Free Jena 6? I Don’t Think So
At least not until after justice has been served. I have recently received several comments to my posts about Megan Williams, the woman who accused 6 whites of raping and torturing her, that the Jena 6 needs to be set free.
This photo released by the LaSalle Parish District Attorney’s Office shows Justin Barker in the hospital after he was beaten on Dec. 4, 2006 in Jena, La. Barker was treated and released from the hospital.
I wasn’t familiar enough with the case to have an opinion on it, but after some research, I don’t think anyone should be “freed” in the case. At least not until after they do time for their brutal assault on Justin Barker.
What I did find out, is its not really about nooses hanging from trees in the Democrat-run state and county. Its about a brutal beatdown of a white teen by a pack of thugs, some of which were just put on probation for other violent crimes.
An outstanding commentary on the Jena 6 is here at the KansasCity Star.
In jena, 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 rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker’s attack.
Isn’t it funny that its the democrats that promise an end to racial strife, but it keeps happening in their districts? Yet they keep getting elected.
Sweetness and Light is also covering this from the Civil Rights March angle. And it seems that Hot Air has the same viewpoint on this that I do.
This was racial and it should of been stopped when the nooses were hung. It started then and the tension rose. Earlier that day Justin Barker called some of the other boys racist names. He should of got his ass kicked and he did. They should of been expelled from school and life goes on!
I AM A TWENTY TWO YEAR OLD AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE AND I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT I HAVE BEEN JUMPED BEFORE AND I AM STILLL HERE. IN TODAY’S SOCIETY, TEENAGERS FIGHT ALL THE TIME. THATS JUST THE WAY IT IS….. WE JUST GET UP AND MOVE ON; KNOWING THAT THE NEXT TIME WE’LL KEEP OUR MOUTHS SHUT IF WE CAN’T HANDLE THE CONSEQUENCES. I’M NOT JUSTIFIED THEM JUMPING HIM,HOWEVER, I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT ANYONE SHOULD BE CONVICTED OR TAKEN TO JAIL BECAUSE OF A BLACK EYE AND A FEW BRUISES. THEY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN SUSPENDED OR BEEN EXPELLED AND PUT IN AN ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL (ATLEAST THATS WHAT WOULD’VE HAPPEN IN MY HOME TOWN OF JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA).
Shantell, welcome to the blog.
I would agree with you wholeheartedly if it was just a “schoolyard fight.” Such things are usually a one-on-one confrontation. But this was a group effort, and they are lucky their beatings didn’t kill Barker. And its more than a black eye and a few bruises. It was 14,000 dollars of medical work that Barker needed.
And even in schoolyard fights where it is one on one, if charges are pressed, the penalty for assault and battery is typically paid by one or both participants. For the Jena 6, the charges were all reduced. Mychal Bell is still in jail, but he was on probation for a violent crime when he assaulted Barker. I hardly feel any pity for him.
Shatell,
I appreciate your attitude towards life, but those boys did more than just bruise Justin Barker. Considering the beating he received (which may have been deserved, but a 6 on 1 blindsided fight is uncalled for) he is lucky to still have his life. Expulsion is the least those 6 deserve, they criminally assaulted someone and did so for the same purpose that he ran off his mouth prior to the beating.
2 things hold true.
1: words are not illegal
2: assault is and should be punished using fair judgment as our laws are written.
I would say the same if the crime was 6 white boys attacking 1 black boy. The color doesn’t matter, only the crime does.
you still dont have the facts…there was tension months before this bitch got his ass beat….white boyz were beating up black kids with no type of criminal charges, a bitch ass white boy hit a boy upside the head with a beer bottle and then a white boy pulled a gun on three black boys that were walking home the boys took the gun from him and the black boys were charged all of this happening before that punk got his ass whopped everyone feels justin was hurt fuck that bitch he was taunting those boys about the nooses and that is why he got his ass beat the fuck down everyone has a breaking point and if poor justin was so hurt why did he go to a ceremony the same night if the Jena6 should be charged with anything it should be a simple assult not fucking attempted murder really they shouldne be charged with nothing because majority of the witnesses say they did not see the other boys hit that racist bitch none of them should have been tried as an adult….you trying to justify a racist ass white boy and if he would have just kept his mouth shut he wouldnt have gotten his ass beat….he all on tv saying that the incident made him drop out school THAT IS A LIE he was expelled from school for bringing a firearm to school
GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT i am glad this story is out because it only shows that even when white folks are wrong yall will still stick together
YOU NEED TO DO MORE RESEARCH BEFORE YOU PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE YOU SEEM IGNORANT AND CONTENT WITH IT MORE AND MORE WHITE PEOPLE ARE SHOWING THAT THEY ARE REALLY THE NIGGERS
THEN YALL ONE HIM (MYCHAL) BECAUSE HE HAS A CRIMINAL HISTORY MAN WAKE THE FUCK UP THIS IS A COUNTRY ASS TOWN IN LA IF HE IS BEING CHARGED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER FOR A FIGHT HE MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN THOSE OTHER CHARGES FOR PINCHING A BITCH YES HIS CHARGES WERE NOT ONLY REDUCED BUT HIS ADULT CONVICTION WAS THROWN OUT THE COURT SAID THAT HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN TRIED AS AN ADULT SO IF HIS CONVICTION HAS BEEN THROWN OUT WHY IS HE STILL IN AN ADULT PRISON? 14,000 DOLLARS WHATEVA I SAY CHARGE IT TO THE GAME THIS COUNTRY OWES US ANYWAY SO JUST SUBTRACT IT FROM WHAT THIS COUNTRY OWES MY PEOPLE AND THE INDIANS
…and kee, you are kind enough to prove that blacks are more racist than whites are.
Thank you. (not that it was a very difficult point to prove anyway)
Oh and I dont owe “your people” anything.
1: there are no Americans who were once slaves anymore
2: only the people who where actually wronged deserved reparations
3: I never owned a slave
4: my family never owned a slave
So now what, stupid ?
Why dont “your people” try this for a change ? stop trying to milk the country for anything you can get, stop ACTING like second class citizens, stop demanding equal rights (which you have anyway) and then demanding separate rules, and start making an effort to actually be a part of this nation.
For one thing, calling yourself an “African-American” already damages your plight. Any group that uses that hyphenated title is actually separating themselves from the nation as a whole. My family is from Italy. My great grandfather fought against the United States in WWII, my grandfather moved his family to NY in the 50s. So I am more “Italian-American” than you are “African-American” because my roots are closer to my heritage than yours are. But guess what… I will never call myself an Italian-American. I am an American… thats it.
Oh … and that word “nigger”. fantastic word (on the same level as “cunt”). I love it when any word can contain so much power. What bothers you more ? the fact that “nigger” is an old hateful word ? or that you have no word for white people that contains as much power ? I suspect the latter because it is YOU who empowers the word to be so demeaning. There are a lot of anti Italian words and you might find some dumb wop who gets offended by them … but not me. they are so silly it gets funny.
If you truly found no care or concern for the word “nigger” you wouldn’t be offended when people used it and you would eventually kill it without the need for a state burial. I actually appreciated the way rappers used it because they were doing exactly what I am describing. they made the word so common that it was offensive to only people who are for all of free speech being demolished. The same people who hate “shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits” are also going to hate ethnic and disability’s jokes, blond or woman jokes in general, animal cruelty, rape and child abuse jokes and anything else that is funny so long as it is not true.
“Your people” act as one who wants those things abolished, but they will laugh their asses off when the jokes are aimed anywhere but home. How many black comedians try to make their careers with a set that is filled with “black people are like … white people are like…” jokes ? then you have the balls to call the rest of the world racist ?
One last tip … if you want racism to end, start with your own head and THEN work on the world. Dont sit here and believe that you can be racist and tell the world that THEY have a problem.
which brings us to the Jena 6 situation.
those nooses were fucked up, Justin Barker pointing a gun at people was fucked up and both should have resulted in criminal charges. Justin Barker should STILL have to face the courts for threats with a deadly weapon. But everyone involved who committed a crime… including those 6 assholes who assaulted another human, have to face the fact that they too are criminals and are subject to face a judge for their crimes.
That is the bottom line here, and that is why the Jena 6 should not be free till they pay their debt to society in a manor that is fit to their crimes.
Kee,
Your grasp of reality and the facts is on par with your grasp of punctuation and capitalization. Non-existent. This is your warning. Any more racist rants from you and you will be banned. See the posting guidelines.
wow, jim has it simply put. I totally agree. If you want racism to end, you can’t use the race card whenever its convenient. I’m tired of excuses. Im sick of hearing how white men are racist. I bet majority the other way around. I have black girlfriend that I love. I don’t judge on race. I judge on character. I’m sure most people have been discriminated one time or another, but that doesn’t give every race an excuse to commit a crime and blame it on society. Do people really believe this? I mean I here this everyday. I feel white, black or whatever should get what they deserve if they do something wrong. Do you know what kind of a life would we live if people all of sudden had an excuse for everything and did nothing to change their attitudes and way of life. Maybe stop pointing fingers and start changing yourself. This hipocracy and self righteous bs has got to end. You can’t want to be equal but also have special rights and privileges when you want. Your either with or without.
yea its not about nooses to white folks becuz they dont understand how it feels, even white people who are not racist dont understand so its easy to say nooses aren t a big deal when actually its a extremely big deal to anyone who cherishes their heritage and cultural history
well this is my point of view and i dont have a whole book to write….racism comes from every where…NOT JUST BLACKS…people love to say and especially white people love to say black people pull the race card….its not just blacks…i have heard it from blacks, whites, mexicans, puerto ricans, jews and yes even ITALIANS…and here it is the world is full of racist people…. and jim you can trace your ancestry and say WE SHOULD NOT HYPHEN OUR NATIONALITY????? GET REAL….WHO WERE THE FIRST TO HYPHEN OUR NATINALITY???? EXACTLY…and you can trace yours well let me trace mine….my dads family came from Barbados and moved to louisiana in the early 1960’s then later on they moved to birmingham..the same with my mom’s side…..instead they came straight to the south and they werent direct decendants of Africa but my great great great grandmother was….
and the joke thing…THINK ABOUT IT??? arent you the same way about jokes aimed at other nationalities????
and i do not know how to take the thing you said about us not having a word for white people ummmm…get real WE DO HAVE A WORD FOR WHITE PEOPLE ALL AROUND….crackers,honkeies, albino gorrillas,red necks, back wood hillbilles, and the list go on and on….but my point before you something about words arent illegal they may not be illegal but they hurt….and you would not understand how far that goes back to our cultural past the word nigger and nooses goes a long way back and some of us are apart of the nation but get serious you do not know what it is like….you are on the outside looking in…but in other ways I respect your opinon but I disagree on some of your points…
Oh and P.s. If you had not noticed I AM AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN….AND I CALL MY SELF THAT BECAUSE
1) I AM OF AFRICAN DESCENT AND PROUD OF IT
AND
2) IAM ALSO AMERICAN AND DAMN PROUD TO BE ONE!!!!
AND FOR YOUR INFORMATION WE DONT SEPERATE OUR SELVES FROM AMERICA AMERICA SEPERATES THIER SELVES FROM US BECAUSE OF THE RACIAL INGOCNITO SLURS THAT ARE AIMED AT US
I come from a mixed background. There is not one completely black person in my family going back three generations; yet, acknowledging we are still considered black, African-American, colored and that offensive term “nigger”. It hurts to see that with so many changes in the United States to benefit “our people” we resort to efforts of such animalistic nature to deal with our problems of today. I personally do not think Martin Luther King (believed in non-violent action) or Malcolm X (a complete polar opposite) would have stood for something like what the “Jena 6” did. True enough racism is still alive and kicking but we make it so easy for this cycle to continue. Using slang, profanity and other vernacular terms to get a point across sets one up to allow someone to chop us down to size and left without a leg to stand on. I myself am not offended when I hear someone refer to me as a “nigger” it only makes me smile to see someone still have such hate and ignorance inside with no real merit. I understand that tension was building due to a series of different events that took place over a time span but honestly if one of the “Jena 6″ and been a relative of mine I would hope that the law would deal with him accordingly. There is no excuse to violate anyone personal space or body for any reason other than self-defense. Clearly, the incident at hand was not that. It was a crime of passion more than self-defense. They were angry and they acted on their anger by assaulting someone. That’s just like saying it’s okay the black boy A shouldn’t be punished for hitting black boy B because black boy B talked about Black boy A’s mother. It is wrong no matter what race you are and there are no justifications for the” Jena 6″ actions. With this being said there are African-American democrats out there that see things just as clearly as Anglo Saxon, Italian, Hispanic, Asian, and African-American republicans do. I do not appreciate categorization but I can understand how this happens to my community due to others ill use of wordage.
I think that there should be consequences for what they did to Baker. I do understand where they might have been coming from. To them, it might have seemed like the nooses were a threat and that they were paying homage to the lynchings in the 1920’s of inncoent African Americans. However, there was no reason to assault Justin Baker. That was wrong and they should suffer the consequences. Although the charge of second degree muder in my opinion was a bit extreme. No one was killed. I believe that they should be tried for assault and sentenced to at least 2 years in jail to think about what they did.
I think the whole entire thing was terrible in general, but im just saying that there was a black kid in this whole thing that got beat up too if i recall correctly and from the pics that I saw of him after the fight… or jumping, or whatever… the beat that happened to the black kid was worse. And I didnt see any of the white kids going to jail…. Hmmmmm?!?!?!
well im with Kbranch and nikkidee. im african american but i believe they shouldn’t have jumped him.
i am a 20 year old white male and my personal opinion the six black males are a buncha pussies.who gives a shit about nooses or name callin it aint hurt them.and yea maybe he shulda got hiz punk ass whooped but not by all six of them.it shulda been a one on one fight and let it be over wit but they wuz to scared to do that.
Its unfair to judge these six boys. I mean they were totally wrong and went about handling the situation wrong. They shouldn’t have jumped that boy. But then again people get assulted every single day. In the south racial slurs are thrown at blacks all the time. I myself have seen a man jumped by 10+, but was he on the news crying about it. So *anthony carter* the real pussy is Justin Barker being ignorant and incosiderorant of other people. If he had anything to do with those nooses, well he got his. And they got theirs for not being able to control their anger after being attacked themselves and handling their situation completely wrong. And if you yourself are not african american then you dont know what it feels like to see a noose hanging from the trees. I live in stepneville, tx. People open your eyes racism exist. I see confederate flags, nooses, and bumper stickers on tucks that says “I’m a coon hunter”. So i am behind the boys because i know what it feels like to be descriminated and hated againsts just because the the color of my skin.
OK I see that this has fallen to the wayside. I’m glad to see that it’s not something that gets unnessasary attention. But facts need to be straight to close this.
1. No one got hit with a bottle. That was a later incident that was made up for more attention.
2.Mychel was the star football player and when he went to jail the school did not have a chance at a playoff.
3.Mychel was held for violating his parol not for the assault alone.
4. His parol also was based on a sexual assault.
When those facts where brought to light all media attention stoped and Mr Sharpton was gone before the boy was release from jail. Funny what people will do for attention. The term nigger came from ignorant slave traders calling nigerians niggers. The fact that we give that word power makes us just as ignorant and those black slave traders that sold their own countrymen into slavery. Look it up. Knowledge is power.
Ron, thanks for the updates on this. Did Mychel ever go to college or anything?