Sorry, this is a long post.

With the stampede to denounce Jena, LA as racist, I have been trying to understand what has really gone on there. That is hard to do when people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson get involved. The message is simple: Jena is racist and a symbol of all America. Sharpton says that this is the beginning of a new 21st century civil rights movement (with him leading it, no doubt).

Everyone on the Left is supposed to fall in line and denounce the pure racism of the whole situation in Jena. Jesse Jackson says that “Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment.” Barak Obama, who hesitated on embracing this new Selma moment, caused Jackson to declare that Obama was “acting like he’s white“. (I guess whites aren’t capable of comprehending concepts like justice.)

Big media elites love a story of bigotry and racism in the Old South. But this story in Jena doesn’t quite fit the narrative like it is supposed to. As I said in my last post, rallying around six kids who severely beat a fellow student is a long way from rallying around Rosa Parks.

So let’s try to look at the facts beyond what the national media is reporting. First, for the perceptive of Eddie Thompson of Jena who first drew attention to Jena:

I am the white pastor referenced by Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune in his article that forced the story of the “Jena Six” onto the national stage. On December 8, 2006, when I wrote my article concerning racism in Jena Louisiana I believed that perhaps the biggest obstacle to our town’s prosperous future was the ignorance of prejudice and bigotry. I am now convinced that the biggest enemy to our future as a whole community has become the misinformation, lies, and prejudice of a national media that refuses to seek out the truth concerning the events of last fall. My evolution forces me to voice the concerns of the majority of our town who believe that any interview or statement given to the media will simply be twisted and mangled to support the forgone conclusion that we are nothing but country hicks, rednecks, who have no compassion on the minorities in our community.

The nooses hung in the tree at the local high school is one item that has really gotten the attention going regarding Jena. In the Old South this is a really vicious prank, although it is hard to imagine how students should be arrested for this as a hate crime. If displaying nooses is a hate crime, all sorts of things could be declared hate crimes. But was the noose prank even targeted at the black students who sat under the tree? A person claiming to be local writes (via Classical Values):

The square at Jena High School has been known for the center of school spirit and/or pranks for many years. I’ve seen everything from “funerals” of opponent football teams to the tree and surrounding area covered with toilet tissue. Jena High School is known for themed activities surrounding football games. This particular week, JHS was playing a team in which the mascot is Cowboys! Hence, the nooses in the tree…”hang’em high!” Not for one moment did the thought of racism cross my mind or the majority of the others. It was football season. We were playing the cowboys. The kids, girls and boys, wore boots to school and had a western themed pep rally! Nooses = cowboys and horse theives in my world. Maybe I’ve watched too much Gunsmoke, but racism was not even a thought. Due to the reaction of ADULTS in the black community, not the kids at the school, the boys were suspended. The entire punishment for those boys was never published because of the confidentiality of the issue. However, the boys were suspended. They and their families were required to go to counseling. The boys had hours of community service. The boys and their families continue to receive threatening phone calls, but yet no one has addressed that issue.

But let’s assume that this person is wrong and the intent of the boys was racially motivated. A big complaint is that they did not get harsh enough punishment. Some are complaining that they should have been expelled but they were only suspended for two days. Not quite true (Thompson again):

… they were not just given “two days suspension” as reported by national news agencies. After first being expelled, then upon appeal, being allowed to re-enter the school system, they were sent to an alternative school, off-campus, for an extended period of time. They underwent investigations by Federal and State authorities. They were given psychological evaluations. Even when they were eventually allowed back on campus they were not allowed to be a part of the general population for weeks.

The only other option would have been to expel them for the entire year or permanently. But with no pattern of genuine threats to lynch black students, or violent threats in general, expelling them seems too severe. In fact, it appears that the racial intimidation at school ran in the opposite direction (Thompson again):

Justin Barker, the white student attacked, was not the first white student targeted by these black students. Others had been informed they were going to be beaten, but stayed away from school and out of sight until they felt safe.

And the district U.S. attorney (a black man) agrees that no hate crime was committed:

Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, told CNN that the FBI and other investigators thought the noose incident bore the markings of a hate crime, but a decision was made not to press charges because the case didn’t meet federal criteria. The students were under 18 and had no prior records, and no group such as the Ku Klux Klan was found to be behind their actions.

Next, the Jena 6 were supposedly dealt with in a racist manner by the criminal justice system. For example, I have heard it reported that the white student, Justin Barker, who was knocked out by the Jena 6, was in a fight with the Jena 6. This makes it sound like, well, hey, sometimes people get knocked out in fights. Well, it appears that there was no fight (Thompson again):

There was no “fight” on December 4, 2006 at Jena High School, as the national media continues to characterize the event in question. Six students attacked a single student who was immediately knocked unconscious. According to sworn testimony, they stomped him, as he lay “lifeless” upon the ground.

In fact, Barker was struck on the back of the head and knocked down by a black student.

In general, there is a lot of misinformation about this supposed fight (Thompson again):

CNN reported that there were “obviously no witnesses to the fight.” In fact, over thirty eyewitnesses, students and teachers, were questioned immediately following the attack, all of who implicated one or more of the black students arrested in the case. In fact, some of the accused black students did not stop stomping Barker until they were pulled away from him by some of the teachers, according to testimony given in the trial of Mychal Bell.

And then we are told the injuries to Justin Barker were not severe, so charging the Jena 6 with battery was racist. Well, the attack on Barker seems pretty severe to me from the pictures I have seen, unless someone has to die or be maimed before an attack counts as severe. Thompson notes:

The media continues to make the point that Justin Barker “attended a party” later that evening, insinuating that his injuries were not very severe. The Barkers, by no means a wealthy family, face medical bills already over $12,000 from the emergency room visit. Imagine what an overnight visit would have cost. Justin Barker was advised to remain hospitalized but decided he would not let the event keep him from participating in the once-in-a-lifetime, traditional Ring Ceremony at First Baptist Church in Jena, where class rings are presented to the upcoming senior class.

As far as the charges and sentences of the Jena 6, only one, Mychal Bell, is in jail and he is the only one who may serve an actual prison sentence. In fact, this treatment of Mychal Bell is one of the main claims to racism in Jena. So why pick on Mychal Bell? For starters, DA Reed Walters has said he believes Bell was the instigator of the alleged beating of classmate Justin Barker. But a better reason is that he had previously been convicted of four violent crimes. In the criminal justice system, past violent crime convictions are commonly taken into account because one goal of the system is to protect the public from future violence.

Then the DA is supposedly racist and he is said to have threatened blacks. Well, maybe not (Thompson again):

The speech given by [District Attorney] Reed Walters that included the now infamous statement “I can end your life with the stroke of a pen” was not given to a group of black students. It was given during a speech to the entire student body in an assembly called by the school’s principal to calm a community that was pulling their children out of school because there were two fights one day with racial overtones. Two girls, one white and one black fought. Another student was taken to the emergency room to receive stitches.

And regarding the noose incident, and this DA, Thompson adds:

The national news media has not mentioned a single time that there was an FBI investigation into the hanging of the nooses and the conduct of Reed Walters that concluded there was no criminal activity or “hate crime” involved. The report is available to the media, along with court records and sworn testimony, none of which has been reported.

To finish, Eddie Thompson offers this perspective:

The “Jena Six” have repeatedly been held up as heroes by much of the race-based community and called “innocent students” by the national media. Some of these students have reputations in Jena for intimidating and sometimes beating other students. They have vandalized and destroyed both school property and community property. Some of the Jena Six have been involved in crimes not only in LaSalle Parish but also in surrounding parishes. For the most part, coaches and other adults have prevented them from being held accountable for the reign of terror they have presided over in Jena. Despite intervention by adults wanting to give them chances due their athletic potential, most of the Jena Six have extensive juvenile records. Yet their parents keep insisting that their children have never been in trouble before. These boys did not receive prejudicial treatment but received preferential treatment until things got out of hand.

… The entire black community of Jena is not being heard in this controversy, just the parents, relatives, and close friends of the Jena Six. The black community of Jena has not been involved in the protests and demonstrations called by national race-based organizations. Some state and national race crusaders have chastised them for not “rising up” with the parents to force law enforcement to “free the Jena Six.” Many do agree that the charges seem wrong, but they also know the criminal history of the boys referred to as the “Jena Six.” It is their neighborhood these boys have terrorized.

Update: Here is a nice summary of facts as collected by reporters in Jena.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Crime, Politics, Race, Social Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. For Trackbacks to this post, use URL: http://nospeedbumps.com/wp-trackback.php?p=1387