Friends of Justice
3415 Ainsworth Court, Arlington, TX 76016 817.457.0025
https://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com

This well-written article brings the Jena story to millions of new readers. Like many reporters, Scott Michels has left out several salient items: Mr. Walters and his “with a stroke of my pen” remark; the fire at the Jena High that stoked tensions in the community at the end of November, 2006; the assault on Jena 6 defendant Robert Bailey at the Fair Barn the day after the fire; and the young white man pulling a shotgun on Robert and his friends at the Gotta Go convenience store the morning after Robert was attacked. Leave all of that out and (a) you don’t understand why these kids can’t get justice in LaSalle Parish, and (b) you don’t understand the fury at the high school on December 4th.

When important details are eliminated from this story you are left with a dumb-ass argument about which is worse: nooses in a tree, or a six-on-one attack on a defenseless student. For an excellent illustration of the problem click the link below and check out the comments at the end of Mr. Michels’ piece. You can see a huge black-white perception gap in how Americans perceive the criminal justice system.

I have no beef with Scott Michels or any other mainstream journalist. These men and women work within very narrow constraints: “We’re giving you two minutes”, or “we’ve got room for 500 words, do the best you can.” You can’t do justice to the injustice in two minutes or 500 words.

Still, the responses at the end of Mr. Michels article are all the more revealing because the details in the article are so spare. All respondents were exposed to exactly the same article, and that’s all most of these people know about this story. Yet some readers call what happened in Jena an atrocity while others are asking what the big deal is about. One reader suggested that blacks don’t get justice in America because they always push too hard.

What?

Several of the responses I read were blatantly racist. Tragically, that is par for the course in today’s America. One reader said, essentially,
“Everybody knows the criminal justice system is unfair–so why should these kids get off when everybody else is getting screwed?”

There are two species of white response to the Jena 6 story. Liberals say, “O my God, I had no idea this sort of thing was still happening in America.” Conservatives say, “Hang ’em high.” And when you ask, “what about the noose boys,” conservatives say, “Hang them too.”

Frankly, I have problems with both responses. Anyone who doesn’t know this is happening in America is just flat ignorant; anyone who thinks Jena justice is A-OK needs a heart transplant.

In contrast, black response (from both conservatives and liberals) is roughly uniform. On Sunday, I visited Friendship West Baptist Church in
South Dallas to hear Frederick Douglas Hanes III preach the word. (You’ve got to hear this guy; he burns the house down). I was the only white person among 3,000 black worshipers (they have an earlier service that seats another 3,000). Early on it was announced that the congregation was sending two buses to Jena in support of six boys facing attempted murder charges for allegedly assaulting a white student (I first approached Rev. Hanes about this story in early June). There was no elaboration–no mention of nooses hanging from a white tree; just the bare facts. That’s all folks needed to hear. They could fill in the blanks for themselves. Everybody in the room (including Craig Walkins, the District Attorney of Dallas County) knew what is going down in Jena, Louisiana.

In short, this story brings the perception gap dividing white and black Americans into high definition. Folks, we need to talk. I’m just trying to
figure out where the conversation begins.

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3582189&page=1
ABC News

Civil Rights Leaders Urge Action in Racially Charged La. Beating Case
Six Black Students Have Been Charged With Beating a White Student
By SCOTT MICHELS
Sept. 11, 2007 –

The racially charged case of six black teenagers charged with attacking a
white student in the small town of Jena, La., has stirred nationwide
attention, with civil rights leaders planning to attend protests next week
and well-known lawyers taking an interest in the case.

After a jailhouse meeting with Mychal Bell, one of the defendants in the
case, The Rev. Jesse Jackson told ABC News Monday that charges against the
six boys  dubbed the “Jena Six” — should be dropped or reduced to
misdemeanors.

“We want the Jena Six freed and sent to school and not to jail,” he said,
urging white and black residents of the mostly white town to peacefully work
out their differences. “They should forgive, reconcile, redeem and move on.
Instead you have these mounting tensions.”

Bell, who was convicted earlier this year of battery, faces up to 15 years
in prison for allegedly beating 17-year-old Justin Barker, who is white,
after weeks of escalating violence between white and black students.

The case has attracted the attention of national groups such as the NAACP,
the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the
Congressional Black Caucus, who criticize what they call unequal justice in
Jena because white students accused of beating up blacks have not faced
severe criminal charges or prison time.

This weekend, both Jackson and The Rev. Al Sharpton visited Jena, with
Sharpton calling for an investigation of local District Attorney Reed
Walters. Jackson said he would try to meet with Walters and with Barker’s
parents and both men said they planned to join the thousands of people
expected to attend protests planned for Sept. 20, the date of Bell’s
sentencing. A group in California said it had collected about 150,000
signatures on a petition asking the governor to investigate the case.

“The case has captured the imagination of a lot of people,” said Richard
Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is helping to
coordinate legal representation for the six boys and is paying for some of
their legal fees. “It’s taken on symbolic importance as a microcosm for so
many other things that are wrong with the criminal justice system.”

The tension began last August when a black student at Jena High School asked
if he could sit beneath a tree where white students usually sat. He was told
to sit wherever he wanted.

The next day, three white students hung nooses from the tree. Some black
residents saw the nooses as a reminder of the days of lynchings and Jim
Crowe justice. Many, including Jackson and Cohen, have called hanging the
nooses a hate crime.

The school principal recommended that the three white students be expelled,
but the schools superintendent opted to give them a three day suspension,
calling the incident “an adolescent prank.” LaSalle Parish School
Superintendent Roy Breithaupt did not return a phone message seeking
comment.

The incident set off weeks of racial tension within the school and the town.
Several fights broke out. Police arrested a white man for punching a black
teenager. The man pleaded guilty to simple assault.

The scuffles escalated to a fight in which the six black teens, players on
Jena’s football team, were charged with attempted murder for allegedly
beating Barker. Five were charged as adults; the sixth was charged as a
juvenile.

Barker was knocked unconscious and sent to the emergency room, but was
released later that day and attended a ring ceremony that night.
Of the six, only Bell has stood trial. Bell was convicted by an all-white
jury of a reduced charge of second degree aggravated battery. His defense
attorney did not call any witnesses, according to local news reports.
His trial attorney could not be reached for comment Monday, but told the
Monroe, La., News-Star after the trial that he “put on the best defense I
could.”

Last week, Walters reduced the charges against defendants Carwin Jones and
Theo Shaw, whose trials are set for January. Walters did not return a call
seeking comment; his office said he could not comment on pending cases.
“He’s been treated unfairly,” said Tina Jones, the mother of defendant
Bryant Ray Purvis, who is still facing an attempted murder charge. Jones
said she expects the charges against Purvis to be reduced at his
arraignment. “The D.A. needs to admit to what he’s done and drop the charges
on these kids,” she said.

After the attention drawn to their cases, the six teens have retained new
lawyers, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and James Boren,
considered one of the top criminal defense lawyers in the state. Harvard
professor Charles Ogletree is serving as an adviser, according to other
lawyers in the case.

Civil rights groups say they expect thousands to come to Jena on Sept. 20,
the day of Bell’s sentencing.

“It’s sort of taken on a life of its own,” said Alan Bean, director of
Friends of Justice, a Texas-based civil rights group that has followed the
case.

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