Jena Six, A Photo Story. Racial Tensions in Jena, LA - Nooses Hung Under a "White's Only" Tree at HS

[ariesgem]

Run time: 03:13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za4B4KhIVTE   Posted on YouTube: June 27, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 30, 2007 By DU Member: ariesgem Views on DU: 6779

 
http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree.

The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."

Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles.

UPDATE:
June 26, 2007

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Racial-School-Fight.php

All-white jury likely to hear racial fight case in Louisiana

An all-white jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case against the first of the "Jena Six" — a group of black youths accused of beating a white fellow student amid racial discord at a Louisiana school.

Five women and a man will hear opening arguments Wednesday morning at the courthouse in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, where the black population is only about 12 percent.

"I'm sure I can get a fair trial," Blane Williams, defense lawyer for 17-year-old Mychale Bell said. "You can't tell me there aren't six people in this town who won't listen fairly and do the right thing. I think people have a tendency to do the right thing."

The approaching trial had led to allegations of racism from parents of the accused, who said the original charges — attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder — were out of proportion to the crime. The charges carry a combined sentence of 80 years.

However, prosecutors on Monday reduced the charges for Bell, the first of the teens to go on trial, to aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years, and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a maximum sentence of 7 1/2 years.

UPDATE:
June 26, 2007
http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070629/NEWS01/706290325

'Jena Six' defendant convicted
After deliberating for less than three hours Thursday, an all-white jury of six returned with a unanimous guilty verdict on the highest possible charges for the first member of the "Jena Six" to face trial.

Mychal Bell, 17, could be as old as 40 when released from jail if given the maximum sentence for aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime -- more than 22 years. He was 16 when the incident took place.


Bell is one of six black teens charged in a Dec. 4 fight at Jena High School that left Justin Barker -- white -- unconscious. The attack and arrests have made headlines from Chicago to China and have been held up as the culmination of racial unrest in Jena. Bell and the others arrested -- Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unnamed juvenile -- were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same, although Bell's charges were reduced Monday without explanation just before the trial started.

Defense Attorney Blane Williams said Thursday that an appeal already is planned and that the case may one day end up being discussed in law schools. "I feel I put on the best defense I could," he said in response to criticism of not presenting any witnesses or evidence during the trial. "I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell."

Cleveland Riser Jr., the former assistant schools superintendent for LaSalle Parish, said he thinks Bell received proper representation from Williams, although some of Bell's family and friends disagreed. "Why open the door for further accusations?" he said of Williams not calling any witnesses to testify. "Why get opinions that have nothing to do with the current situation?"

Vivian Thompson, a Bell family friend, said Bell "didn't stand a chance" with a LaSalle Parish jury. She was upset with Williams and said his first argument should have been for a change of venue. "Blacks do not stand a chance here," she said of Jena. "I want to see justice. This wasn't it." Bell's aunt, Sandra Simmons, said the verdict "hurt" the family and that she is concerned about the future of the other boys facing trial. "They are going to hang all them boys," she said.

During Williams' closing statements, he alluded to the attention the case has garnered both locally and worldwide. "This is a trial of Mychal Bell," he said, raising his voice. "It ain't a trial of LaSalle Parish. It ain't a trial of Jena. It ain't a trial of anything else on people's mind. ... Things have a tendency to get blown out of proportion. Step outside of the courtroom, and you'll see blown out of proportion." Williams also stressed that Bell was presumed innocent until LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters proved that Bell committed all the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Walters didn't do that job, he said.

But Walters said he was confident he did his job proving that the four elements of the crime were present -- use of force, use of a dangerous weapon, intent and causing serious bodily injury. The weapon, he said, was the shoes used to kick Barker, although only one witness testified that she saw Bell kicking Barker.


more links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6685441.stm

http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com/jena/

[NOLALady]

1. Thanks

I live in Louisiana and had no idea of this event. There are no words!

[The Wielding Truth]

7. Are you far from this town of Jena?

[NOLALady]

13. I live across the lake from New Orleans.

I know nothing about Jena, LA. Northern Louisiana might as well be Northern New York. It's a different world. I guess its about a four hour drive from here.

But, I figured we should have heard something about this on the news. Maybe I missed it, as I seldom watch TV. I have mentioned this to several people and no one has heard anything about it. I know the Media is bad, but this is local!

It's just unbelievable.

[yankeeinlouisiana]

2. Here's a petition calling for justice

if anyone would like to sign it. I did.

http://www.petitiononline.com/aZ51CqmR/petition.html

[ooglymoogly]

11. was dissapointed to see only 109 sighners

We need to get this message on the front page...so more can sign

[ariesgem]

12. Done...

Thanks for posting it.

[NOLALady]

14. Done

[dddem]

18. Thank you for posting this.

I have signed the petition #159. Hopefully I will be one of thousands. This is truly shameful. My kids are shocked when I tell them that I was a little girl during a the civil rights movement. They can't belive that people actually behaved that way. I used to read the Ruby Bridges story to them when they were 5 and 6, and we couldn't beleive that a child could be treated that way by adults, in my lifetime! To have something like this happen in 2007 is unbearable to me. I feel such shame and sadness. What's wrong with us?

[proud patriot]

3. This is an outrage

I wish I could go to this town and stand with these
courageous people ..

I hate being broke

[Lucky Luciano]

4. GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The barber shop in that movie clip should be incinerated.

[blondeatlast]

5. Where has my nation gone?

:cry:

Sickening. Meanwhile, not a gawddamn mention of the decision that overturns Brown vs. BOE in the MSM.

K&R.

[The Wielding Truth]

8. When the seed of hate is allowed to take root it must manifest

in degrading actions which spawn hurtful consequences.

It amazes me that we, as a civilized nation, have not shamed these hateful beginnings from ever entering our society's mind.

Yes. It is sad, and stupid.

[PurpleChez]

15. I have seen/heard extensive coverage of the court's decision, to give

the devils their due. But this particular story is still sickening. A Whites Only tree???? Good lord.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. The DA left out the most incriminating factor

and that was that the defendant was black, which, I believe, was probably the deciding factor in the verdict. How many members of the jury "approved" of the nooses in the tree? That would be interesting to know.

[coco77]

9. I guess the blacks in town...

are hating them for their freedoms:sarcasm:

[ooglymoogly]

10. The ku klux klan is back only now some of the men in sheets are black

though in reality I guess it really never left... just went into hiding because there was so much anger aimed at them for their injustice, ignorance and intolerance. Where do we now aim our anger....At this administration for talking the talk and never even intending to walk the walk... snickering in the background at Martin Luther King and the changes he wrought....the Black republican judas goats who are selling their people down the river for forty pieces of silver and a lapping place at the good ol boys table...Time to get our hackles up and begin shining the light of justice on these morons and marching against this kind of vicious injustice. It cannot be tolerated even if they have *shco's treasonous justice system and the packed courts now behind them. The evidence of what we have lost these last 6 years is now beginning to become unbearable.

[Limelight]

22. Here, here... n/t

[MaraJade]

16. Are you kidding me. . .

This is the 21st century. Has anyone in Jena called Morris Dees or the NAACP on this. This is utterly
ridiculous. I cannot believe what I am reading.


:nuke:

[pingzing58]

17. Can they appeal? Or, get better lawyers pro bono who can appeal? Sickening...

[dddem]

19. Can this story be posted elsewher on DU - to get more exposure?

I have signed the petition, and am shocked that so few names are on it. This is a shameful, shameful situation.

[Mortos]

20. Did anyone read the apparent statement by the witness in short film

One of the defendants slammed the victims head against a concrete bench with enough force to render him unconscious and then, at least, 2 but possibly 6 other people proceeded to repeatedly kick the unconscious victim in the head until blood was "pouring out of his ears". Remove the emotionally charged racial incidents and review the evidence of the extremely violent physical attack by six students against one.

This was not a routine schoolyard fight, this was the attempted murder of a person. The race of the defendants should not cause them to be treated more harshley but neither should it be used to excuse or minimize their actions.

The narrator of the clip did just that calling the vicious attack a schoolyard fight. I don't consider knocking someone unconcious by slamming their head into concrete and then multiple attackers repeatedly kicking the victim in the head until blood comes out of his ears to be a common schoolyard fight.

There were many other racial injustices in this case but they don't provide the excuse for viciously beating a 17 year old by 6 attackers. The victim, by the way, was not involved in the noose incident.

If it was my child who was kicked in the head while unconcious, regardless of the race of the gang of attackers, I would want the maximum penalties applied...wouldn't you?

Fairness would dictate that all are held accountable for their actions regardless of race and that, in my opinion, would include harsher penalties for the rednecks who hung the nooses and the others who attacked the black student at the party, but also holding the "Jena 6" responsible for the crime they comitted against another student.

Testimony:

Earlier, Barker said he had not had words with anyone prior to the attack. "I got along with everybody," he said. He testified that he had just come out of the school gym, with his girlfriend walking ahead of him, on the day of the fight. They turned to avoid a group of black students, he said.

"I turned my back and somebody hit me, that's all I remember," Barker said, later saying he doesn't remember the ambulance ride but does recall being treated in the emergency room, where he was released that afternoon.

After the beating, he said, he had a badly swollen face and temporary blindness in one eye that would last three weeks.

He joined fellow juniors that same night at the school's annual class ring ceremony. "I waited 11 years to go to it. I wasn't going to let that get in my way" he said. But, he said, he left early because of pain. He also said he still suffers recurring headaches since the beating. Under cross examination, he said medical tests have found no cause.

[Selatius]

21. Yet the news media finds Paris Hilton more newsworthy than this.

This is as important a story as the Rodney King trial.