[pepper]

i don't think it matters that some people didn't answer the jury duty call, the jury ended up being All White regardless, with the inherent all-white-jury racism intact? we'll never know if that was the case or not. it's just nitpicking that business, to focus on the people who were summoned and didn't come, it's irrelevant.

[Mr Pugs]

Again, GT, that article to me read like there was some bias and leaving out of facts. It said that Mychal Bell was convicted by an all white jury. It doesn't mention that no blacks answered their summons. There can not be a mixed jury if blacks don't show up for jury duty. I'm not saying that life is a vacuum, just that the noose incident did not directly cause the fight. When I was a kid, I got burned by the oven. I learned not to touch the hot oven again. I didn't blame the oven for any other burns I got since then. The story of the convience store seems to make a little more sense now. 3 black guys "exchange words" with one white guy, who then proceeds to get his gun from his truck. Instead of backing down, they take the gun from him and go home with it. To me it sounds like the white guy was scared of getting jumped, and pulled the gun for protection. If it were the other way around and the white guy was the aggressor, it seems like they wouldn't try to take the gun from him. It was the middle of the day, and there were other people around, I don't think he would have shot anyone, or the gun would have been fired in the scuffle or when they approached him. I have had racial slurs yelled at me in the past, is it okay for me to go and beat up someone of that race?

[girltrouble]

GGG:
Assault is illegal. You are insinuating that violent use of force, 3 - 1 (I don't care if it is 3, 6 or 10, it was not 1 - 1) was justified. It never is.

ordinarily, i'd agree with you, but i don't think the situation here is occuring in a vaccum. from what i understand, the assaultee was harrassing the 6. to do that, you'd either be an idiot or think that you can't be touched. i think the circomstances at the time tip towards the latter.

thank you for posting the todd lewan piece, ggg, but honestly, i don't trust it. the best piece on jena i have found is one of the first: all things considered july30. the story is the most complete, including the situation with the gun being pulled, as well as interviews with people involved. the ap story uses un-named sources to refute some of the main points, but sometimes with ridiculous results: highschool age kids playing with nooses in the heart of the south? sorry didn't happen. 2 nooses vs. 3? nitpicking, but one of the quotes in the npr story makes it clear there were three nooses. add to that, he claims that the tree was not specifically a "white tree" but then what would be the point of the initial question that sparked all of this, and the hanging of the noose? he is told that jena isn't racist and he seems to go out of the way to try to agree with them. he goes as far as omitting what happened at the convenience store and the comments of the district attorney-- crucial if we are to understand the injustice in jena. he also claims that the incedents in dec had nothing to do with the "noose incedent." so then it happened in a vacuum? mr leman only seems to ask questions when it reinforces his "jena idyll"-- the norman rockwell-esque dream version jena, which he partially dispells. but how come in all of his mythmaking and demythifying, did he not mention the troubled youth facility that jena is usually in the headlines for? the one that is notorious for abuse of it's inmates, it was also the home of where many of the new orleans inmates where held post-katrina, where, according to the new york times reported cases of, "beatings, racial slurs and sexual taunts". seeing as prison is a big industry in jena, it's probably a place where many parents of the highschool student's parents. if, as he says he is out ot find the truth, why is this omitted?
lastly, the writer's by-line didn't say he was in jena. which means more than likely, he was in DC or NYC. finally, the npr story was broadcast almost a month before the AP piece. i think a few people have changed their story since it's become an international story.

and pugs, since when is wanting to go somewhere in this country "trying to start something?" if you look at it that way, we'd still be defined by gender roles and jim crow. after all, by that measure, rosa parks was a trouble maker. don't tell me you believe one should know one's place (and stay there)...

[pepper]

luvpugs "to stand up and ask the principle if they could go sit under the "white tree" just seems like starting some shit to me. From what I read the whites liked the tree and the blacks like the bleachers. So why did the blacks decide they just HAD to go sit under the white tree. It doesn't seem innocent to me. It seems like they wanted to start some shit."

but how do things change though if no one wants to stir it up? it's not like it's going to go away all by itself, somebody has to make some noise. i really think that Somebody Has To Shake Shit Up To Get It To Change!!! imagine if none of our brave grandmothers stood up for change or wanted to "start some shit"? we'd still be chained to the kitchen stove!
how do things change without conflict? i don't see humans as being all that evolved yet personally.

ggg interesting article. wish there was some mention of the DA who said he could make those kids "disappear with the stroke of (his) pen" though. that was a serious abuse of power, says more to me about the prevailing attitude of authority there than any and all of the rest of it.

[girlygirlgag]

6 kids didn't beat up Barker, 3 did. None the less he was warned the entire time he taunted the black kid (the one beaten up by more than one white person at the preceding party) thru the halls. It was stated on witness accounts by ALL witnesses. It was stated by all witnesses that he was sluring the kid and so how is it shocking he'd get into a "tussle?" He was warned and told to shut his mouth each time he opened it up for racial slurs to exit...getting beaten down is what I call "expected" after that.

Assault is illegal. You are insinuating that violent use of force, 3 - 1 (I don't care if it is 3, 6 or 10, it was not 1 - 1) was justified. It never is.

Black and white becomes gray in La. town

By TODD LEWAN, AP National WriterSat Sep 22, 7:33 PM ET

It's got all the elements of a Delta blues ballad from the days of Jim Crow: hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree; a mysterious fire in the night; swift deliberations by a condemning, all-white jury.

And drawn by this story, which evokes the worst of a nightmarish past, they came by the thousands this past week to Jena, La. — to demand justice, to show strength, to beat back the forces of racism as did their parents and grandparents.

But there are many in Jena who say the tale of the "Jena Six" — the black teenagers who were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy for attacking a white classmate at Jena High School last December — is not as simple as all that.

Black and white, they say that in its repeated retelling — enhanced by omissions and alterations of fact — the story has taken on a life of its own. It has transformed a school-yard stomping into an international cause celebre, and those accused of participating in it into what one major Southern daily came to describe as "latter-day Scottsboro Boys."

And they say that while their town's race relations are not unblemished, this is not the cauldron of bigotry that has been depicted.

To Ben Reid, 61, who set down roots in Jena in 1957 and lived here throughout the civil rights era, "this whole thing ain't no downright, racial affair."

Reid, who is black, presently serves on the LaSalle Parish council. He reads the papers. He hears the talk outside of church on Sundays about how the Jena Six business is dividing his hometown down racial lines.

He doesn't buy it.

"You have good people here and bad people here, on both sides. This thing has been blown out of proportion. What we ought to do is sit down and talk this thing out, 'cause once all is said and done and you media folks leave, we're the ones who're going to have to live here."

Clearly, something bad occurred in Jena, population 2,971, an old sawmill town in LaSalle Parish that, once upon a time, was Ku Klux Klan country. And, as most white and black residents readily agree, there is no good reason for embracing what unfolded here.

But what happened, exactly?

The story goes that a year ago, a black student asked at an assembly if he could sit in the shade of a live oak, which, the story goes, was labeled "the white tree" because only white students hung out there. The next day, three nooses dangled from the oak — code for "KKK" — the handiwork of three white students, who were suspended for just three days.

Much of that is disputed. What happened next is not: Two months later, an arsonist torched a wing of Jena High School. (The case remains unsolved.) Two fights between blacks and whites roiled the town that weekend, culminating in a school-yard brawl on ..hat led the district attorney to charge the Jena Six with attempted murder. The lethal weapon he cited to justify the charge: the boys' sneakers.

In July, the first to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted after two hours of deliberations by an all-white jury on reduced charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit it.

(It was widely reported that Bell, now 17, was an honor student with no prior criminal record. Although he had a high grade-point average, he was, in fact, on probation for at least two counts of battery and a count of criminal damage to property. In any event, his conviction was overturned because an appeals court ruled he should not have been tried as an adult.)

There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.

Consider:

_The so-called "white tree" at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.

_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students "were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them," according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.

_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.

_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.

_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, none showed up.

About 225 miles and a world apart from racially mixed New Orleans, Jena (pronounced JEE-nuh) is a throwback.

Here, one refers to elders as "Sir," and "Ma'am." Children still pull catfish from creeks; couples court at Jena Giants football games; families rope goats and calves at weekend rodeos.

In a place where per capita income is $13,761, there aren't any swank, French restaurants, but rather, family eateries such as the Burger Barn, Ginny's and Maw & Paw's. Most of Jena's 14-odd churches stage Easter egg hunts. On summer afternoons, sweet tea and lemonade on a neighbor's front porch are obligatory.

And there are endearing figures, like the designated town sweeper who mountain bikes around town with a wagon full of rakes, brooms, dustpans and cleaning fluids, stopping only to sweep shopowners' parking lots or to distribute complimentary bubble gum to grade schoolers.

Not all vestiges of the past are beloved, or quaint, of course.

There are no black lawyers, no black doctors and one black employee in the town's half-dozen banks. (The employee is male, an accountant who works out of public view.)

Economics play a role in this; with the closure of the sawmills in the '50s, the town now relies heavily on the exploitation of oil and natural gas, offshore. There are relatively few good-paying jobs in what is gradually becoming a retirement community, and some point out that African Americans with higher educations tend to leave the parish.

"To a certain extent, that's true," says Anthony Jackson, one of Jena High's two black teachers. "But I know some people who tried to stay here and couldn't get good jobs. There was, for instance, a gentleman who graduated as a certified biology teacher, but he left because he didn't want to deal with what's going on here."

Cleveland Riser, 75, who began working in Jena as a teacher and then rose to become an assistant superintendent of schools in LaSalle Parish, says blacks have long had trouble getting ahead in Jena.

"In my experience, the opportunity for advancing in my profession was denied, in my opinion, because I was black — not because I was unprepared professionally, or because of my performance."

Here and across the "crossroads" of Louisiana, there are Klan supporters, to be sure; David Duke, the former KKK Grand Wizard, carried LaSalle Parish in his 1991 run for state governor. And Jacqueline Hatcher, a 59-year-old African American, remembers when, as a ninth grader in 1962, she saw a large cross burning out front of the all-black Good Pine High School.

"We heard the Klan was meeting in the woods because there was going to be desegregation in the schools and they didn't want that," says Hatcher. Still, no one recalls seeing any public lynchings or whites in robes and masks for a half century.

"If I could take you back to 60 years ago, and then fast forward to today, you'd have to say we've come a long way," says Billy Wayne Fowler, a white school-board member who is one of the few leaders with the school administration or local law enforcement who still talks to reporters.

Most townsfolk, he says, interpreted the events of last year pretty much the same way — that a small minority of troublemakers, both black and white, got out of hand, and that the responses from authorities weren't always on the mark.

The boys who hung the nooses "probably should have been expelled," Fowler says, and the murder charges brought against the black teenagers were "too harsh, too severe."

Tommy Farris, 27, an oil driller, and his wife, Nikki, 29, a registered nurse, concur — to a point. "Those boys should have expelled," says Nikki, who is white. "It was no innocent prank. I think those boys knew what they were starting by hanging those nooses from a tree."

Tommy, who is black, agrees. But free the Jena Six?

"That's not going to happen," he says, adding that he thinks the black teenagers are being given a fair chance to defend themselves against the charges.

Johnny Wilkinson, 44, a platform officer on an oil rig, and his wife, Karen, a 47-year-old director of nurses at the local hospital, are, like many couples in town, wrestling with that question of fairness.

The noose hanging was wrong, say the Wilkinsons, who are white, and the boys who did it should have been more severely punished.

Still, "They knocked that boy out cold and were stomping on him," Johnny says. "They might have killed him. I believe punishment would have been measured the same way if it had been the opposite way around and six whites had attacked a black kid."

(The teenager who was beaten, Justin Barker, 17, was knocked out but walked out of a hospital after two hours of treatment for a concussion and an eye that was swollen shut. He attended a school ring ceremony later that night.)

Adds Karen: "A sentence of 15 years is fair, but I do think they should be eligible for parole. Who are we to say they can't be members of society?"

But to Braxter Hatcher, 62, a janitor at Jena High for 18 years, such punishment would be excessive, and would only serve to reinforce suspicions in the black community that the worst kind of "Deep South justice" still exists here.

"They haven't always been fair in the courthouse with us," says Hatcher, who is black. "If you're black, they go overboard sometimes. I think this was just a fight between boys. I don't think it was attempted murder."

A number of other blacks — and whites — have raised similar questions about the Jena Six episode, particularly the manner in which authorities handled a series of racially charged incidents leading up to it.

Why, they ask, wasn't the noose incident ever reported to police? (A report might have triggered a hate-crime investigation, although federal authorities rarely go after juveniles in such cases.) And when whites and blacks tangled several times before the Jena Six episode, why did authorities charge the whites with misdemeanors — or not at all — while charging blacks with felonies?

Reed Walters, the LaSalle Parish district attorney who is prosecuting the cases of the Jena Six, insisted the case "is not and never has been about race. It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions."

Huey Crockett, 50, lives with his wife, Carla, 45, in a heavily wooded, predominantly black district just beyond Jena's limits, an area known as "The Country." The Crocketts, who are black, have complained to police that Bell and other youngsters were causing trouble in their neighborhood — scratching cars with keys, breaking the windows of parked cars, spraying property with paint.

The authorities, Crockett says, were always slow to respond.

"But as soon as he had a run-in with a white boy, they came down on him like a hammer. That's not right. If I call the police for an incident here, it may take them an hour, an hour and half to get out here. But they'll be right out in an instant if a white person calls them."

What also rankles African Americans in Jena, says Riser, the former school superintendent, is that whites charged with the same crimes as blacks receive more lenient punishment. "What this boils down to is: Why is there a double standard?"

On a road into town, a brick portal welcomes visitors to Jena, touting it as "A Nice Place to Call Home." But when the national spotlight goes away, will it be that nice place?

A week ago, Eddie Thompson, a white pastor at the Sanctuary Family Worship Center, would have said no. But on Wednesday, as thousands of demonstrators prepared to pour into tiny Jena, religious leaders held a unified church service, attended by blacks and whites.

"We prayed for one another, prayed for all of the boys involved in this," Thompson says. "We're not used to the glare, but something positive is going on here. I believe that we're maybe listening to our neighbors better, when we didn't listen before.

Are the charges too severe, YES. But to act like these kids did something noble or justified is wrong. Bell has a criminal past. His charges will be more severe, he is a prepeat offender.

[LoveMyPugs]

deleted

[Mr Pugs]

6 kids didn't beat up Barker, 3 did. None the less he was warned the entire time he taunted the black kid (the one beaten up by more than one white person at the preceding party) thru the halls. It was stated on witness accounts by ALL witnesses. It was stated by all witnesses that he was sluring the kid and so how is it shocking he'd get into a "tussle?" He was warned and told to shut his mouth each time he opened it up for racial slurs to exit...getting beaten down is what I call "expected" after that.
All of their parents are just as educated as they are, which is why they're all so uneducated. You can go to school all you want but at the end of the day you go home and dumb down to those who are in your house waiting for you. (yes I know some prevail and are success stories)
None of the protests are suggesting those involved in the fight let go scot-free...the point missed is the bullshit that led up to it all and why certain persons were tried at a different level than others...which is why there was a protest. Pretty simple to me. Mr Pugs, you try and suggest the noose thing never built up to anything, neither did the gun "exchange" at the gas station, and the fight at a party prior to...and then I just have to suggest you've missed the plot then. Again, it's all so very simple to me.

I didn't see anywere in my research that there were more than one white person fighting the black kid at the party. Where is your information coming from? Maybe it's an article that I haven't read. The way I understood the party fight was that 5 black kids tried to gain entry to a private party to which they had no invites to. The girl at the door told them they couldn't come in without an invite. They persisted. A white man then told them to leave which they didn't and then a fight ensued.

While it may be true that Barker was saying racial slurs against the six, I don't believe that they weren't giving it back. Is it expected that with superior numbers, the six were saying "please, stop saying that, it hurts my feelings"?

The gun exchange is a strange one. There were conflicting stories from both sides, so it's really clouded as to what really happened. I just don't understand the mentality of if someone pulled a gun on me, I'll go take it from him. I would've just put their hands up and shut my mouth. After he left, I would've called the cops and asked anyone who saw it to tell the police when they arrived.

There are multiple sources that say even though an investigation ensued, the noose incident did not play a role in this fight.

Like I said earlier, if you have sources that I haven't seen, please post them.

Here's an article to read... http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510

[octobersky]

Prior to the Jena6 - there HAD to be things going on at the school. I mean I've taught and observed in schools and you can just tell sometimes that there is something in the air. You know like an undercurrent, a vibe? Events don't occur in a vacuum. As teachers and administrators you have to be hyper-aware of and take measures to ensure that behavior doesn't get out of hand - it's your JOB!!! When the nooses showed up hanging from the "white tree" there should have immediately been an assembly addressing the behavior, explaining that the school will not tolerate these actions and that punishment will be swift. I mean who runs the school?

Yeah doxy I've been to NOLA on numerous occasions (pre-katrina) and class/race lines really bothered me. It stood out loud and clear to me that just about every behind the scenes service person was either black or Hispanic and that stuff really hasn't changed as much as society would like to think. The lines seemed to be very clearly drawn, even more so than other southern cities I have visited and I've visited quite a few. I really do love the culture, history and food of Nola but I'm just more aware of my race when visiting.


Here's an interesting side thought that should make just about every person rethink what they thought was their racial identity. Recently I've been doing some genealogy research and have found both sides of my family to be Melungeon. You can read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon It's still a controversial subject, but there seems to be more and more info coming to light. But in reading about this I'd like to think that these narrow minded idiots who believe some misguided white supremacy that perhaps they themselves are of mixed heritage!! Wouldn't that just be a great twist of irony?

[pepper]

why did the black kid ask to sit under the "white tree"?

do you mean why didn't they just sit under it? i can see them going to the authority at the school first. obviously they were ready to start smashing the racist action at their school, where better to start than with the teachers and principle? the school of course has to say "white tree? what white tree?", that is their official stand on the matter, they can't be seen as condoning that sort of racism at the school no matter how backwater they may be. but so long as the kids made a point of asking first and bringing the school authority's attention to the matter they have official, at least unspoken, permission to go ahead. it's a tricky situation. it's not supposed to be going on, the "white tree" business, but it is. it's not officially recognized or acknowledged but it's there just the same, and all the more insidious because of it's underhanded, sly nature. unfortunately it's taken a great sacrifice to facilitate change which is just history repeating. those boys don't have to die to stand up for what they believe but their freedom is on the line none the less.

is it about the parents? is it about the school? is it about the community, the social consciousness? yes, yes, yes. but you gotta start somewhere. school is pretty damn fine place for it, i think.

[doxy]

"did the six black kids really think they weren't going to have charges pressed after stomping a white kid?"
Though it isn't right, nor should it even be acceptible: if you pay attention to all the events in chronological order and find yourself living where those 6 black kids lived and then realize nothing will ever happen unless you take actions on yourslef it's what will happen. See every single racially motivated protest and riot. People can only take so much. It isn't exactly a phenomenon, really.
It would be "one thing" if those kids just up and went to school...got out of class and then on the way to another class something clicked--they all of a sudden realized their duty was to beat up a white kid.
But, it isn't that "one thing", it's another thing, lots of'em, in my opinion.
Obviously I'm not the only one with that opinion and so thank the heavens for that.

[doxy]

6 kids didn't beat up Barker, 3 did. None the less he was warned the entire time he taunted the black kid (the one beaten up by more than one white person at the preceding party) thru the halls. It was stated on witness accounts by ALL witnesses. It was stated by all witnesses that he was sluring the kid and so how is it shocking he'd get into a "tussle?" He was warned and told to shut his mouth each time he opened it up for racial slurs to exit...getting beaten down is what I call "expected" after that.
All of their parents are just as educated as they are, which is why they're all so uneducated. You can go to school all you want but at the end of the day you go home and dumb down to those who are in your house waiting for you. (yes I know some prevail and are success stories)
None of the protests are suggesting those involved in the fight let go scot-free...the point missed is the bullshit that led up to it all and why certain persons were tried at a different level than others...which is why there was a protest. Pretty simple to me. Mr Pugs, you try and suggest the noose thing never built up to anything, neither did the gun "exchange" at the gas station, and the fight at a party prior to...and then I just have to suggest you've missed the plot then. Again, it's all so very simple to me.

(tangent time)
Best part is the bar where I work is very high-end and upscale--so at work this past Saturday night I just loved the bigoted remarks by the uppity white locals that frequent my restaurant. To actually think none of what went on in that town this past year was racially motivated and biased is to be as sightless as one can get. Yet time and time again that night I overheard their conversations and laughter.
This state sucks, simple as.

[LoveMyPugs]

deleted

[Mr Pugs]

Yes attempted murder is overkill--it has since been reduced to battery, but you have to realize that it was 6 on 1. Justin Barker was hit from behind and knocked either unconsious or semi-unconsious. After that all six started kicking and stomping on him. Were it the other way around, it would have been called a hate crime or lynching.

I'm just shocked with dissapointment in regards to the offense. That's what I have issue with. If everyone went down and protested that the three white kids who hung the nooses (in an unrelated incident) only got suspended and not expelled, fine. I have no problem with that, but to protest and try to "free the Jena Six" when they gang assaulted someone, it's wrong. Only Mychal Ball has been convicted (which was overturned) and none of them have been sentenced. Mychal has had two battery charges as a juvenile, four violent crimes prior to this one, and two parole violations.

I just wonder what the hell passes for parenting down there.

I feel to give the jist of the WM3 is wrong Doxy, you should do your own research that way you know for yourself if all the facts are given in a fair light and aren't spun or cast in poor light by opinions.

[doxy]

Off topic:
I've been looking at my avator picture lately, it's a fleur de lis I thought fitting with my location. But, sometimes I wonder if there's some kind of klanism in it? A lot of the krewes back in the day were segregated and some were stripped of being able to march in the city on Mardi Gras (like Comus) and so I was looking at my avator and just wondering...
Would be a bad piece of irony if it were.

[doxy]

I'm just shocked with dissapointment in regards to the charge.
Also, I like that AS and JJ show up when it looks like civil rights are being violated, of which they are in that hick town Jena. I also love the fact they came down here to New Orleans (putting two and two together one could come up woth this state severely sucking...)
I read the wikepedia facts, too, and still can't figure out why no one understands the severity of the charges?
I tried reading about the West Memphis thing but it's too long...care to give the jist?
My problem with people jumping to the obvious conclusion when they see Al Sharpton is this...he's obviously there for a reason. To believe his sole reason to live is to make something out of something it isn't is a crutch. If you can't accept there is bullshit going on then I feel sorry for you.

"Yeah honey you are right. I guess in a perfect world when there was injustice everyone would speak up but then again in a perfect world there wouldn't be injustice in the first place right? "
Well said.

[LoveMyPugs]

deleted

[Mr Pugs]

Yeah, but Hank Rollins never claimed to be a civil rights activist. He just researched the case and decided to help the WM3.

[faerietails2]

There's gonna be a big Jena 6 protest in DC next weekend (Oct. 2).

I totally agree about the Sharpton/Jackson thing. Then again, there's a lot about those two that always pisses me off.

[LoveMyPugs]

deleted

[Mr Pugs]

The thing that bothers me most about this is the misrepresentation of facts. Some facts are good enough to be included in the media, others are not.

The other thing that bothers me is the Sharpton/Jackson tag team. I agree that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, but they only show up when Black people are involved. If they are against injustice it should be across the board. I don't remember them showing up with a big protest for the West Memphis Three.