The Southern Poverty Law Center responds to D.A. Reed Walters’ Op-Ed in the New York Times.

http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=286

San Diego columnist Ruben Navarette critiques the protests in Jena:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/navarrette/20070923-9999-lz1e23navarre.html

Ruben Navarette is a gifted, even-handed columnist. Unfortunately, his
weird treatment of the Jena 6 story illustrates why all the details of this
story must be on the table before any of it comes into focus. Notice that
Navarette doesn’t even mention the noose incident or the official,
“stroke-of-my-pen” response to it. Reed Walters’ bizarre overcharging of
the Jena 6 pales in comparison to his crude attempt to use the power of his
office to clamp down on legitimate protest. In the process, Walters placed
the white country boys who hung the nooses and the black football players
who led the student protest on a collision course that was guaranteed to end
badly.

I wonder if Mr. Navarette has dealt with the image of black and gold nooses
hanging from a “white tree”? Or has he come to grips with Reed’s pen?
Apparently not. These omissions are so appalling they call for an
explanation. What, precisely, is going on here?

Here’s what’s going on: Mr. Navarette is tired of Al Sharpton and Jesse
Jackson, and this case provides the perfect opportunity to get in a few
licks. I probably talked to twenty reporters from across the nation
yesterday, and they all seemed to have it in for Al and Jesse. That’s a
problem for a man in my position. Clearly, celebrities like Jackson,
Sharpton, and Michael Baisden attracted a great deal of attention to this
story. That’s the upside.

But this nickel also has a tails side–America, black and white, old and
young, isn’t responding to the Al and Jesse show anymore. You can celebrate
or lament this fact, but it cannot be denied. Their shtick is growing
stale. The cameras still come running when the household names speak–but
the gravitas is gone.

The celebrities who have latched onto this case have inadvertently messed
with the message. As I just suggested, this has been a story that gets
badly out of focus if essential aspects are ignored. The media is an
entertainment medium. It goes for the graphic images: nooses in a white
tree; Justin Barker’s battered visage. All good stories are driven by
conflict, so the media phoney competitions (which is worse, nooses or
assault?) and “town divided” scenarios in which black residents lament their
communities racist ways and white residents say it ain’t so. That’s hot; it
sizzles.

At its core, this is a story about Reed Walters’ pen; a story about bigotry
and hubris combining to create a toxic environment for Jena’s young
people–black and white. Many CNN viewers were surprised to hear the
LaSalle Parish district attorney explaining how the Lord Jesus Christ tamed
a pack of wild-eyed black superpredators on September 20th. Left to
themselves, Walters suggested, these folks would have run riot–just like
the Jena 6.

My Jena, Louisiana song (available on our home page) has Reed Walters
describing his role thusly: “Sunday morning I’m a church mouse, but Monday
morning at the courthouse, with a stroke of my pen, I’ll make your whole
world end. And all the King’s horses, and all the king’s mean, won’t put
your world back together again. I can do it all; ’cause I’m sitting on the
wall . . . Between the free and the fallen, between the sinner and the
saint; between the is and the ain’t. I can make you crawl, ya’ll, ’cause
I’m sitting on the wall.”

This guy sees himself as the Vicar of Christ in LaSalle Parish. I’m
serious. All power resides in his pen. All opposition to his righteous
reign will be crushed mercilessly. Robert Bailey Jr. and Justin Barker both
fell victim to Reed Walters’ megalomania. Reed got this way because he has
unlimited discretionary powers. Power, as they say corrupts–and Reed’s
power is absolute.

You can’t blame Ruben Navarette for getting the story so very wrong. Blame
story tellers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who are too stuck in the
categories of the old civil rights movement to understand what this story is
about. Mychal Bell ain’t Rosa Parks, ya’ll. Rosa Parks isn’t going to jail
anymore. We can either pretend that Mychal is Rosa, or we can defend Mychal
Bell’s right to due process because he is an American citizen.

That much, Mr. Navarette understands.

Can we get back on message here? I hope so. I spent two months framing
this story before I fed it to the journalists and the bloggers. It hurts to
watch celebrity activists wandering so far off-message. Mychal Bell
deserves better.