Patrick Buchanan, American Cause, February 15, 2008
Some Americans do not understand why the sight of a noose causes such a visceral reaction,” declared President Bush to the White House gathering for Black History Month.
As The Washington Post rushed to remind us, President Bush was “responding to news coverage of such episodes as the ‘Jena Six.’”
But if history is about truth, not myth, that news coverage deserves another look, before the Jena Six enter the history books alongside Emmett Till and “the Scottsboro Boys.”
By now, most folks know the media story. White students at Jena High in Louisiana hung nooses on a tree to warn black students not to sit under it. After a fistfight over this racist outrage, black kids in the fight were indicted for attempted murder, while the white racists who hung the nooses walked away with a verbal spanking.
Last September, 20,000 traveled to Jena to march against this prosecutorial outrage. Fortunately, however, there are still a few real journalists around. Among them are Craig Franklin, assistant editor of the Jena Times, whose wife teaches at Jena High, and Charlotte Allen, who wrote an extended piece for The Weekly Standard. According to Allen and Franklin, here are the facts and chronology you have been denied by the Mainstream Media.
There never was a “whites-only” tree at Jena High. Both races sat under it, though whites congregated there. The nooses, or lariats, were the work of three young teens, who got the idea from watching “Lonesome Dove” on TV, where rustlers are hanged.
Franklin says they were a joke aimed at white friends on the rodeo team. As they were painted in Jena High’s gold and black, Allen reports that the kids said the nooses were directed at a rival school’s Western-themed football team.
When school officials confronted them, all were remorseful. All had black friends, and none knew the nooses were offensive to blacks.
Far from being let off, they spent “nine days at an alternative facility, followed by two weeks of in-school suspension, Saturday detentions, attendance at Discipline Court and evaluations by licensed mental-health professionals.”
They were not prosecuted for a hate crime because none of those who investigated the incident believed they committed a hate crime. Hung on Aug. 31, 2006, the nooses had been taken down instantly. Only a few students ever saw them. Case closed.
September, October and November passed at Jena High with no racial conflict emanating from the noose incident of August.
On Dec. 1, however, Robert Bailey Jr. tried to crash a party at the Fair Barn in Jena. One Justin Sloan, 22, not a student, put a fist in his face. So witnesses and Bailey reported to police. And Sloan was prosecuted for battery.
On Dec. 2, Bailey and two friends jumped a white male entering the “Gotta Go” grocery. When the latter ran to get a shotgun out of his car, they wrested it from him and took it. So two witnesses at the “Gotta Go” agreed.
Two days later came the “schoolyard fight.” Only this was no fight. Black students barricaded an exit to the gym and lay in wait for Justin Barker. As Barker went for another exit, he was struck in the head from behind by Mychal Bell. Multiple witnesses say Barker fell unconscious as a gang of eight or 10 blacks stomped and kicked him in the head. The assistant principal who reached Barker thought he was dead. Barker’s emergency room bill ran to more than $5,000.
When the six were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder, none of them and none of the witnesses mentioned the noose incident. It had had nothing to do with this vicious racist assault.
After the charges were reduced to battery, Bell, tried as an adult, was indeed convicted by an all-white jury—because no blacks answered the summons to the jury pool. Why was Bell prosecuted as an adult? Because he had four prior convictions for crimes of violence.
After his conviction was overturned, Bell was ordered retried as a juvenile. Rather than face the same 17 witnesses, he pled guilty in December to hitting Barker from behind, slamming his head into a concrete beam and kicking him in the head. Sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention, he agreed to testify against his co-conspirators.
While some $500,000 has been raised for the Jena Six defense, its whereabouts is unknown. Bailey did pose on the Internet grinning, however, with $100 bills in his mouth. Bell’s mom is said to be driving a new Jaguar, and Bailey’s mom a new Beamer. Two other Jena Sixers, Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis, appeared in rapper attire on Black Entertainment Television as presenters of a Hip-Hop Award.
A week ago, 6-foot, 6-inch Purvis, who had transferred to Hebron High in Carrollton, Texas, was charged with assault, choking a student and ramming his head into a bench.
And that’s the Saga of The Jena Six. It belongs right up there with the Rev. Al’s other classics: Tawana Brawley and the Duke rape case.
Showing posts with label Noose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Noose. Show all posts
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Jena 6 defendant charged in Texas assault
Six blacks beating and kicking a white kid in the head was a schoolyard "scuffle".
Now when a black person pins another person's head down, choking him, and causing an injury to his eye is a "minor shoving incident."
Now 19 Years old is juvenile as well.
HOUSTON - A defendant in the racially-charged Jena 6 case in Louisiana has been arrested for assault after an altercation at the suburban Dallas high school he is now attending, potentially complicating his legal defense in Jena and dispiriting some of his supporters.
Bryant Purvis, 19, was arrested Wednesday in Carrollton, Texas, and charged with misdemeanor assault after an incident with another student at Hebron High School, Carrollton police said. Purvis was released in lieu of $1,000 bond on Thursday and suspended for three days from the school, where he enrolled as a senior after moving to the area to live with a relative.
Purvis' attorney, Darrell Hickman, characterized the assault as a "minor shoving incident" and said it involved a student whom Purvis believed had vandalized his car a few days before. A police affidavit accompanying an arrest warrant alleged that Purvis choked the student and pushed his head into a bench, injuring the victim's eye.
The new arrest could complicate ongoing plea bargain negotiations over the Jena case with LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, Hickman said. Purvis is one of six black defendants Walters initially charged with attempted murder for beating a white student at Jena High School in December 2006, in a fight that capped months of racial tensions in the town.
The charges were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery after the Jena case drew criticism from national civil rights leaders, who contended that the justice system in the small town was biased against blacks. More than 20,000 demonstrators marched through Jena last September in support of the Jena 6 defendants and their case was one of several last year that launched what activists regarded as a new civil rights movement.
The first Jena defendant to face trial, Mychal Bell, pleaded guilty in December to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery and received a sentence of 18 months in juvenile detention. Purvis' case is set for trial in late March.
The Texas arrest "doesn't help his case in Jena, that's obvious," Hickman said. "From what [Purvis] told me, I can understand him losing his temper. We all lose our temper every now and then. But we're in the process of negotiations with Reed Walters. And what we've been asking for, probably Reed will be less inclined to give it to me now."
Purvis' arrest is the latest in a series public embarrassments for the Jena defendants, who last summer attracted the sympathies of more than 300,000 petition signers and donations of more than $500,000 to their legal defense fund.
Purvis and another Jena defendant, Carwin Jones, posed like rap stars at the Black Entertainment Television Hip Hop Awards in October, where they presented a music award and received an ovation from the audience. Jena defendant Robert Bailey Jr. posted pictures of himself on a Myspace page with a wad of $100 bills stuffed in his mouth. And questions arose over the accounting for some of the donated legal funds controlled by the Jena 6 families after they declined to say how they were spending the money.
Nevertheless, the Jena case remains important, said Mervyn Marcano, spokesman for Color of Change, an Internet-based civil rights group of nearly 400,000 members that raised more than $200,000 for the Jena defendants.
"It's sort of a pop culture touchstone of 2007 for a lot of black people," Marcano said, adding that he hoped that Purvis' latest arrest would not detract from the larger issues of equal justice raised by the Jena case.
"These kids are still juveniles, so I'm not surprised that they will get into scuffles and things of that nature," Marcano said. "These kids are not supposed to be angels. They are supposed to have equal access to fair treatment from the criminal justice system, and they will continue to be teenagers while we continue to fight for that."
Now when a black person pins another person's head down, choking him, and causing an injury to his eye is a "minor shoving incident."
Now 19 Years old is juvenile as well.
HOUSTON - A defendant in the racially-charged Jena 6 case in Louisiana has been arrested for assault after an altercation at the suburban Dallas high school he is now attending, potentially complicating his legal defense in Jena and dispiriting some of his supporters.
Bryant Purvis, 19, was arrested Wednesday in Carrollton, Texas, and charged with misdemeanor assault after an incident with another student at Hebron High School, Carrollton police said. Purvis was released in lieu of $1,000 bond on Thursday and suspended for three days from the school, where he enrolled as a senior after moving to the area to live with a relative.
Purvis' attorney, Darrell Hickman, characterized the assault as a "minor shoving incident" and said it involved a student whom Purvis believed had vandalized his car a few days before. A police affidavit accompanying an arrest warrant alleged that Purvis choked the student and pushed his head into a bench, injuring the victim's eye.
The new arrest could complicate ongoing plea bargain negotiations over the Jena case with LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, Hickman said. Purvis is one of six black defendants Walters initially charged with attempted murder for beating a white student at Jena High School in December 2006, in a fight that capped months of racial tensions in the town.
The charges were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery after the Jena case drew criticism from national civil rights leaders, who contended that the justice system in the small town was biased against blacks. More than 20,000 demonstrators marched through Jena last September in support of the Jena 6 defendants and their case was one of several last year that launched what activists regarded as a new civil rights movement.
The first Jena defendant to face trial, Mychal Bell, pleaded guilty in December to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery and received a sentence of 18 months in juvenile detention. Purvis' case is set for trial in late March.
The Texas arrest "doesn't help his case in Jena, that's obvious," Hickman said. "From what [Purvis] told me, I can understand him losing his temper. We all lose our temper every now and then. But we're in the process of negotiations with Reed Walters. And what we've been asking for, probably Reed will be less inclined to give it to me now."
Purvis' arrest is the latest in a series public embarrassments for the Jena defendants, who last summer attracted the sympathies of more than 300,000 petition signers and donations of more than $500,000 to their legal defense fund.
Purvis and another Jena defendant, Carwin Jones, posed like rap stars at the Black Entertainment Television Hip Hop Awards in October, where they presented a music award and received an ovation from the audience. Jena defendant Robert Bailey Jr. posted pictures of himself on a Myspace page with a wad of $100 bills stuffed in his mouth. And questions arose over the accounting for some of the donated legal funds controlled by the Jena 6 families after they declined to say how they were spending the money.
Nevertheless, the Jena case remains important, said Mervyn Marcano, spokesman for Color of Change, an Internet-based civil rights group of nearly 400,000 members that raised more than $200,000 for the Jena defendants.
"It's sort of a pop culture touchstone of 2007 for a lot of black people," Marcano said, adding that he hoped that Purvis' latest arrest would not detract from the larger issues of equal justice raised by the Jena case.
"These kids are still juveniles, so I'm not surprised that they will get into scuffles and things of that nature," Marcano said. "These kids are not supposed to be angels. They are supposed to have equal access to fair treatment from the criminal justice system, and they will continue to be teenagers while we continue to fight for that."
Friday, January 25, 2008
18-year-old indicted for hate crime
An 18-year-old Colfax man accused of hanging nooses from the back of his truck and driving past Jena Six marchers in Alexandria in September has been indicted on a federal hate crime.
Jeremiah Munsen faces up to 11 years in prison and a fine of $350,000 if convicted on the hate crime and civil rights conspiracy violation, according to the United States Department of Justice.
“This indictment accuses the defendant of conduct that constitutes a federal civil rights conspiracy violation and a federal hate crime,” said United States Attorney Donald Washington on Thursday. “It is a violation of federal law to intimidate, oppress, injure or threaten people because of their race and because those people are exercising and enjoying rights guaranteed and protected by the laws and Constitution of the United States. Our civil rights laws protect the civil rights of all Americans, and they remind us that we are all members of one particular race -- the human race.”
On Sept. 20, thousands of people from across the country came to Alexandria and to Jena for a march in support of six high school students known as the Jena Six.
The six Jena High School students were arrested accused of attacking a fellow classmate, Justin Barker. The six arrested are black and Barker is white.
The arrest and case garnered nationwide attention after the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson made visits to Jena, claiming the treatment of the six teens was unfair.
One of the six has pleaded guilty in the attack. Others are awaiting trial.
Following the marches in Jena, many of the marchers came to Alexandria and gathered in downtown.
According to the indictment, Munsen and a 16-year-old boy, who has not been identified, conspired to threaten and intimidate the African Americans gathered in downtown Alexandria.
The indictment alleges the two fashioned nooses out of extension cords while talking about the Ku Klux Klan and the Jena Six rally then tied the nooses onto a truck.
They came to Alexandria where they allegedly drove slowly past a group of marchers waiting for buses to return to Tennessee, according to the Department of Justice.
Alexandria police arrested Munsen, who was driving, on charges of driving while intoxicated, inciting to riot and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, according to the police report.
The 16-year-old passenger was arrested on charges of underage drinking and probation violation, Alexandria Police Chief Daren Coutee said.
According to the police report, the 16-year-old told police he had a “KKK” tattoo on his chest and he had relatives who are members of the Klan.
According to Alexandria police, an unloaded gun was found in the vehicle and a set of brass knuckles.
The case is being prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office.
Jeremiah Munsen faces up to 11 years in prison and a fine of $350,000 if convicted on the hate crime and civil rights conspiracy violation, according to the United States Department of Justice.
“This indictment accuses the defendant of conduct that constitutes a federal civil rights conspiracy violation and a federal hate crime,” said United States Attorney Donald Washington on Thursday. “It is a violation of federal law to intimidate, oppress, injure or threaten people because of their race and because those people are exercising and enjoying rights guaranteed and protected by the laws and Constitution of the United States. Our civil rights laws protect the civil rights of all Americans, and they remind us that we are all members of one particular race -- the human race.”
On Sept. 20, thousands of people from across the country came to Alexandria and to Jena for a march in support of six high school students known as the Jena Six.
The six Jena High School students were arrested accused of attacking a fellow classmate, Justin Barker. The six arrested are black and Barker is white.
The arrest and case garnered nationwide attention after the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson made visits to Jena, claiming the treatment of the six teens was unfair.
One of the six has pleaded guilty in the attack. Others are awaiting trial.
Following the marches in Jena, many of the marchers came to Alexandria and gathered in downtown.
According to the indictment, Munsen and a 16-year-old boy, who has not been identified, conspired to threaten and intimidate the African Americans gathered in downtown Alexandria.
The indictment alleges the two fashioned nooses out of extension cords while talking about the Ku Klux Klan and the Jena Six rally then tied the nooses onto a truck.
They came to Alexandria where they allegedly drove slowly past a group of marchers waiting for buses to return to Tennessee, according to the Department of Justice.
Alexandria police arrested Munsen, who was driving, on charges of driving while intoxicated, inciting to riot and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, according to the police report.
The 16-year-old passenger was arrested on charges of underage drinking and probation violation, Alexandria Police Chief Daren Coutee said.
According to the police report, the 16-year-old told police he had a “KKK” tattoo on his chest and he had relatives who are members of the Klan.
According to Alexandria police, an unloaded gun was found in the vehicle and a set of brass knuckles.
The case is being prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office.
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