sixed

My roving high school correspondent asked for my thoughts about the Jena Six two days ago and my ignorance was complete (a new Star Trek spin-off?  Who can keep up with kids these days?).  I was then inforrmed that it is a racially charged case in Jena, Louisiana where six black high schoolers have been over-charged in the beating of a white student.  But my ignorance is not utterly inexplicable - as of Sept 18th, the NY Times had run just one story on it; they have since run stories on the 19th and 20th.  Where oh where is the reliably liberal media when I need it?

So let's go to a real newspaper - the Chicago Tribune had good coverage on May 20 2007, and the WaPo had a detailed piece on August 4.

From the Chi Trib:

JENA, La. - The trouble in Jena started with the nooses. Then it rumbled along the town's jagged racial fault lines. Finally, it exploded into months of violence between blacks and whites.

...One morning last September, students arrived at the local high school to find three hangman's nooses dangling from a tree in the courtyard.

The tree was on the side of the campus that, by long-standing tradition, had always been claimed by white students, who make up more than 80 percent of the 460 students. But a few of the school's 85 black students had decided to challenge the accepted state of things and asked school administrators if they, too, could sit beneath the tree's cooling shade.

"Sit wherever you want," school officials told them. The next day, the  nooses were hanging from the branches.

African-American students and their parents were outraged and intimidated by the display, which instantly summoned memories of the mob lynchings that once terrorized blacks across the American South. Three white students were quickly identified as being responsible, and the high school principal recommended that they be expelled.

"Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple," said Tracy Bowens, a black mother of two students at the high school who protested the incident at a school board meeting.

But Jena's white school superintendent, Roy Breithaupt, ruled that the nooses were just a youthful stunt and suspended the students for three days, angering blacks who felt harsher punishments were justified.

... Yet it was after the noose incident that the violent, racially charged  events that are still convulsing Jena began.

First, a series of fights between black and white students erupted at the high school over the nooses. Then, in late November, unknown arsonists set fire to the central wing of the school, which still sits in ruins. Off campus, a white youth beat up a black student who showed up at an all-white party. A few days later, another young white man pulled a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store.

Finally, on Dec. 4, a group of black students at the high school allegedly jumped a white student on his way out of the gym, knocked him unconscious and kicked him after he hit the floor. The victim -- allegedly targeted because he was a friend of the students who hung the nooses and had been taunting blacks -- was not seriously injured and spent only a few hours in the hospital.

But the LaSalle Parish district attorney, Reed Walters, opted to charge six black students with attempted second-degree murder and other offenses, for which they could face a maximum of 100 years in prison if convicted. All six were expelled from school.

To the defendants, their families and civil rights groups that have examined the events, the attempted murder charges brought by a white prosecutor are excessive and part of a pattern of uneven justice in the town.

The critics note, for example, that the white youth who beat the black student at the party was charged only with simple battery, while the white man who pulled the shotgun at the convenience store wasn't charged with any crime at all. But the three black youths in that incident were arrested and accused of aggravated battery and theft after they wrestled the weapon from the man -- in self-defense, they said.

"There's been obvious racial discrimination in this case," said Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who described Jena as a "racial powder keg" primed to ignite. "It appears the black students were singled out and targeted in this case for some unusually harsh treatment."

...[Robert Bailey Jr.], 17, is caught up in several of the Jena incidents, as both a victim and alleged perpetrator. He was the black student who was beaten at the party, and he was among the students arrested for allegedly grabbing the shotgun from the man at the convenience store. And he's one of the six students charged with attempted murder for the Dec. 4 attack.

And here is a news wrinkle not mentioned by the WaPo:

On May 10, police arrested Justin Barker, 17, the white victim of the Dec. 4 beating. He was alleged to have a rifle loaded with 13 bullets stashed behind the seat of his pickup truck parked in the school lot. Barker told police he had forgotten it was there and had no intention of using it.

The case did pick up a bit of attention yesterday when Jesse Jackson accused Barack Obama of acting "white" over it, and there was a large rally on Thursday.

My question - how did the boring Bob Herbert not trumpet this?  Via Glenn I see that many other prominent lefties missed it as well.

Comments

[bgates]

That's interesting.
A white kid beat up a black kid and another one pulled a shotgun. The paper presents those as incontrovertible facts. But did a black kid grab a shotgun? Did a group of black kids beat up a white kid? 'Allegedly', says the Trib.

Another wrinkle I picked up from the wiki page - one of the black kids who (allegedly!) knocked out the white kid had two prior battery convictions - which I believe was also true of Rosa Parks.

[Der Hahn]

Yup, this is working out to the same script as the Duke lax'ers and for exactly the same reasons.

Any and all prior bad acts by whites are used as justification for bad acts by minorities. Prior bad acts by the defendants will be ignored. If they do leak out, the defendant's brushes with the law will be blamed on 'racism' of local LEOs.

All statements made by the race hucksters and others interested in keeping the pot strirred will be accepted uncritically as 'the truth'. Information inconvient to the script will be suppressed.

Divisions along racial lines are always evidence of 'racism'. I'm betting more likely it's a turf war between kids whose families migrated to Jena from NO post-Katrina, and kids from long-time resident families. If this turns out to be true, expect additional blame for Bush et al for not rebuilding Nagin's Chocolate City.

[Der Hahn]

Yup, this is working out to the same script as the Duke lax'ers and for exactly the same reasons.

Any and all prior bad acts by whites are used as justification for bad acts by minorities. Prior bad acts by the defendants will be ignored. If they do leak out, the defendant's brushes with the law will be blamed on 'racism' of local LEOs.

All statements made by the race hucksters and others interested in keeping the pot strirred will be accepted uncritically as 'the truth'. Information inconvient to the script will be suppressed.

Divisions along racial lines are always evidence of 'racism'. I'm betting more likely it's a turf war between kids whose families migrated to Jena from NO post-Katrina, and kids from long-time resident families. If this turns out to be true, expect additional blame for Bush et al for not rebuilding Nagin's Chocolate City.

[Jane]

I can't get over the whole "noose" thing.

[Cecil Turner]

The WaPo suggests the black youths were in fact the aggressors in the shotgun incident:

Bailey was involved in a second incident when he and friends spotted one of his attackers at a gas station. As Bailey and his friends approached, they said, the white teenager ran to his truck and brandished an unloaded shotgun at them. Bailey helped wrest the weapon away, refused to give it back and was charged with stealing the gun.

Since this is part of the same story that falsely alleges the defendants had no criminal record, I'm inclined to believe it. (To be fair, the priors were sealed at the time of the WaPo article, but a casual investigation should've picked up something.) As the judge noted at the bail hearing:

Mauffray pointed out that Bell now has either been adjudicated or convicted of five crimes of violence.

I can't get over the whole "noose" thing.

It's not an excuse for aggravated assault.

[bio mom]

This should never have become a national issue. The town could have handled it itself and was!! If the town actually was not being just, the state could have intervened. That is how it should work. But no. The horrible race-baiters, Jackson and Sharpton, arrive as usual to agitate and divide once again. They did that after Katrina and are the most responsible for the window of opportunity that presented itself to come to a bipartisan way to help New Orleans to become closed and polarized. They made a once in a lifetime natural disaster into a racial issue. The world would be better off if those two fell over a cliff.

[bio mom]

This should never have become a national issue. The town could have handled it itself and was!! If the town actually was not being just, the state could have intervened. That is how it should work. But no. The horrible race-baiters, Jackson and Sharpton, arrive as usual to agitate and divide once again. They did that after Katrina and are the most responsible for the window of opportunity that presented itself to come to a bipartisan way to help New Orleans to become closed and polarized. They made a once in a lifetime natural disaster into a racial issue. The world would be better off if those two fell over a cliff.

[Sue]

The story doesn't say, but I wonder if a girl is involved. That is usually what causes high school boys to act like fools.

[kim]

Rick, look at ecoenquirer.com
==============================

[kim]

A local leftist junior high school kid, and one of the most astute political debaters I engage face to face, got called a cracker by a black kid. So he dropped the n word and the resulting fracas got them both suspended from school, briefly. He enjoys the irony almost as much as do I.
========================

[MarkD]

It appears that "attempted murder" is a stretch, but there was definitely an assault. We really need more oversight of prosecutors...

[clarice]

Why are the nooses a "hate crime" and the severe beating by 6 blacks of a white kid who had nothing to do with that incident NOT a hate crime? It's time to put hate crimes to bed..And it's time to acknowledge that aside from the personal attention they seek in these unfortunate matters, Sharpton and Jackson are playing minstrels for the Dems--trying to persuade Blacks that this is always Selma, that there's been no progress on race relations and only that party canhelp them.

[Cecil Turner]

We really need more oversight of prosecutors...

Probably, but I'm not sure this case is evidence to support that contention. As to "attempted murder" being a stretch, when a star running back is kicking an unconscious victim, it's getting near the upper edge of "assault" and pushing toward the next level. And in any event, that charge was dropped, and he was convicted of "aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime" which seems to be spot-on. That conviction was overturned because the appeals court said he was inappropriately tried as an adult.

I've no clue what the appropriate legal standard is for trying someone as an adult, but this kid was already on probation (for an unrelated assault in 2005), and has five violent crimes, three of which committed whilst on probation. Moreover, there appears to be zero dispute of the particulars of the crime, or that he's responsible. What now, double secret probation? At some point, putting this kid behind bars will actually be doing him a favor.

[Jane]

I can't get over the whole "noose" thing.

It's not an excuse for aggravated assault.>/i>

Well probably not, but sheesh, that is just u-g-l-y.

[Jane]

Italics off

[Ralph L]

I blame the parents.

"two prior battery convictions - which I believe was also true of Rosa Parks."
Rosa Parks was a battery? No wonder she electrified the civil rights movement.

[SaveFarris]

OT: Valerie Plame set for a softball session with the perky one in October. Let the obfuscation begin!

[Jeff]

Long time reader first time commenter. This piece by Whitlock in the KC Star fills in a lot of missing pieces:
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/284511.html
COMMENTARY
Lessons from Jena, La.
By JASON WHITLOCK
Now we love Mychal Bell, the star of the 2006 Jena (La.) High School football team, the teenage boy who has sat in jail since December for his role in a six-on-one beatdown of a fellow student.

Thursday, thousands of us, proud African-Americans, expressed our devotion to and desire to see justice for the “Jena Six,” the half-dozen black students who knocked unconscious, kicked and stomped a white classmate.

Jesse Jackson compared Thursday’s rallies in Jena to the protests and marches that used to take place in cities like Selma, Ala., in the 1960s. Al Sharpton claimed Thursday’s peaceful demonstrations were to highlight racial inequities in the criminal justice system.

Jesse and Al, as they’re prone to do, served a kernel of truth stacked on a mountain of lies.

There are undeniable racial and economic inequities in our criminal justice system, and from afar the “Jena Six” rallies certainly looked and felt like the righteous protests of the 1960s.

But the reality is Thursday’s protests are just another sign that we remain deeply locked in denial about the path we need to travel today for true American liberation, equality and power in the new millennium.

The fact that we waited to love Mychal Bell until after he’d thrown away a Division I football scholarship and nine months of his life is just as heinous as the grossly excessive attempted-murder charges that originally landed him in jail.

Reed Walters, the Jena district attorney, is being accused of racism because he didn’t show Bell compassion when the teenager was brought before the court for the third time on assault charges in a two-year span.

Where was our compassion long before Bell got into this kind of trouble?

That’s the question that needed to be asked in Jena and across the country on Thursday. But it wasn’t asked because everyone has been lied to about what really transpired in the small southern town.

There was no “schoolyard fight” as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree.

Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack.

A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the “Jena Six” case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker’s assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the “Jena Six” in reaction to Walters’ extreme charges of attempted murder.

Much has been written about Bell’s trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell’s public defender was black.

It’s almost never mentioned that Bell’s absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son’s life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges. At a bond hearing in August, Bell’s father and a parade of local ministers promised a judge that they would supervise Bell if he was released from prison.

Where were the promises and supervision before any of this?

It’s rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker’s attack. And it’s never mentioned that white people in the “racist” town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell’s father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.

You won’t hear about any of that because it doesn’t fit the picture we want to paint of Jena, this case, America and ourselves.

We don’t practice preventive medicine. Mychal Bell needed us long before he was cuffed and jailed. Here is another undeniable, statistical fact: The best way for a black (or white) father to ensure that his son doesn’t fall victim to a racist prosecutor is by participating in his son’s life on a daily basis.

That fact needed to be shared Thursday in Jena. The constant preaching of that message would short-circuit more potential “Jena Six” cases than attributing random acts of six-on-one violence to three-month-old nooses.

And I am in no way excusing the nooses. The responsible kids should’ve been expelled. A few years after I’d graduated, a similar incident happened at my high school involving our best football player, a future NFL tight end. He was expelled.

The Jena school board foolishly overruled its principal and suspended the kids for three days.

But the kids responsible for Barker’s beating deserve to be punished. The prosecutor needed to be challenged on his excessive charges. And we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once they’re in harm’s way.

I’ve been the spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City for six years. Getting black men to volunteer to mentor for just two hours a week to the more than 100 black boys on a waiting list is a yearly crisis. It’s a nationwide crisis for the organization. In Kansas City, we’re lucky if we get 20 black Big Brothers a year.

You don’t want to see any more “Jena Six” cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law.

[clarice]

Excellent. I agree completely.

[kim]

Whitlock is a twofer. He knows his sports, too. He was early and correct about Duke, too, remember?
=======================

[Sue]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/284511.html>Lessons from Jena. Good read. I stole it from Hot Air but linked directly to the article for those who don't want to go to a Malkin site.

[Sue]

My link is the editorial by Whitlock. Someone posted while I was trying to read silly ass letters and numbers...

[kim]

Jason Whitlock is remarkable. We should hear a lot more from him. In fact, I'd support him for President.
======================

[Roger]

Sue: High School boys need no specific incentive to act like fools (although girls are usually high on the list)--it's merely a genetic trigger carried on the y chromosome that serves to weed out the exceedingly foolish from the generally foolish. That evolution thing, dontchaknow.

[Sue]

High School boys need no specific incentive to act like fools (although girls are usually high on the list)

The sad thing is the town of Jena is now being stereotyped as a typical southern town when in reality, it probably isn't. If you had asked those white boys who was allowed to sit under "their" tree, odds are no nerdy white boys would have been allowed either. The harassment would have been sans a noose most likely, but equally offensive to the nerd.

[Neo]

It's time to put hate crimes to bed.

If a poor homeless man of one race attempts to violently rob a man of another race, is it a "hate crime" if the robee beats the living shit out of the robber because he "hates" to be robbed ?

[hit and run]

I'm awarding Obama half a point for getting Jesse's dander up. And a full point for using Jr. to smack Sr. in his response

With that, my scorecard has him at -1,456½ points.

Oh, and since he skipped last night's debate (thank you thank you thank you Jane for live-blogging!), he gets 10 points.

For a total of -1446½ points.

[Jodi]

A couple of notes on "hangin nooses"
It is not only NOT a hate crime, but it is actually not a crime.
And by the way, the FBI, and the US Attorney, summoned by some black parents, said so.

And I actually saw a black wearing a Klan outfit, carrying a noose in the parade.

The tree for those really aching to know has been cut down, and the stump ground down. It was kind of funny to see the cute black child standing there with an American flag stuck in the grinds in the leveled off site.
The Jena townfolk aren't all stupid.

I looked at the details of the various happenings. It does seem that the DA overstepped, and has been reversed several times already by higher courts.
However when he doesn't bring charges against people, that is harder to address unless the townfolk stay smart and elect a new guy that won't cause all this trouble. I would expect that this will happen.

[A.S.]

Jena? Sure they don't mean Jenna?

Sen. Specter Asks: Who's This Jenna Jameson?

Guess who got a V.I.P. tour of the Capitol Thursday?

Porn star - no, make that former porn star - and big Hillary Clinton fan Jenna Jameson.

Jameson, who quit the porn business and got a breast reduction last month, is in town with her boyfriend, celebrity mixed martial arts fighter Tito Ortiz.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champ presented awards at Thursday night's annual USO world gala. But before the event, he and Jameson visited wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and then took a tour of the Capitol, courtesy of a congressional aide.

[Jane]

Where have you been H&R? Hanging out with Other Tom?

I hate missing people.

[boris]

Ha ha, you missed me!

[hit and run]

Jane:
Where have you been H&R? Hanging out with Other Tom?

Heh, I have neither been to San Diego nor Italy.

Physically, I haven't ventured outside the line drawn between home and work in a few weeks.

Virtually, I haven't been here due to circumstances beyond my control.

[cathyf]

Bell was a star football player? I wonder if steroids had anything to do with it. They are known to be associated with unusual levels of aggression.

[kim]

Juan Williams, deep-sixed.
==========================

[kim]

Did Juan Willliams and Bush talk about Jena?
====================

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