As if life were not weird enough; the south rises again
Jena. Louisiana -- The American National Socialist Workers Party anxiously awaits the release of the Jena 6 n-----s, responsbile for an unprovoked assault on a white high student, so the six can face true justice.
"If these n-----s are released or acquitted, we will find out where they live and make sure that white activists and white citizens in Louisiana know it," ANSWP Commander Bill White stated today, "We'll mail directions to their homes to every white man in Louisiana if we have to in order to find someone willing to deliver justice."
my reply may be:
> "we will find out where they live and make sure that white activists and white citizens in Louisiana know it," ANSWP Commander Bill White stated today, "We'll mail directions to their homes to every white man in Louisiana if we have to in order to find someone willing to deliver justice."
There's a certain stench of cowardice here "in order to find someone willing", as in we'll poke the looney hive until a mad bee flies out and does something. Then we'll stand back and say "we didn't do it" citing the undoubtebly ANSWP anathemic "free speech" defense. The "back story":
http://www.roanoke.com/news
The Jena story, according to what's been reported so far, began in August 2006 when a black student asked during a Jena High School assembly if it was all right for black students to sit under the oak tree where white students gathered for lunch. The next morning, nooses were dangling from that tree.
Jena High's principal wanted to expel the three white students who put up the nooses. The school board and superintendent disagreed. The students were suspended. There was an investigation, but no charges were filed.
A white student allegedly pulled a shotgun on a group of black students. The black kids took the gun away. The black student who took the gun home was charged with theft. The white student wasn't charged.
A black student was beaten by white students. No charges were filed.
Six black students -- the Jena Six -- beat a white student. They were charged with attempted murder. One of them, 16 years old at the time of the attack, was tried as an adult. An all-white jury convicted him of battery and conspiracy. An appeals court overturned that conviction, saying the student shouldn't have been tried as an adult.
So you have echoes of "Strange Fruit" and "My Hometown", "To Kill a Mockingbird" and ... August, 2006 somebody asks if it's alright if they sit under an oak tree? you'd ... I'd ... one'd want to say 'how in the Sam Hill could there be an oak tree like that" but there is and it's in Louisiana, for at least one place. And yet:
http://earlofarihutchinson
Mauffray [the judge in the Jena 6 case] seemed anything but the fair-minded, erudite jurist when he revoked the $90,000 bond of centerpiece Jena 6 defendant Mychal Bell. This brought howls of rage from Bell's family, attorneys, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and the thousands that flocked to Jena to demand his freedom. But Mauffray as a key juvenile judge in La Salle Parish, in fact virtually the only judge in the parish that hears juvenile cases, is certainly well familiar with Bell.
He has been involved with Bell to one degree or another when he was charged with four prior offenses. In the past two years, he was hauled into the juvenile court that Mauffray helps oversee on battery and property damage charges. The juvenile court and Mauffray did not toss the book at Bell after he committed those offenses. He was placed on probation in April 2006 until his 18th birthday. With the prior offenses that Bell had, he could have easily been held in juvenile jail for the two year period. That has been the fate of legions of other black teens in legions of juvenile courts throughout the country. Many of these youth that languish in juvenile or even adult jails with fewer prior offenses than Bell.
But Mauffray and the juvenile court gave Bell the benefit of the doubt and another chance. "
right, that one of a group of 6 who beats up somebody is troubled/involved in the legal system is not a surprise. Another post at the above notes that Bell's previous offenses were 'black on black' and that was the reason for previous leniency. Now David Bowie, among others, is going his bail. Yet, I want to say that this isn't a bad thing. Something like:
http://www.roanoke.com/news
Thursday, while tens of thousands of protesters converged on Jena, a much smaller protest was taking place nearly 900 miles away.
At least 85 of the 480 students who attend Radford High School wore T-shirts supporting the Jena Six. They signed letters they plan to send to LaSalle Parish, La., prosecutor Reed Walters and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
200 signed letters. Half the school. So, unlike, say Tony Snow
http://deadissue.com/archives
Former White House press secretary Tony Snow on an October 2003 edition of Fox News Sunday: "Here's the unmentionable secret: Racism isn't that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It's rapidly becoming an ugly memory."
http://podblanc.ath.cx/
the story was that this needs to be handled transparently. It's not simple, it's not easy, but it won't become a tragedy. William White (you got to believe it's a name change) won't see his idea of 'justice' done. He might even (or not:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/09/when-are-websites-threats-jena-6.html
) get busted for this one. But while it's not 'no longer a big deal', it's not ignored. Does make you glad to be alive.
My family is involved in public education (fine joke - a nephew is reputedly the source of:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30911
) up here in mostly Nordic-land and they will say; yes, for the numeric minority there is a vastly skewed percentage of non-white kids in trouble w/ the system. Not a signifigant number (count 'em up, there's still more white kids in the principal's office) but ... I dunno. All the poking around and one of the more disturbing views:
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=556
http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S26304.shtml?cat=89
Maybe that's just my lack of perspective.
a
