Five Facts About the Jena Six

Katherine Mangu-Ward | September 24, 2007

jena 6 A careful look at the narrative of the Jena Six reveals a great deal of oversimplification on both sides. The story of "hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree; a mysterious fire in the night; swift deliberations by a condemning, all-white jury" is all-too-familiar and easy to construct. But many of the key elements are not as they seem, according to one AP reporter:

* 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[believed to be a code of the KKK] — 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.

Which isn't to say there's not a racist element in the town:

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.)...

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.

More of your thoughts on Jena here.

Help Reason celebrate its next 40 years. Donate Now!

Try Reason's award-winning print edition today! Your first issue is FREE if you are not completely satisfied.

|9.24.07 @ 12:42PM|#

Hate to channel Cathy Young here, but both sides are being asshats. God I hate stupid high school incidents, and hate racial politics even more.

Syloson of Samos|9.24.07 @ 12:47PM|#

I've not commented on the issue because I have zero clue what is going on regarding it.

|9.24.07 @ 12:51PM|#

Racial politics always bring out the hole in asshole. Obviously, the Sharptons of the world are overplaying this incident as they are, after all, professional hate mongers (unemployed if we just get along). It's a shame so many people take these people seriously, and due to a 30 sec attention span are ready to hang someone based on little or no knowledge.

|9.24.07 @ 12:52PM|#

A cross burning in 1962 - that's a sure sign that the place is rife with racism! It's not as if anything might change in 45 years.

And no black doctors! The percentage of black doctors anywhere in America is very small - aside from on TV. Must be racism.

Episiarch|9.24.07 @ 12:52PM|#

Surprise, surprise--a whole bunch of people are exaggerating and exploiting a stupid incident between high school idiots (99% of highschoolers are idiots).

Honestly, Sharpton instantly torpedoes anything he's involved with because of Brawley. I would say "even if there is merit to the case" but it looks like Al's keeping his record on this one.

|9.24.07 @ 12:54PM|#

And as the media and the self-annointed leaders of the black community descend on Jena, Cory Maye still sits in prison in Mississippi, praying he can go home and see his daughter. Why is it that a clash amongst youths make a national story while true tails of injustice are covered by almost no one, save Radley Balco.

Alice Bowie|9.24.07 @ 12:59PM|#

If punching someone in the face and beating the person up is a felony...then everyone that does this should be charged with a felony.

If it's just a school fight...it should be treated as a juvenille matter.

It becomes an issue when the Police, the Prosecutors, and the Judge arbitrariliy charge people with Attempted Murder for beating someone up.

If we are goin 2 start charging people with Attempted murder for fighting...then fine, leave the Jena 6 in jail for life.

If it's goin 2 b arbitrary...we're goin 2 have race riots and a 50's-60's like era of problems.

My opinion, Bell should stay in jail since he has an extensive crimial record...And perhaps blacks should have viewed the nooses more as a practical joke...and not a treat of some sort of nigger-lynching.

JBinMO|9.24.07 @ 12:59PM|#

I have been hearing about this for months (democracy now has been talking about it for a while), I have seen it on other news programs as well. Yesterday in an interview with a federal prosecutorthe prosecutor mentioned that they guy that has already been convicted, has 4 previous assult convictions, and he is a minor. My sympathy for his is gone.

SIV|9.24.07 @ 1:00PM|#

Which isn't to say there's not a racist element in the town:

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.)...

That is the definition of racism.Of course now that AP and Reason have "spilled the beans" on the accountant a burning cross at the bank is due any day now.

Alas, not enough people|9.24.07 @ 1:01PM|#

|9.24.07 @ 1:01PM|#

A careful look at the narrative of the Jena Six reveals a great deal of oversimplification on both sides.

Agreed.

Why then did you provide five facts that support one of the "sides?"

A Cathy Youngesque approach would seem to be indicted by your opening sentence, but you chose to highlight only one set of oversimplifications.

Here is a backgrounder from Wiki. (Obvious Wiki disclaimers apply).

Here is a timeline from the hometown Jena newspaper. There is some editorializing, but not tremendously so.

|9.24.07 @ 1:02PM|#

The timeline is at the bottom of the Jena Times page and the scrolling is kind of funky.

ed|9.24.07 @ 1:02PM|#

If this hadn't happened, Sharpton would have invented it.

Wait a minute...

kid charlemagne|9.24.07 @ 1:02PM|#

I've not commented on the issue because I have zero clue what is going on regarding it.

As far as I can tell, six black high school students ganged up on one white high school student and beat him until he was unconscious and required hospitalization. Some of the aggressors already had criminal records and reputations as dangerous bullies.

But by all means let's be even-handed and blame "both sides" for this.

Jennifer|9.24.07 @ 1:03PM|#

I haven't read much about the case, but I can't help wondering how I'd feel if six people ganged up on me, beat the snot out of me, kicked me in the head while I was already down. . . and then a bunch of race-baiters came to town trying to drum up sympathy for my poor widdle attackers.

|9.24.07 @ 1:09PM|#

Al and Jessie are definetly keeping their records on this one, going to go right in the same column as the Duke rape case and Tawana Brawley.

Had it been 6 white kids assaulting a black kid they would still be there but demanding stiffer punishment not a full release.

Those bused in protestors who obviously have no jobs to worry about missing left one hell of a mess in that little town, but no major news outlet will report that fact.

These race pimps are the worst of the worst. Saying 6 people jumping on one if a schoolyard fight is the most assinine of statements. According to their logic if blacks can jump whites because of a rope with a knot in a tree that offends them I should be able to kill OJ and walk since he killed 2 white people and got away with it and I prefer white people to black people. The National Association of Always Complaining People were trying to get their cut of the action that day in Jena telling food vendors they wanted 25% of the days take to tell people it was ok to eat there. LMAO 25% to tell people its ok to eat what a fucking joke the NAACP is to all blacks.

Small southern town makes for the perfect backdrop for Al and Jessie's new Civil Rights movement, you know they one where they collect money for themselves.

They overlook all details and facts be damned. Forget the Bell kid had a previous rap sheet for assault etc. they all need to be freed from their evil oppressors who would dare keep them down. I think its safe to say at least 5 out of 6 of those kids will be in jail again in the near future.

BTW I am still waiting for Al and Jessie to apologize to those Duke Players. Didn't Al incite a riot a while back outside someones place of business which ended with someone torching the place and killing a few people in the process? That one gets overlooked as well.

Until they take the cameras away they will always be there. Plus they have so many people brainwashed they can bus a rent a rally anywhere in no time.

Does the Black Community really accept and want to put these two men up as their leaders or are they more self ordained (like their Rev. titles from Revs-R-Us) as the leaders of all black people?

The Extispicator|9.24.07 @ 1:23PM|#

de stijl:

I think the reason for the "one sided" H&R blurb is because the other side is the only one the MSM has displayed.

|9.24.07 @ 1:24PM|#

I suppose his black defense attorney was in on it, too?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19488285/

Mad Max|9.24.07 @ 1:31PM|#

"A careful look at the narrative of the Jena Six reveals a great deal of oversimplification on both sides."

On the one hand, the talking points of the protesters are either half-truths or utter falsehoods.

But this is balanced out by facts which are supposedly damning to the other "side":

(a) There are very few black professionals in Jena,

(b) In 1990 the white folks in the area voted for David Duke (who was running against Edwin "as long as it isn't nailed down" Edwards),

(c) Almost half a century ago, there was a cross-burning at the black high school.

Yeah, a plague o' both their houses!

By the way, if this is Jena, who's Napoleon?

|9.24.07 @ 1:32PM|#

I'm beginning to suspect I've been had by those with an agenda to document/tabricate racial discrimination.

What kind of wine goes good with crow?

VM|9.24.07 @ 1:34PM|#

merlot, why?

Mad Max|9.24.07 @ 1:36PM|#

So, if this is Jena, is Jackson or Sharpton playing the role of Napoleon?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jena-Auerstedt

|9.24.07 @ 1:42PM|#

Had it been 6 white kids assaulting a black kid they would still be there but demanding stiffer punishment not a full release.

Steve Sailer demonstrates exactly how that "what if" would be playing out:
http://www.vdare.com/sailer/070923_jena.htm

Syloson of Samos|9.24.07 @ 1:43PM|#

de stijl,

Thanks for the links.

fyodor|9.24.07 @ 1:47PM|#

Are there any legal criteria for when assault crosses the line to attempted murder?

Alice Bowie|9.24.07 @ 1:48PM|#

The fact is BOTH is true

1. Jena ia a typical racist southern town...and those 12% blacks may wanna consider a new place 2 live.

2. The Jena six are a bunch of thugs.

And yes J sub D...we've been had by the black body politics. I understand that the charges are trumpted up. But this is typical of these southern towns.

If one is black and lives in klan country...one should behave...or movev out.

SIV|9.24.07 @ 1:52PM|#

The one "fact" that has been mentioned in most reports but downplayed is the school arson.
Is this related? Perhaps much more than the noose incident 3 months prior.
who the hell knows? I haven't seen it discussed by any of the residents of Jena.

Alice Bowie|9.24.07 @ 1:54PM|#

Yes fyodor

There are various legal criterias and different degrees to classify a criminal incident as an assault or attempted murder. In NY and NJ (not sure of LA), the state must prove that the defendant had a reasonable expectation of the victim's death...due to his (the defendants) action. Sometimes, there are implied actions such as using a Pipe, baseball bat, firing a gun, running one over with a car.

I have little sympathy for the bunch of thugs...I didn't see any of this. But I'm not aware of Louisiana Law.

Regardless of the fact that these boys are ALL THUGS with criminal records...the charges were trumpted up. The prosecutor and judges action are those of the perverbial south...which I would never live in.

|9.24.07 @ 2:02PM|#

Steve Saier writing on vdare.... Oy vey!

|9.24.07 @ 2:06PM|#

merlot, why?

Refer to this.

|9.24.07 @ 2:28PM|#

For Sharpton and co., it's a photo-op. But I think most of the protesters have more noble intentions. For them, it's a chance to censure low-slung Southern racism, which is pretty thick in Jena. The "stroke of my pen" comment was pretty cartoonish. And two nooses aren't so bad because the Klan normally hangs three? Come on.

If Bell's attempted murder conviction stands, that'll be splendid news for Washington and Oregon - think what they can do to wife-beaters! That'll smoke out Cathy Young.

|9.24.07 @ 2:36PM|#

"It was widely reported that Bell, now 17, was an honor student with no prior criminal record."

Channeling Bonfire of the Vanities.

|9.24.07 @ 2:53PM|#

Hey people, can't we just "Do the Right Thing"?

|9.24.07 @ 2:56PM|#

Are there any legal criteria for when assault crosses the line to attempted murder?

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it's when you assailant was trying to kill you. Which is one reason the charge here strikes me as pretty bogus. Attempted murder is a specific attempt crime, which means that the prosecution has to prove that the defendant actually meant to kill the victim, not just that if he hadn't been pulled off the victim, the victim would have died.

But overcharging by prosecutors, in hopes of intimidating the defendant into pleading guilty to a lesser charge, is hardly unknown here in the Land of the Free.

|9.24.07 @ 2:59PM|#

Steve Sai[l]er writing on vdare.... Oy vey!

So are you saying that Sailer *didn't* accurately report what would be going on if the races were reversed here? Or did you conclude that you didn't even need to RTFA, since even if it was accurate, its authorship and provenance rendered it "accurate but fake"?

|9.24.07 @ 3:03PM|#

But overcharging by prosecutors, in hopes of intimidating the defendant into pleading guilty to a lesser charge, is hardly unknown here in the Land of the Free.

Yeah, the fact that Jackson, Sharpton et al. don't seem to care the thousands of other times this happens in America pretty much indicates they're full of it.

|9.24.07 @ 3:04PM|#

Sailer is a smug asshole with an IQ fetish.

|9.24.07 @ 3:14PM|#

Or did you conclude that you didn't even need to RTFA, since even if it was accurate, its authorship and provenance rendered it "accurate but fake"?

No I didn't read it. It's on vdare and that is the only reason why. I don't want to give them the hit.

Also, Sailer cannot "accurately report" conjecture.

|9.24.07 @ 3:23PM|#

Attempted murder generally requires that the defendant have an intent to kill the victim and commit some act that is directed towards accomplishing that intent but fails to do so.
Unfortunately, it is quite common for some prosecutors to charge a more serious crime than the evidence justifies. These prosecutors don't discriminate; they will "overcharge" regardless of the race, religion, national origin, or sexual preference of the accused.

The jury is allowed to draw the inference that the defendant had an intent to kill from such things the severity or length of the attack, the extent of the victim's injury, and words spoken before, during, or after the attack.
The media coverage of this event that I have seen has been lacking in the type of information from which one might determine whether attempted murder is a reasonable charge in this case.

|9.24.07 @ 3:32PM|#

Attempted murder seems apt when a mob continues to beat a person who is unconscious. I'm not seeing how this is "trumpted" up, or even trumped up. An analogy might be if a person picks up a brick and bashes in another person's skull with it...uh, never mind, that one isn't so clear cut either.

Alice Bowie|9.24.07 @ 3:36PM|#

These prosecutors don't discriminate; they will "overcharge" regardless of the race, religion, national origin, or sexual preference of the accused.

I believe that this is what the PROTESTING is all about. The police has the discretion of who they pull over and arrest and charge. The prosecutors have the discretion. And the judge, has the discretion to determine the fairness of what happened.

In the perverbial racist south, it's not unusual for the the discretion to fall on the KKK side of things.

There's been many examples of police treating people differently for speeding. Blacks are more likely to be pulled out of the car and searched. If everyone was pulled out and searched...the arrest rate for drugs, warrant violations, weapons possession would, etc for whites would be significantly higher.

Lurker 52X|9.24.07 @ 3:43PM|#

sailer is adorable. he's here to show us what jim goad would be like if al goldstein had never been born.

|9.24.07 @ 3:45PM|#

Thanks for the timeline link, I didn't know halg of that stuff.

Seems to me that the media played it out of proportion, then black parents jump on it, and then it showed the kids that they should be beating each other up because of the color of t
their skins.

Also seems that asshole thugs iused it as an excuse to mess up other kids, and they were overcharged.

Better than supporting Mumia, i suppose...

|9.24.07 @ 3:47PM|#

A little thought experiment: Would it be outrageous if the perpetrators of this assault were, like the Jena 6, charged and convicted of aggravated battery?

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=596&sid=1254987

Or do we first need to know whether the victim was white and the perps black? Or is that irrelevant because sexuality always trumps race, so that fag-bashing should always be punished severely?

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|9.24.07 @ 3:50PM|#

|9.24.07 @ 3:52PM|#

File this one under "Why are there no black libertarians".

marcia|9.24.07 @ 3:52PM|#

One thing for sure - One is not born with prejudice, One is taught prejudice. If only we remember this when a child is born.

Episiarch|9.24.07 @ 3:54PM|#

"I do like black people. It just took a white one to prove it to me." -- Jerri Blank

chase|9.24.07 @ 3:55PM|#

You are all just a bunch of sheltered ignorant people if you don't believe that racism is prevelant in todays society. The fact is that the black students of this school were directly targeted by a very powerful and racist symbol. The boy dosen't only deserved to be beaten but should be serving jail time himself. Not to completely absove the guilt of the six, but attempted murder is completely ridiculous even if they hadn't been aggrevated by this hateful act

Episiarch|9.24.07 @ 3:59PM|#

The fact is that the black students of this school were directly targeted by a very powerful and racist symbol. The boy dosen't only deserved to be beaten but should be serving jail time himself.

So people should go to jail for displaying symbols? Who chooses what symbols are OK and what ones aren't?

You are very committed to freedom of speech, I see.

Guy Montag|9.24.07 @ 3:59PM|#

So, who is providing the bogas narrative for the MSM? PV1 Scott Thomas Beauchamp, Eve Fairbanks, Stephen Glass, Franklin Foer, Al Sharpton, Al Franken or Keith Oberman?

|9.24.07 @ 4:00PM|#

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.

Hey, chase,

The beaten kid apparently didn't have anything to do with the noose thing (and I'll be the first to admit that I don't have any idea how the beatdown started). Why the hell should he be beaten or go to jail?

Guy Montag|9.24.07 @ 4:01PM|#

The boy dosen't only deserved to be beaten but should be serving jail time himself.

Do you use "boy" for all races or just "whitie"?

|9.24.07 @ 4:03PM|#

chase,

Justin Barker was not one of the students who hung the nooses.

He was attacked because apparently he was mocking Robert Bailey, Jr. who was involved in an incident the previous Friday at a convenience store parking lot.

Short version: Argument, Bailey claims to have been bonked by a beer bottle, white kid went for a shotgun in his vehicle, Bailey and two friends took the gun away from him, Bailey was charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery, and disturbing the peace. The white student who produced the weapon was not charged.

|9.24.07 @ 4:06PM|#

The boy dosen't only deserved to be beaten but should be serving jail time himself.

Do you use "boy" for all races or just "whitie"?

He's a high school student. I think that qualifies him as a "boy," regardless of his race. To insist that the word is inherently demeaning brings to mind the Doonesbury cartoon where the well-brainwashed boy (er, male child), upon seeing his newborn sister, exclaims "It's a baby woman!"

|9.24.07 @ 4:09PM|#

So, who is providing the bogas narrative for the MSM? PV1 Scott Thomas Beauchamp, Eve Fairbanks, Stephen Glass, Franklin Foer, Al Sharpton, Al Franken or Keith Oberman?

Alexis Debat, maybe?

kid charlemagne|9.24.07 @ 4:16PM|#

Sailer's article is superb. Too bad some of the unfree minds here won't allow themselves to read it, preferring to stick to content-free ad hominems.

File this one under "Why are there no black libertarians".

Why, because black people are too collectivist for libertarianism? Rooting for six thugs who beat the crap out of somebody because they belong to your racial group does seem awfully collectivist.

|9.24.07 @ 4:19PM|#

Argument, Bailey claims to have been bonked by a beer bottle, white kid went for a shotgun in his vehicle, Bailey and two friends took the gun away from him, Bailey was charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery, and disturbing the peace. The white student who produced the weapon was not charged.

No, wait, that can't be. Sharpie says that the white student pulled a gun. This rendition would have a person feeling threatened, being outnumbered at least 3 to 1, and attempting to get a weapon to even the odds. I guess it would be ok if the kid with the shotgun was black?

Guy Montag|9.24.07 @ 4:22PM|#

Too bad some of the unfree minds here won't allow themselves to read it . . .

AHEM! That is a tradition that existed here since the early days. I was mistaken when I thought I brought it over from Slashdot.

|9.24.07 @ 4:22PM|#

"The fact is that the black students of this school were directly targeted by a very powerful and racist symbol. The boy dosen't only deserved to be beaten but should be serving jail time himself."
WTF? This is the problem with many on the left, where a "powerful symbol" becomes the justification for the gang beating of a kid (who from what I read wasn't even involved in the "powerful symbol", now THAT'S some affirmative action!!!). These sections of the left are so absorbed in symbolism that they forget real tangible issues...

Guy Montag|9.24.07 @ 4:25PM|#

I wonder what the folks from the torture thread want to happen to this white kid?

|9.24.07 @ 4:36PM|#

Ok, so they just arrested someone for the Delaware shootings, and the guy doesn't appear to be a mentally deranged Korean immigrant. So, if he's black, then we can't go any further than aggrivated assault, right? If the victims are also black, does that make a race crime?

|9.24.07 @ 4:42PM|#

de stijl

Are you combining two separate events? A party where Bailey was assaulted by an adult man with a beer bottle and convicted, though only of a misdemeanor and given probation.

And a separate event in the parking lot involving the gun.

The two are not the same.

And as has been shown on this very site , words are easliy misused, such as six black MEN attack a white student (or was it boy). Loaded unintentionally or not. They were ALL boys, black and white..that is except for Justin Sloan, the 22 y/o who did go after Bailey with a beer bottle.

|9.24.07 @ 4:54PM|#

capelza,

Sorry. You're right. The party was the beer bottle, the convenience store was the argument -> shotgun thing.

Seamus & kid charlemagne,

I will not read anything on vdare. I also don't read anything on stormfront. Different degrees of white power repulsiveness, but they are of the same bent. As for the excellence of Sailer's prose and reasoning, unfortunately, I will remain ignorant.

|9.24.07 @ 5:09PM|#

Dan T's remark is classic troll. It is designed only to anger readers. It doesn't make an argument.

I will never understand this sort of behavior. What is gained by this?

the innominate one|9.24.07 @ 5:45PM|#

marcia, why is it "for sure" that one is not born with prejudice, but that one is taught prejudice? what's your evidence? also, these aren't the only two options. One can learn prejudice from one's experiences, even if someone's not sitting there, whispering in your ear "blame the [racial slur]".

However, thanks for posting meaningless, unproven platitudes.

|9.24.07 @ 5:56PM|#

Dan T's remark is also some excellent signalling. Basically, not only is he implying that we are all crypto-klansmen, but that any blacks among us are clueless race-traitors.

Roy-Mark|9.24.07 @ 5:59PM|#

@SP,
As a black libertarian, I can sort of see his point. Sort of.

There's a difference between wanting a "truly level playing field" in America and pretending we already have one.

It's a lot of fun to hate liberals. But this case deserves a much closer look from any defender of individual liberty. And I'm surprised how quickly the law-and-order and "racial realist" folks have taken over this thread.

|9.24.07 @ 6:11PM|#

beating of a kid (who from what I read wasn't even involved in the "powerful symbol"

Of course he was "involved"; he was white, wasn't he?

|9.24.07 @ 6:55PM|#

Roy-Mark,

Libertarians are the least authoritarian people out there. But the entire philosophy is predicated on the principle that you can do anything you want so long as you don't hurt anybody else. Six people beating an innocent person to the point of hospitalization not only qualifies as hurting somebody else, it's about as egregious an example as you can get without actually killing somebody. These kids violated our golden rule, and if we don't stand firm for our one guiding principle, we lose credibility on all other issues. I'm not sure these kids deserve 20 years, but 5-10 seems more than fair, and nitpicking over the particulars doesn't seem like a particularly useful civil rights battle, especially with black people serving life sentences for non-violent drug charges or in the Maye case, protecting his home against invasion.

JBinMO|9.24.07 @ 7:04PM|#

"If one is black and lives in klan country...one should behave...or movev out."

You can't seriously expect a black person to accept that. I would not.

|9.24.07 @ 7:36PM|#

I'm confused. I admitted I'd possibly overreacted about this incident. That I'd likely been taken in by racial hucksters. Nobody else has. Hmmm.

joe, Dan T. Your silence is deafening.

|9.24.07 @ 7:42PM|#

If one is black and lives in klan country...one should behave...or movev out."

You can't seriously expect a black person to accept that. I would not.

If I were a black, living in a small redneck town in the deep south, I'd never accept it. Also, the instant I had saved Greyhound fare, I'd be gone.

|9.24.07 @ 7:50PM|#

Despite the asshattery of Sharpton and Jackson, that doesn't make me want to jump on to the Mark Stein/Steve Sailer/VDARE "White Anglo Heterosexual Males are the ones REALLY oppressed these days, don't ya know!" bandwagon.

Roy-Mark|9.24.07 @ 8:00PM|#

@FatDrunk,
I tend to agree. I'm positive that Bell will do time, and I think it will be more like the time he deserves, after the ruckus. But this case has exposed some institutionalized racism, and provoked a worthwhile argument about defining our terms, legally. It's not the Bradley "case." I think Dan T is a troll, but I also think the "reasoning" of Seamus and others is as horribly reductive as a Million Man March of Al Sharptons, and I'm going to stand up to it, as a defender of freedom for humans. I'm disappointed that H&R "balanced" the loud but impotent liberal side without doing likewise with the calm and dominant conservative side.

@JsubD,
It's been a long time since I took Al Sharpton's word for anything. The humanitarian efforts would be more useful in a more clear-cut instance, perhaps. But this story is "sticky" in a way that none of the relevant "activists" seem to understand. It's a complicated matter, and taking it seriously has not been a waste of time.

@Ceaser,
Slap me five, homey.

SIV|9.24.07 @ 8:01PM|#

I'm confused. I admitted I'd possibly overreacted about this incident. That I'd likely been taken in by racial hucksters. Nobody else has. Hmmm.

I'm beginning to think I was wrong to assert the 6 were over-charged.If one or more are suspects in the school arson that might explain it.

|9.24.07 @ 8:01PM|#

Hail, Cesar. After being taken in by the unrefuted version by the mother of the kid who was involved in all three relevant acts of violence, I am not eager to be taken in by the the unrefuted version by the local newspaper. It is certainly cause for me to reassess, but I have a little too much experience with the racist assumptions of the South to reverse my whole take based solely on the very damning timeline linked above.

Hopefully, there are sources yet to weigh in with their first hand perspective.

Syloson of Samos|9.24.07 @ 9:03PM|#

J sub D,

Well, lots of folks would be disinclined from staying in a "redneck town," not just black folks, right?

Jim|9.24.07 @ 9:44PM|#

The heroes in this incident are the black students who sat under the "white tree". Too bad their actions have been overshadowed by the unfortunate overzealous prosecution of a few thugs.

|9.24.07 @ 9:46PM|#

Well, lots of folks would be disinclined from staying in a "redneck town," not just black folks, right?

Right. Except rednecks, of course.

|9.24.07 @ 10:35PM|#

Thanks for pointing out the absurdity of the "poor oppressed black" spin of this media circus. Remove their victimization angle and the whole thing drops to the ground. Once again it's ignorance combined with irresponsibility.

Guy Montag|9.24.07 @ 11:12PM|#

He's a high school student. I think that qualifies him as a "boy," regardless of his race. To insist that the word is inherently demeaning brings to mind the Doonesbury cartoon where the well-brainwashed boy (er, male child), upon seeing his newborn sister, exclaims "It's a baby woman!"

Um, let me get this right . . .

You are under the impression that calling youthful black men "boy" is perfectly fine? Guessing that when you wade through a bunch of teenagers of various races you can just use "boy" to any of them an nobody will take offense?

At the same time you say that a couple of ropes that, per the story, all sorts of teenage students of all races were playing on for some time, are a craven image of sorts?

Doode, you really need help.

|9.25.07 @ 7:17AM|#

You are under the impression that calling youthful black men "boy" is perfectly fine?

That's a lovely deliberate misunderstanding, Montag. Nobody (except you) so much as suggested that anyone should be addressed as "Boy." What was suggested was that a group of young, human males can, in fact, be referred to as a group of "boys." You're aware of that fact, yet you choose to pretend that the use of the word was shockingly racist.

Therefore, I name you troll, and invite you to take your faux outrage and (to coin a phrase) shove it up your ass.

|9.25.07 @ 7:47AM|#

Jake,

You need to read the whole thread. Montag's quote was accurate.

One of the things that leaps out at me is all of the "dirt-bag, knuckle-dragging, neanderthal, red-neck, small-southern-town-dwelling" baiting going on. Talk about blatant (but excusable because it is directed against those scum-sucking southern whites)racism!

|9.25.07 @ 9:03AM|#

Wayne,

Can you point me to the precise post where "boy" was used as a racial slur? If you're talking about the post by "chase" at 3:55 pm (which, you'll note, I strongly disagreed with three posts later), he's pretty clearly using it to refer to "this pre-adult male":

The boy dosen't only deserved to be beaten but should be serving jail time himself.

Likewise Alice Bowie's comment at 1:54 pm:

Regardless of the fact that these boys are ALL THUGS with criminal records...the charges were trumpted up.

Those were the only uses of the word "boy" in this thread until Guy Montag started in with the "OMGYouSaidBoyThat'sSoRacist!" routine. Please explain to me how either of those posts used "boy" as a slur.

|9.25.07 @ 9:06AM|#

I don't think there was "over charging" here. Let's see:
1 six guys assault a lone victim and render him unconscious. The six then continue to beat as he lays helpless on the ground.
2. one of the attackers has multiple charges of violent crimes pending against him, hence he has a demonstrated record of assault and battery.

Attempted murder sounds about right. Why is that too high a charge?

|9.25.07 @ 9:23AM|#

Jake,

Montag's post was in reference to Chase's 3:55 post. I think Montag was using a "turn the tables 180 degrees" on Chase.

I think you are taking M's comment to a realm it was not meant to inhabit, but I will shut up now because it is Montag's comment, hence he is able to explain it better than me.

|9.25.07 @ 10:29AM|#

RE: overcharging, etc.

Well, the first day of the trial the prosecutor agreed to reduce the charge for Bell from attempted second degree murder to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery. An aggravated battery charge requires a deadly weapon. The prosecutor argued that Mychal Bell's sneakers were the deadly weapon. The jury agreed and convicted Bell; he faced up to 22 years in prison. The verdict was overturned twice on the grounds that Bell should have been tried as a minor.

I've tried being Mr. Factual in this thread, but I'm sick and tired of that. This kid was steamrolled. Sneakers?!? Motherfucking sneakers as a deadly weapon? It's funny the prosecutor didn't charge him with having an unregistered weapon on top of this other bullshit.

A straight up assault charge is what is warranted in this incident. He hit and kicked a guy at school.

As far as Sailer's haymaking about what would potentially happen if these kids were white, cry me a fucking river, bitch. They're not white. They're black in a Mississippi town that is 90% white.

Want a salient fucking conjecture? What if the Duke LAX players were black and the stripper was white? Here's my Steve Sailer-style superbly written and argued fucking hypothetical: they would be in jail for the rest of their natural lives and we would never have heard about the case unless we were a police beat reporter in Durham. And then we would have forgotten about ten minutes later.

vdare, write me a goddamned check!

Roy-Mark|9.25.07 @ 1:32PM|#

@de stijl,
Much as my people were once tied to trees and left to starve, America's once-proud white males are now shackled by the politically correct media and taunted by loudmouthed urban preachers. They must watch their children suffer, as their tormentors get away scot free, shielded by the awesome power of liberal internet PR campaigns. But the White Doe shall one day roam the land again, graceful and free.

PS: ROFL

|9.25.07 @ 2:07PM|#

de stijl,

If six guys beat you to death are they murderers?

When six guys beat a defenseless, unconscious man, that seems like attempted murder to me.

If those six guys had no prior record of violent crime, I could swallow a light charge.

Five percent of criminals commit 95% of the crimes. The guy sitting in jail had three pending charges for similar crimes when he participated in the attempted murder. Personally, that is the kind of guy I want to see in prison.

Guy Montag|9.25.07 @ 2:34PM|#

wayne, you are correct on my comments.

That Jake fellow tossing about "troll" knightings is quite telling. I suggest ignoring him until he brings something worth discussing.

Still wondering what those folks on the torture thread are saying here rather than there, but I have been too busy with other things to look.

|9.25.07 @ 2:44PM|#

If six guys beat you to death are they murderers?

Yes.

But if I'm out of the hospital two hours later and then I go to a party later that night, then they are not. They've assaulted me, and they deserve the appropriate punishment.

The DA backed away from the attempted murder charge on the first day of the trial, but you think it's appropriate. In your mind is every lopsided schoolyard fight attempted murder? Do you believe that sneakers are a deadly weapon?

|9.25.07 @ 4:56PM|#

Um, let me get this right . . .

You are under the impression that calling youthful black men "boy" is perfectly fine? Guessing that when you wade through a bunch of teenagers of various races you can just use "boy" to any of them an nobody will take offense?

Well, if you'd actually bothered to read, you'd have realized that I was responding to a comment referring to a youthful *white* man.

(Here's where you can channel Emily Litella and say "never mind".)

|9.25.07 @ 5:01PM|#

I also think the "reasoning" of Seamus and others is as horribly reductive as a Million Man March of Al Sharptons, and I'm going to stand up to it, as a defender of freedom for humans

You're referring, I presume, to my position that blacks and whites should be judged by the same standards? Yeah, that's pretty threatening to human freedom.

Roy-Mark|9.25.07 @ 6:01PM|#

@Seamus,
See de stijl 10:29. And stop acting like people live in a vacuum.

Note that I never said the kid shouldn't do time, or that blacks deserve special legal privileges that Duke Lacrosse players don't. That's just what I secretly believe. I will take your wives, your daughters, and all that you hold dear, just by refusing responsibility for my actions.

Wait, did I just say that?

I don't have this whole thing figured out. That's where we differ, I suppose.

|9.26.07 @ 6:14AM|#

"Yes.

But if I'm out of the hospital two hours later and then I go to a party later that night, then they are not. They've assaulted me, and they deserve the appropriate punishment."

So, if I take you out in the desert to murder you with my Glock, but I miss all 17 times, then I am guilty of the midemeanor of poor gun-control?

|9.26.07 @ 6:19AM|#

De Stijl,

This guy was charged with attempted murder because that was the only way to move his trial to "adult court". He had THREE PENDING VIOLENT CRIME charges against him when he tried to kill the school yard kid.

If they do let him out, I hope he moves in next door to you.

|9.26.07 @ 6:21AM|#

"He had THREE PENDING VIOLENT CRIME charges against him when he tried to kill the school yard kid."

In California, under the three strikes law, he would be eligible for life in prison, and deservedly so. I am not a fan of the three strikes law, but this is the kind of guy that law was designed to deal with.

Roy-Mark|9.26.07 @ 9:58AM|#

"If they do let him out, I hope he moves in next door to you."

Glad we're all on the same wavelength here.

|9.26.07 @ 10:54AM|#

That Jake fellow tossing about "troll" knightings is quite telling. I suggest ignoring him until he brings something worth discussing.

"Yes, pay no attention to the Jake fellow, because I'd rather not respond to the substance of his post."

|9.29.07 @ 3:03PM|#

The DA backed away from the attempted murder charge on the first day of the trial, but you think it's appropriate. In your mind is every lopsided schoolyard fight attempted murder? Do you believe that sneakers are a deadly weapon?

First of all, the aggravated assault statute requires use, not of a "deadly" weapon, but of a "dangerous weapon": http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=78478

"Dangerous weapon," in turn, is defined to include any "instrumentality, which, in the manner used, is calculated or likely to produce death or great bodily harm":
http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=78337

Second, yes, shoes (including sneakers) can be deadly weapons:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070928/OPINION03/709280414

While it's true that the victim in the Jena case didn't actually suffer death or great bodily harm, it's an open question whether or not the perps were using the "instrumentality" of their sneakers in such a way as was "calculated" or "likely" to cause such harm (and, say, were pulled off the victim before such harm could be brought about). That's the kind of question we have juries to determine.

Reason Magazine

Get Reason E-mail Updates!

Site comments/questions:

Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:

Editorial & Production Offices:

advertisements