Racism goes on trial again in America's Deep South
Zeke
221 Posts
Source: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2083762,00.htmlRacism goes on trial again in America's Deep South[/b]The prosecution of three black Louisiana youths reveals the rise of discrimination by stealthTom Mangold in Jena, LouisianaSunday May 20, 2007The ObserverIn the cool and beflagged small courtroom in Jena, Louisiana, three black schoolboys - Robert Bailey, Theodore Shaw and Mychal Bell - are about to go on trial for a playground fight that could see them jailed for between 30 and 50 years.Jena, about 220 miles north of New Orleans, is a small town of 3,000 people, 85 per cent of whom are white. Tomorrow it will be the focus for a race trial which could put it on the map alongside the bad old names of the Mississippi Burning Sixties such as Selma or Montgomery, Alabama.Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new 'stealth' racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America's Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barak Obama, is a serious candidate for the White House.It began in Jena's high school last August when Kenneth Purvis asked the headteacher if black students could break with a long-held tradition and join the whites who sit under the tree in the school courtyard during breaks. The boy was told that he and his friends could sit where they liked.The following morning white students had hung three nooses there. 'Bad taste, silly, but just a prank,' was the response of most of Jena's whites.'To us those nooses meant the KKK [Ku Klux Klan], they meant, "Niggers, we're going to kill you, we're going to hang you till you die,"' says Caseptla Bailey, a black community leader and mother of one of the accused. The three white perpetrators of what was seen as a race hate crime were given 'in-school' suspensions (sent to another school for a few days before returning).Jena's major industry is growing and marketing junk pine. Walk down the usually deserted main street and you will not find many black employees. Bailey, 56, is a former air force officer and holder of a business management degree. 'I couldn't even get a job in Jena as a bank teller,' she said. 'Look at the banks and the best white-collar jobs and you'll see only white and red necks in those collars.'Billy Doughty, the local barber, has never cut black men's hair. 'They just don't come here,' he mumbled. 'Anyway, their hair is different and difficult to cut.'The majority of blacks live in an area known as Ward 10. Many homes are trailers, or wooden shacks. Rubbish lies in the streets. On 'Snob Hill', where the whites live, the spacious gardens and lawns are trimmed, the gravelled drives boast SUVs and nice new saloons. Only two black families live there. A teacher from Jena High had enough money to buy his way in. But when he arrived local estate agents refused to show him a 'white' property even though several were advertised in the local paper ('they're all under contract,' the agents lied). The teacher eventually went to see one white owner and offered him cash. 'The guy preferred green [dollars] to black, so I got the property,' laughed the teacher, 'but since we moved in three years ago we haven't been invited by a single neighbour.'On 30 November, someone tried to burn Jena High to the ground. The crime remains unsolved. That same weekend race fights between teenagers broke out downtown, and on 4 December racial tension boiled over once more in the school. A white student, Justin Barker, was attacked, allegedly by six black students.The expected charges of assault and battery were not laid, and the six were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. They now face a lifetime in jail.Barker spent the evening of the assault at the local Baptist church, where he was seen by friends to be 'his usual smiling self'.Nine days later, with the case technically sub judice, the District Attorney made the following public statement to the local paper: 'I will not tolerate this type of behaviour. To those who act in this manner I tell you that you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and with the harshest crimes that the facts justify. When you are convicted I will seek the maximum penalty allowed by law. I will see to it that you never again menace the students at any school in this parish.'Bail for the impoverished students was set absurdly high, and most have been held in custody. The town's mind seems to be made up.But now the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union - 'damned outsiders' - have become involved and have begun to recruit, enthuse and empower the local black population. Reporters from the BBC and the New York Times have been drawn to the story. Jena does not like this publicity and shifts uncomfortably in the glare. It is 42 years since President Lyndon Johnson closed the loopholes that allowed southern states to discriminate against blacks. When the accused shuffle into court tomorrow, it's Jena that will be on trial.I don't own a television. Has this has made a single national news network here in the US?
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this is the first I've heard of it. none of my friends scattered around louisiana have said anything either.
High school melee last December landed six students in jail
By Abbey Brown
Louisiana Gannett News
JENA -- The victim in the December attack that landed six Jena High School students in jail was arrested Thursday afternoon after being accused of bringing a gun onto the high school campus.
Justin L. Barker, 17, of Jena was booked at around 12:30 p.m. into the LaSalle Parish Jail on a charge of possession of a firearm in a firearm-free zone, according to the jail's booking log.
Jena Police Chief Paul Smith would say only that Barker was arrested at the high school. He said LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters had told him not to release any additional information. Repeated calls to Walters' office went unreturned.
Jena High sophomore Sammy Nash said Thursday that during his English II class, another student notified the teacher that Barker had a gun in his vehicle. The teacher took the student to the school's office, the vehicle was searched, and police were notified, Nash said.
Nash said Barker and the other student are friends and often jokingly tell on each other for having chewing tobacco. When Barker told the teacher about the other student's chewing tobacco on Thursday, the other student said, "If you are going to search me, you oughta search (Barker's) truck. He's got a gun in it," Nash said.
Barker's friend and classmate Brandon Holley said the entire situation has been blown out of proportion.
"If you checked all the cars at the high school, you would find a lot more guns," the Jena High freshman said. "There was no kind of plot to do anything. It was just a gun. This has nothing to do with what happened in December."
Kelly Barker, Justin Barker's mom, confirmed that her son was the victim in the Dec. 4 fight. She declined to comment any further.
Following the fight at the school in December, six students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
Theodore Shaw and all-star athlete Mychal Bell remain in jail in lieu of $90,000 bond. Shaw, Bell and Robert Bailey Jr. are scheduled for a jury trial on May 21.
Trial dates have not been set for Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis. If found guilty, the boys could face 25 to 100 years in prison.
Bailey and Shaw also have been charged with theft of more than $500, aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, according to court documents. A jury trial for those charges is scheduled for June 25.
The sixth boy's case is being handled by juvenile court, and records weren't available.
Barker's charge carries a sentence of as many as five years in prison, according to the state criminal code. Bond had not yet been set as of late Thursday night.
"(Barker) is not at all a violent person," Holley said. "He would never hurt anyone. He is a real good person to be around. I know he would never hurt anyone or the school. And nobody's scared at school because we all know he wouldn't do anything."
Calls to Principal Glen Joiner and Superintendent Roy Breithaupt went unreturned Thursday.
source: http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770511012
I just watched a documentary/news program about this on UK tv.
Shit is crazy!
The local newspaper reported the attacks as fact, it never once referred to the accused, as having 'allegedly' done anything. They were automatically treated as guilty.
Worse still, is the fact that the D.A. was responsible for getting the charges brought up, from assault and battery, to attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
The rest of your life in jail for getting in a fight at school. And the dude they beat on, was 'his usual smiling self' that very night.
we're talking some serious racist nuts here, for whom
racism > politics
Now that shit is scary.
i honestly don't think that is too far off from alot of small southern towns, kids are gonna shoot up their school, they're just hicks.
whats scary is the detail in this article
Unfortunately no this is not nutjobs more status quo... welcome to the deep south.
EVER BEEN TO IDAHO?
i donno what batmon's yawning at exactly but my interest in this piece is largely considering the narrative that folks have been pushing lately about some random murders in Knoxville.
These two white folks were killed by some black folks and a bunch of racists have made it into an example of 'protecting the white race' blah blah blah .. which is 'yawn' as well. Except that some people, prominent rightist folks like michelle malkin and john leo of u.s. news and world report are using the report as an example of 'liberal bias' in the mainstream media, inferring that the mainstream media isn't covering this case because of some PCisms or some shit, lingering 'i told you so's from the duke rape case
Which is bullshit; the case is pretty open-shut, no one is on the lam, its no different from the hundreds of rape-murders that occur across the country. But its getting coverage on fox news, an attempt to use this 'mainstream media/secular progressive' thing to reframe racism yet again ... anyway i think its interesting. esp. cause cases like this aren't getting 'mainstream media attention' either
Thankfully, no. They export their potatoes, so there's really no reason to go.
Do they have "hate crime" laws in Tn.?
If so, are(would) these murders be prosecuted as such?
kind of irrelevant tho since they're pursing the death penalty
can't we just ignored these little dudes blaming the south? anyone with any sense knows this already
I don't think anyone was killed. WTF? Where did that come from?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom_murder
which i was holding up in contrast to the post that started this thread
Unless I didn't read your link right it said the crimes WERE ultimately racially motivated??
Although it could have just been your average everyday torture, cut off breast/penis non-hate crime??
This case WAS covered by the National media when it happened......but I have not seen anything about the subsequent "controversy" around the case.
Scum is Scum regardless of race.
"Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said that there is no indication the crimes were racially motivated, and that the murders and assault "appears to have been a random violent act."[12] The parents of Channon Christian also do not believe the crime was racially motivated. [13] The father of Chris Newsom said he didn't believe the murders started out as race-motivated crimes. "I don't think it started out that way but from all indications we have, it developed into that," Hugh Newsom said."
you have reading comprehension issues
and it was covered by michelle malkin on o'reilly two nights ago, and john leo from us news and world report just wrote about it as well
it was covered by the national media the same way most rape/murders are; a brief piece in AP, unless something spectacular happens behind it
Eventually, most of the teens were found guilty, though, b/c they were tried as juveniles, most of them got some variation on probation.
And in general, 20% of all hate crime victims, nationally, are White. However, that compares with 68% of victims who are Black. Adjust that for per capita and the rates really contrast.
it was covered by the national media the same way most rape/murders are; a brief piece in AP, unless something spectacular happens behind it
It was given BIG coverage here mainly because it was a kidnap/torture with all the juicy penis dismemberment and titty disfigurement that sells papers.
It was given BIG coverage here mainly because it was a kidnap/torture with all the juicy penis dismemberment and titty disfigurement that sells papers. THERE WAS NO PENIS DISMEMBERMENT. REREAD MY POST
i also find conjecture from the victim's father to hardly be an example of hardhitting evidence.
i also find conjecture from the victim's father to hardly be an example of hardhitting evidence.
From your link, and what was reported when the crime occurred....
"One media report has suggested that prior to their deaths Newsom's penis was severed and one or both of Christian's breasts were cut off."
THIS is what was reported....do I need to go find archive articles??
NOTHING should distract anyone from the heinous crimes that were committed and all anyone should care about is that these people are punished.