Jena 6 Blog

[BrazenMuse]

This is a piece of the article, the responses are interesting...

Thousands of people are gathering in Jena, La., this morning to protest the jailing of six black teenagers accused of beating a white classmate, in an incident that some see as the culmination of racial strife that started on the first day of school a year ago.
Today’s crowd, led by several local and national civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, plans to march past Jena High School, and past the tree that is now just a stump, cut down by townspeople after it proved to be the trigger for the explosion of tension and violence that has landed this little town in the national spotlight.
The town of 3,000 people has never seen a crowd like this, and law enforcement officials have tried to accommodate the marchers by setting up traffic signals to direct people to the gathering spots, and temporary bathrooms at various points. The Town Talk, a newspaper in nearby Alexandria, details (http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage) some of the arrangements.
The marchers say they are gathering because the six youths were treated too harshly, while the events that touched off the incident, which they contend were racist, went virtually unpunished. District Attorney Reed Walters denies that any racism was involved in the handling of the case.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/race-and-the-spotlight-in-small-town-louisiana/index.html

[DaveR]

BrazenMuse ... got 69 post graduate degrees, takes all that time to copy-paste an article, and put it in a quote box, and can't put no paragraph breaks in the story :biglaugha:

[BrazenMuse]

BrazenMuse ... got 69 post graduate degrees, takes all that time to copy-paste an article, and put it in a quote box, and can't put no paragraph breaks in the story :biglaugha:

sometimes i do. not tonight. :biggrinangel:

[DaveR]

:lol:

[BrazenMuse]

:lol::tongueout:

Chapter due monday. distracting self every so often by checking in on da Pee! Lo siento mucho...

[BrazenMuse]

found this opinion piece and thought it was interesting...sorry if it's late...


Jena Six Case Shows Black Teens Get Short End of Stick

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media
Posted on September 18, 2007, Printed on September 20, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/62838/

Editor's note: When a Louisiana judge locked up six black teens in the Jena case an investigative team cried foul. On Sept. 14, an appeals court vacated the remaining conviction for second degree battery against one of the accused, saying the charges should have been brought in juvenile court.

Four years before an indifferent, drowsy press and public finally fumed at the news that a prosecutor and judge tossed the book at six black teens in a small Louisiana town for beating up a white teen following a racially charged incident, a Louisiana legislative investigating team sternly warned that the state's juvenile justice system was horribly mangled.

It found that the state couldn't lock up juveniles fast enough for mostly non-violent crimes. The team noted that the sentences slapped on them were wildly out of proportion to their crimes, and that the kids had almost no access to counseling, job and skills training, and family support programs that could ensure that they didn't wind up back in the slammer.

Though alternative sentencing programs are far more cost effective than jailing, they are scarce and under-funded, and Louisiana officials have resisted calls to increase funding and resources to boost these programs.

The investigators also found unsurprisingly that black teens were hit with far stiffer sentences than white teens for the same crimes. It made no difference whether the whites had a prior history of criminal or bad behavior and the black teens were altar boys and had a squeaky clean record. The blacks still got harsher sentences. Countless studies show that a black teen is six times more likely to be tried and sentenced to prison than a young white, even when the crimes are similar, or even less severe than those committed by white teens.

Nationally, blacks make up 40 percent of youths tried in adult courts and nearly 60 percent of those sentenced to state prisons.


In Jena, the prosecutor, mostly because of the public furor over the case, reduced charges against two of the youth. But that's an exception. Prosecutors nearly always push for hard time for offenders. This is infuriatingly apparent in Jena. One of the defendants, a star football player, was convicted on a reduced battery charge. Yet, he still could get a 15-year prison sentence.


The investigators implored the legislature to do something to correct the problem. They came up with a series of reform recommendations. They were largely ignored and four years later, state legislators have shown little inclination to fully enact the juvenile justice reforms.


Louisiana legislators haven't turned a tin ear to screams for reform solely out of ignorance, inertia, or fear of a public backlash. The legislators read and watch the same relentless stream of newspaper and television reports of drive-by shootings, drug shootouts, and gang wars, most of them involving young blacks. This confirms the terrified feeling that many Americans have that young people - especially young black males - are out of control.
They are convinced that teen violence has spawned a new class of youthful "super predators" and that the juvenile justice system is far too easy on them.

The notion that juveniles are running wild though is a myth.
According to recent FBI crime figures, the rates for murder and assault among teenagers have plummeted since 1993, even among black teens.
Yet politicians have overreacted badly to the public panic. In the past decade, more than 30 states have loosened, if not eliminated, laws requiring juveniles be tried and sentenced in juvenile courts.


The criminal justice system's harsh treatment of young blacks, like the Jena teens, fuels the suspicion of many blacks that judges, prosecutors and probation officers bend way over backwards to give young white offenders the benefit of the doubt and are far less willing to label and treat them as dangerous habitual offenders, even when they commit violent crimes.


One study of the attitudes of probation officers toward black and white teen offenders found that they were far more likely to attribute black juvenile crimes to such family or character flaws as chronic disrespect toward authority and to brand them as inherent troublemakers.

They were more likely to blame white bad behavior on conditions outside their control such as hanging out with the wrong crowd, or to troubling family conflicts. Judges and prosecutors read the probation reports and heed their recommendations and if they are favorable, as they are more often than not with young whites, judges are much more inclined to approve alternative sentencing or treatment programs for them. An unfavorable report is just as likely to result in hard time in juvenile or adult jails.


The outrage over the Jena case will probably force town prosecutors to edge away a little more from the harsh charges against the teens, but only a little. They, like prosecutors everywhere, are convinced that black teens are habitual lawbreakers and that the public clamors for them to heave the book at them. And that's exactly what they routinely do in daily courts throughout the country.


It's business as usual for black teen offenders and Jena won't change that. And that's an even bigger tragedy.


Earl Ofari Hutchinson (http://earlofarihutchinson.blogspot.com/) is an author and political analyst. His new book The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press and Hispanic Economics New York) in English and Spanish will be out in October.
© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/62838/



how ya like that one Dave...my last hurrah for the nite, toots!

[jimmymack-2000]

The Jena 6 story was the second story on Canada's most-watched national newscast tonight. I was pretty impressed, since the lead story was the Canadian dollar hitting par with the US greenback, something that hasn't happened since 1976.

[jcapeverde]

On my way out to my doctor's appointment, I had to opportunity to listen to WBAI. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now (http://www.democracynow.org/), interviewed Caseptla Bailey (mother of Robert Bailey) & Tina Jones (mother of Bryant Purvis).

256 Stream (http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/sept/video/dnB20070921a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=34:32)

We go now to Jena, Louisiana, where we are joined by two mothers of the Jena Six. Caseptla Bailey is the mother of Robert Bailey, and Tina Jones is the mother of Bryant Purvis. He was expelled from Jena High School last year and is now studying in Dallas, Texas. He's living with his uncle, Jason Hatcher, a professional football player on the Dallas Cowboys.

Caseptla Bailey. Mother of Robert Bailey, one of the Jena Six.

Tina Jones. Mother of Bryant Purvis, one of the Jena Six.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Jena, Louisiana, where we’re joined by two mothers of the Jena Six. Caseptla Bailey is the mother of Robert Bailey. Tina Jones is the mother of Bryant Purvis. We begin with Caseptla Bailey. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

CASEPTLA BAILEY: Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s great to have you both with us. Can you talk about your reaction, Caseptla, to this march yesterday? What did it mean to you? Describe what happened through the day.

CASEPTLA BAILEY: Well, it meant a great deal to me. It was very outstanding to see so many number of people out from all over the country to come in in support of our children, as well as in justice of all children in the state of Louisiana. So I found it very remarkable and very interesting that these people would take time out from their day to come to Jena, Louisiana for something that’s so important in our time right now.

AMY GOODMAN: Tina Jones, what about you? What was your reaction to yesterday's protest?

TINA JONES: I was overwhelmed by the numerous amount of support that came in for us, and to march to the place where all this unjust stuff took place was remarkable. You know, we walked to the school, and everybody got a look, firsthand, at where the injustice actually first took place with our kids.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe the church that you’re standing in the front of, the Antioch Baptist Church, and how it fits into this story, the meeting place, soon after the nooses were hung, of the black community, deeply concerned about what was happening and how to deal with the racial tension in this community of, what, 85% white? Were either of you at that meeting? And whether you were or not, what happened then? Tina?

TINA JONES: When all this took place, we’re standing -- yeah, we’re standing in front of the church, where the pastor, Brother Moran, offered this church for us, you know, to have our meetings and stuff, because when we first started this, everybody was kind of reluctant to let us use their church or building, you know, to hold meetings and everything, but Moran, he stood up and allowed us to come here and have meetings. And this is where we’re standing this morning. And to this day, he’s still behind us.

AMY GOODMAN: Tina, your brother is Justin Hatcher?

TINA JONES: Jason

AMY GOODMAN: Jason Hatcher, Dallas Cowboys, a professional football player. Was he in the march yesterday?

TINA JONES: No, he wasn't. He had to attend a game that he’s going to be doing this weekend. So he was unable to attend.

AMY GOODMAN: He got a key to the city, was awarded a key to the city of Jena, where you both grew up. Your son is now living with him in Dallas?

TINA JONES: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us about your son. Your son is the only one of the Jena Six who has not yet been arraigned, is that right?

TINA JONES: Yes. Currently, he’s still under the murder charges, but he do have a court date November 7. The lawyer filed motions to arraign him, drop the charges or produce evidence. So we’re hopeful that something will come out good in his case on that date.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us about your son Bryant Purvis, and tell us what you understand happened, how he has responded to this, and what it means for him to be living in Dallas and not in Jena right now.

TINA JONES: Bryant is currently back in school. He’s in Dallas going to school. But he did come down and attend the rally. He’ll be leaving out later today. And he was overwhelmed by the numerous amount of support that he’s gotten. We don’t try to bother him with all the questions and stuff. We try to let him keep his life as normal as possible. You know, that’s all I can say.

AMY GOODMAN: How old is Bryant?

TINA JONES: Bryant is eighteen.

AMY GOODMAN: And when this happened?

TINA JONES: Ma’am?

AMY GOODMAN: He was eighteen at the time this happened?

TINA JONES: Oh, he was seventeen when it happened, but he had a birthday since then.

AMY GOODMAN: And what was your reaction to the Louisiana appeals court throwing out Mychal Bell’s conviction, saying he shouldn’t have been tried as an adult?

TINA JONES: I think that’s a step in the right direction. They put it back in juvenile, where it should have been in the first place. So we're hopeful that, you know, things are changing. It’s a slow process, but it’s working in our favor.

AMY GOODMAN: Caseptla Bailey, your son Robert Bailey is the young man who, before the fight of December 4th, was beaten up, himself, is that right?

CASEPTLA BAILEY: Yes, ma'am.

AMY GOODMAN: What happened?

CASEPTLA BAILEY: Well, at this present time, I’m unable to speak on that matter, due to future court dates.

AMY GOODMAN: How has this, yesterday’s protest, affected Robert? Was he a part of the marches yesterday?

CASEPTLA BAILEY: Well, it has affected Robert tremendously. He was very proud that so many people have come out in support of those young athletes here in Jena. And Robert was not in attendance at the rally, you know, due to the numerous amount of persons there in the rally. But he is very thankful and very grateful to each and every one who have come out in support of him, as well as his friends in this matter.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Caseptla, what do you say to those who say this is a bunch of outsiders coming in, everything was fine in Jena before they started marching on our town?

CASEPTLA BAILEY: Well, I’d like to say that everything wasn’t fine in Jena. That’s why the outsiders are here, and that’s why everything has gone so tremendously within the last few months. So I’d like to applaud those people that have come here from the outside, to come in and to support us and to help us and assist us in this matter. So I’d like to say hats off to those persons.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you organize? I mean, from December 4th, from the time when the fight took place, the kids were jailed, how did you get word out? It’s now almost ten months later.

CASEPTLA BAILEY: Well, the word got out that I received a phone call from Mr. Jason Williamson with the Juvenile Justice Project out of New Orleans, who contacted Dr. Alan Bean from Tulia, Texas, who came -- who was invited in by family members to come in and do a formal investigation. He is not a detective, he is not a lawyer, but is he an outstanding young man who have come in and assisted us. And from that point on, things have just gone straight up through the roof with the BBC coming in, doing a documentary on racism in the South, particularly in Jena, Louisiana. So that’s, you know, a lot of those avenues, which have brought us forth to this point in time right now.

AMY GOODMAN: Caseptla Bailey and Tina Jones, I’d like to ask you to stay with us. We’re going to go to break, and then we’re going to play some of the voices of the protest yesterday, one of the largest rallies in the South in decades.