The Full Story of the Jena 6: A couple of weeks ago I watched as 20,000 protesters marched the streets of Jena to protest the arrest of Mychal Bell (a black student) who was charged with beating a white student. The outrage was that the theory is that the white student was part of a group of kids who had hung a noose at a popular tree that the whites had been sitting under until some of the blacks decided that they wanted to sit there too. Obviously a situation of race tensions being escalated.
The white kids should never have been allowed to have had a place to congregate that was “whites only”.
The black kids probably should not have provoked them by taking over the tree.
The white kids should not have hung the nooses.
The black kids, the Jena 6, shouldn't have beat up the white student they suspected of hanging the nooses.
But there were a couple of good adult decisions that were made in all of this. First, the school administrators cut down the tree. The symbol of white segregation was removed. Second, Mychal Bell was kept in jail despite the protests. At the time it appeared that the judicial system was singling out young Mychal Bell, and that did seem extreme. School fights happen all the time and although the white kids took a pretty bad beating, he was able to go to a party that night. But, after a goodly stint the rowdy Mychal Bell was released. Yesterday he was re-arrested. The charge was that the arrest had violated two previous arrests where probation was given so long as he didn't reoffend. He did and now will spend possibly 18 months in juvenile detention. Is this fair? Absolutely. The judge essentially said, “You have been found guilty of a crime and you deserve to go to detention for the next year and a half. But, if you keep yourself out of jail we will give you a second chance.” He didn't and will now pay for those crimes.
The problem is that the 20,000 people protesting didn't know about the former arrest record, nor should they. A juvenile arrest record is sealed by the court for the protection of the child. While a kid who has already been arrested 3 times is hardly a child, he still should be protected.
This just reminds me that sometimes there are two sides to a story and sometimes we are not privy to all of the facts, and we shouldn't be. The government doesn't tell us everything for the protection of those involved.
This wasn't started as a black and white issue, but in the end it was simply a matter of justice. A kid caught a break and blew it. He has 540 more days to think about that.
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Jena High School administrators, teachers and students say that students of both races congregated from time to time beneath the "white tree." It was never officially nor unofficially reserved for white students. The black student who asked permission to sit beneath the tree posed the question in jest. The assistant principal did not give him permission to sit beneath the tree. She told him "you know you can sit anywhere you want."
The three white teens who hung the nooses say they didn't realize hangman nooses have racial connotations. (Most Americans were unaware that nooses have racial connotations until the Jena Six case made headlines. This explains the sudden rash of noose hangings across the country.) Jena bloggers say hanging stuff beneath the tree was a tradition prior to football games. They say the three students hung the nooses, which were painted in the school colors, as a challenge to their opponents in an upcoming football game. This account sounds like a blogger fantasy, but the Justic Department investigated the noose-haning incident and determine it did not qualify as a hate crime. Donald Washington, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, said it could not be established that the nooses were meant to intimidate black classmates. Washington said that the noose-hanging would have been a misdemeanor anyway and a hate-crime must be "a federal felony of violence."
Following the Jena High School beating incident, the Justice Department reopened its investigation and found no link between the noose-hanging incident and the assault on Justin Barker or other confrontations between black and white students at Jena High School. Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, told CNN that "A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection." He added that "We could not prove that, because the statements of the students themselves do not make any mention of nooses, of trees, of the 'N' word or any other word of racial hate." The CNN story ("U.S. Attorney: Nooses, Beating at Jen High Not Related") is online at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/19/jena.six.link/index.html
Justin Barker, the victim in the Jena Six beating, wasn't one of the three white students who hung the nooses. The Jena Six did not suspect him of hanging the nooses. They attacked him because they heard he had been discussing a fight at a private party that involved one of their members, Robert Bailey.
Mychal Bell was the first of the Jena Six to go to trial because his sentencing on previous convictions for battery and destruction of property was pending when he became implicated in the beating of Justin Barker. After an applelate court overturned his conviction as an adult in the Barker beating, Bell was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention facility for his previous convictions. He will probably be retired as a juvenile for his part in the Barker beating.
Very well written, anonymous.
>" he was able to go to a party"
Attending a senior ring ceremony at a local church and then going homer afterwards isn't much of a party.
Neither is the $12,000 medical bill.
(a senior ring ceremony might as well be a party if your supposidly in such bad conditions)
May i ask, what side are you trying to be on?
Since elemtry school, children are taught about racism and segregation that had happened. They are taught this still even up until highschool. White kids saying they didn't know that it was a racial connotation is the most stupidious excuse i have heard yet. Why would you hang up nooses the next day for no reason? Did there just happen to be a football game the next day? I don't think so, the whites hung up the nooses and apparantly don't understand how offensive that is to african americans today, it's stupid how one race has to be higher than the other, we all live in one world and with us being in a war why start all of this nonsense. We are all human, we all have rights, we all need respect and respect for others.
Mychal Bell may have been arrested three times but that doesn't mean he is not a child. For all you know he has disciplinary issues. Not to mention, in a place where there are racial issuse, how hard would it be for and African american male to get arrested.
There are two sides of a story, and then there's common sense that goes with it.
AND YES, THIS IS A BLACK AND WHITE ISSUE.
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