The Jena Six

[Dr. Shane]

We have a world of knowledge at our finger tips. We can check each other's facts with a few simple mouse clicks. Those of us that can understand more than one language have even more knowledge available to us. So there is little need to grill other members.

The opinion I expressed was presented in the classes I attended. It was presented as established fact by professional counselors that deal with anger management and racism on a daily basis. I assumed (my mistake) these facts were common knowledge. Obviously they are not.

The class showed how the media at one time vilified the Italian male as the ruthless gangster that was to be feared. This stereotype was so effective that when Geraldine Ferraro ran for vice-president some investigated her background because she was Italian! However the media moved away from the Italian and to the black American male. The black American male now is the epitome of power, force and intimidation to the point that young males of other races are trying to imitate them by dressing like them, talking like them and walking like them. (This all according to the professional counselors in an anger management class to a group of nearly all hispanic males.)

So now comes along the story of the Jena Six. How does the story of the Jena Six reinforce this stereotype created by Hollywood and the rap music industry?

From what I have read, the big culprit here is the district attorney. Remember the Duke rape case where there a politically correct district attorney was so anxious to convict white boys for the rape of a black woman that he falsified evidence and is himself now in legal trouble. That case seems to be the flip side of this one but it looks like (at least to me) the problem is basically the same - the district attorney. And also remember in that case, Jesse Jackson took the side of the alleged victim even as facts were coming out that were quite unfavorable to her.

If the district attorney would have charged these white boys with making terroristic threats like he should have (and still can) imagine how different things may have been in that small town.

[Kountzer]

SDAs should not be surprised by random and sporadic acts of evil and violence. Prophecy about evil building up to 'a time of trouble' such as has never been seen is a trade mark prophetic belief of this movement. So, when something like jena 6, or columbine, or VA Tech, or the tsunami occur, I view them within this prophetic context. I am surprised when things like this happen, but I am not shocked. When Daniel was given his visions thousands of years ago the wording strongly suggested that the whole world would be involved. And so far, it is unfolding just as predicted. Kids killing their family for inheritance(as happened in an affluent suburb her recently), race riots, school assaults. Stuff like that are happening all over, and it is not remotely isolated to the black community.

Anyone wtih an unbiased, and unbigoted perspective should be able to see that violence and calamity are not restricted to any one location or segment of society. If you think you can kick back in the country or suburbs and say 'I'm safe, the trouble is over there with them' you are strongly deluded.

DB

[jasd]

Quote:

jasd

It is well known that spinal injuries may not manifest for years. Though Justin Barker attended a ‘ring ceremony’ at school – that, in itself, does not mitigate the seriousness of act for which its perpetrators should be held accountable.

Justice for the Jena Six? Tchah!

Justice? for the tree?

It was cut down.

Justice? for me?

...who has too often to listen to the constant grouse on major media.

>>Of course you convenietly ignore what went on before the beating. I wonder why? Those events are key to the appeal for justice.<<

Of course. It was you who started this thread and titled it “The Jena Six”. It was not, I note, titled “The Idiots in Jena Who Hung Nooses from a Tree”.

Disabuse me should I err but – had not the conviction of Mychal Bell already been overturned by the time you initiated this thread (09-18-07)? Why did it remain for the reader following your seeming raison d’être to either follow a link or for Amelia to note that fact?

Or..., why was it that the reason it took “an all-white jury” – and its pejorative implication – to return a verdict on the charges against Mychal Bell – was not expanded upon?

“When no clear explanation is forthcoming then the issue becomes the personality of the one who makes the assertions not the topic.” --lazurus

“The state’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that Mychal Bell, 17, should not have been tried as an adult by LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters, and that the trial judge erred in allowing Bell to be tried as an adult on charges of aggravated second-degree battery. Under Louisiana law, teenagers can be tried as adults for certain violent crimes but not battery, the court said.”

...

Bell, who was 16 at the time of the incident...” [ed.jasd]

Seems tah me that the technicality which allowed the overturn of Mychal Bell’s conviction argues for Lady Justice actually dispensing equal justice, eh?

Speaking of equal justice..., as America’s Black citizens embrace their ‘heritage’ – are you in favor of conceding the same ‘right’ to the White American Southerner to ‘embrace’ their Stars and Bars?

[lazarus]

Quote:

had not the conviction of Mychal Bell already been overturned by the time you initiated this thread (09-18-07)?

Surely you are not saying that the issue should not have been raised because of this fact. The overturning of the conviction does not remove the need for discussion, protest etc. The belief is that if he were a white boy he would not have even have been charged judging by the previous incidents.

Quote:

Or..., why was it that the reason it took “an all-white jury” – and its pejorative implication – to return a verdict on the charges against Mychal Bell – was not expanded upon?

These were not my words.

Quote:

He was first attacked from behind with a weight-lifting bar, then, while the victim was on the ground unconscious – they proceeded to stomp and kick his head – until they were forcibly pulled off the victim.

Where did u see the "weightlifting bar" account? Can you post a link please?

Speaking of equal justice..., as America’s Black citizens embrace their ‘heritage’ – are you in favor of conceding the same ‘right’ to the White American Southerner to ‘embrace’ their Stars and Bars?

The "stars and bars" seen by many blacks and whites as a symbol of race hatred. I would not favour whites embracing that part of their heritage. What part of the black heritage would you oppose?

[jasd]

Quote:

Quote:jasd

had not the conviction of Mychal Bell already been overturned by the time you initiated this thread (09-18-07)?

>>Surely you are not saying that the issue should not have been raised because of this fact.<<

No, these matters should be part of the public discourse.

>>The overturning of the conviction does not remove the need for discussion, protest etc. The belief is that if he were a white boy he would not have even have been charged judging by the previous incidents.<< [ed.jasd]

I read the FBI held that there was no connection to other events occurring throughout Jena. The Jena Six incident was isolated. (sorry, I’ve not time to Google for verification and I’ve already scrubbed my research)

Quote:

Quote:jasd

Or..., why was it that the reason it took “an all-white jury” – and its pejorative implication – to return a verdict on the charges against Mychal Bell – was not expanded upon?

>>These were not my words.<<

True. It is only that you forwarded them.

Quote:

Quote:jasd

He was first attacked from behind with a weight-lifting bar, then, while the victim was on the ground unconscious – they proceeded to stomp and kick his head – until they were forcibly pulled off the victim.

>>Where did u see the "weightlifting bar" account? Can you post a link please?<,

Sorry, I’ve already scrubbed my research.

Quote:

Quote:jasd

Speaking of equal justice..., as America’s Black citizens embrace their ‘heritage’ – are you in favor of conceding the same ‘right’ to the White American Southerner to ‘embrace’ their Stars and Bars?

>>The "stars and bars" seen by many blacks and whites as a symbol of race hatred.<<

Until it was conceived and advanced as cause célèbre “by many blacks and whites”, it was seen by many as a symbol of State’s Rights vs Federal intrusion (10th Amendment issue).

>>I would not favour whites embracing that part of their heritage.<<

Sarah Brady is indicative of that sort of selectivity. She took up an oppositional stand against the 2nd Amendment and its greater intent because of a seemingly personal bias in that her husband was shot. She set her ‘cause’ above that of the greater American Public together with their inalienable rights.

>>What part of the black heritage would you oppose?<<

There are few aspects of the Black heritage or culture that I oppose other than their stereotyped (?) excessive violence. (can violence be defined as a heritage?)

>>The "stars and bars" seen by many blacks and whites as a symbol of race hatred.<<

Many Native Americans see the Stars and Stripes in exactly that manner. Would you be in favor of banning the Stars and Stripes as an emollient to them? or would you think that is PC run amok?

[Dr. Shane]

Quote:

The belief is that if he were a white boy he would not have even have been charged judging by the previous incidents.

In Jena, perhaps. Let's not forget what happened in the Duke rape case and if those boys there hadn't been able to afford the best legal defense money could buy, they would be in prison for a crime they didn't commit.

The problem in both these cases seems to be district attorneys with agendas something other than justice. In the Duke rape case they found semen from four or five different men in the alleged victim and none of them matched any of the accused and the DA illegally hid those results from the defense. And those were white boys.

OK, just to lighten things up... Randy Savage said God must be a racist because he made good clouds white and bad clouds black and made the day light and the night dark. He was bemoaning political correctness.

[Kountzer]

Growing up, I knew there were some warped thinking people in this world, and then they invented the internet.

[Neil D]

Growing up, I knew there were some warped thinking people in this world, and then they invented the internet.

"to err is human...to really foul things up, you need a computer"

Well said, Mr. Bishop...well said....

[jasd]

Although the “warped thinking” post is addressed to Shane – I’m taking the liberty to address it because of the broader issue...

>>Growing up, I knew there were some warped thinking people in this world, and then they invented the internet.<<

So, the internet cured “warped thinking”? or did the internet simply cure the perception...? or...?

That said, allow me an observation, “That is an unflattering mew: it is an unfortunate view into the biases of your person. It is unworthy to intimate that another, perhaps of the list – not subscribing to your biases – might be “warped”.”

If the idea that six athletes, five of them football players, “putting the boots” to 1 unconscious victim is a defensible position, then, defend it. Don’t simply mew about someone else’s perceptions: that may be thought as harboring a distorted sense of what is right.

I lived in Los Angeles during its several riots. In one of them, the 1992 riot, Blacks destroyed

2,280 Korean American-owned stores by looting, burning, or otherwise. Did the “Justice Bros”, or mebbe a coupla Texans or other, march in Los Angeles – against the actions of their own?

Why not? Too narcissistic? Too self-absorbed? Too righteous? Too downtrodden? What? (enlighten me)

Choose your causes carefully.

[Dr. Shane]

I read the "warped thinking" comment as directed at Randy Savage. Although he is on the radio, it is here on the internet that I quoted him. Maybe I misunderstood that.

[jasd]

>>I read the "warped thinking" comment as directed at Randy Savage. Although he is on the radio, it is here on the internet that I quoted him. Maybe I misunderstood that.<<

Sorry, I failed to detect a nimbus surrounding the “warped thinking” comment.

Let’s see..., we speak of Macho Man Savage do we not? The celeb of wrasslin’ fame, cinema, rap, television, etc? Yet, he does not even have an [internet] website.

Quote:

Quote:D Bishop

Growing up, I knew there were some warped thinking people in this world, and then they invented the internet. [ed.jasd]

Where is the sustaining “internet” connection?

Quote:

Quote:jasd

So, the internet cured “warped thinking”? or did the internet simply cure the perception...? or...?

Its cryptic ellipticism elicited the above quote.

Anyway, because it was so elliptic, and because the “internet” connection was lacking..., I constructed the following with the pertinent phrase (underlined).

Quote:

Quote:jasd

It is unworthy to intimate that another, perhaps of the list – not subscribing to your biases – might be “warped”.” [ed.jasd]

Sorry, it was so tangential, I almost missed it: following...

Quote:

Quote:Shane

...it is here on the internet... [ed.jasd]

So, quoting a wrasslin’, acting, rapping, radio personality on this forum translates to what? internet warped thinking? warped internet thinking?

Pardon me, but that is awfully obscure...

then again, transcendentally, om mani peme hum, I glimpse the ‘Growing up, I knew ... now, with the internet, I really know!’.

Okay, I concede the point; however, my post stands, as is.

[Kountzer]

The only place I've heard the 6 on 1 stuff is from stuff you posted. I don't believe in rush to judgment by 'copy and paste'. Whatever the true facts may be, let them be discovered in a fair and honest court trial, if there is such a thing in our legal system.

The young man that was hit in the head suffered a concussion and then 2 hours later participated in a graduation exercise. The main person accused is thrown in jail for 10 months, charged with attempted murder, and is still in jail. Yet, someone that was white attempted to pull out a gun which was taken away, and this person only gets a misdemeanor. That's blatant racism.

Like I've posted before, I personally know of cases where someone black was hit in the head and permanently damaged, and nothing happened to the people that did it. that occurred within the last 40 years. There have been cases where black people have been been, murdered, hung, etc., within the past 10 years and there was hardly a mention in the press, much less someone thrown in jail. It is unfortunate that the person in Jena was hit in the head, but he survived. At the least they could let the young man in jail out on bail.

As to the 1992 riot in LA, that started under similar circumstances. You had 5 or 6 lapd beating and kicking a prostrate and defenseless Rodney King, and the whole thing is caught on tape, for the whole world to see. The powder keg of pent up emotion and frustration exploded, and as a result a lot of businesses, got destroyed. I have relatives that live near Western and 26th st. I've visited there several times.

As to some of the stuff posted on this msg board, I find it highly offensive for someone to say that as a result of something posted about the Jena 6 on this board, which may or may not be true, that all black men are made to look bad. Or, that all, or many races, namely hispanics and asians, fear black men.

Who gave you the omnipotent ability to know what all asians and hispanics know and feel about black people? Also, I've been connected to this board for awhile, or msg boards similar to it, and I don't recall similar statements being made about whites when some of the before mentioned events were perpetrated by white people, events like columbine, jonesboro ark, va tech, the b2k killing spree, etc.

Then, someone else suggests that excessive violence is part of black culture. HUH? What planet have you been living on doo doo bird! Europeans have violently killed untold millions of people in world wars, regional wars, like vietnam and iraq, afghanistan. Hitler, a white man, killed 6 or 6 million jews, white men during the middle ages slaughtered 100 million plus people. Whole countries have been destroyed in the name of european colonialism, and imperialism, war was declared on China because they didn't want to continue to be enslaved to opium. I could go on and on and on. And yet you want to slime me and my culture as being excessively violent? I suggest you need to pull your head out of whatever tight, stinky, hole you got it stuck in and get a grip on reality, because the fantasy land that you and your so called facts live in is bogus.

[Amelia]

I reviewed many articles from different papers across the country and could not find any reference to actions taken other than "it was a schoolyard fight". A picture of the white youth in the hospital showed one black eye and one roughed up ear, nothing else. Certainly not the wounds and scars of a kid stomped on by 6 other kids. I really expected more dammage from the various diverse descriptions of the fight.

I like the questions raised in this commentary

Quote:

A Jena 6 "Why" Revealed: 'Classic Blaxploitation'

by Bob Parks

Sep 27, 2007

The Post Chronicle

There are many aspects of the Jena 6 saga that have slowly come to light. Some very pertinent questions are beginning to be answered. The answers will probably be brushed aside, as it goes against the very template some use to exploit race in what was a law enforcement matter.

I have taken the position that the 6 young boys involved shouldn't have put themselves in the situation they now find themselves. Sure, they are young, hotheaded, and they initial gestures made by the white kids who hung the nooses should never have been excused, or treated as lightly as they were.

But a report I saw on ESPN's "Outside The Lines" portrayed Jena as a small community where people did get along. Sure, it wasn't a utopia, but when the opportunists got a chance to thrust themselves into the story, it blew up into the power keg that justified the participation of the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. It's always unfortunate that these two can come in, join in a well-publicized and media covered event, just to leave the infiltrated township more divided than before the events that started it all happened.

"While we applaud the actions of Louisiana's Third Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday (Sept. 14) vacating the conviction of Mychal Bell, this is only a first step to address the human rights issues in this case. Authorities must take immediate further action to ensure that the overall culture of the school respects human rights and promotes understanding across communities." - Ajamu Baraka, executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, 9/19

I asked myself why District Attorney Reed Walters set the bails so high on these young boys involved in what could be construed as a simple schoolyard fight? I asked myself why some of the high profile, "well meaning" media liberals like Amy Goodman saw fit to allow some of the young boys they were advocating for languish in jail? I asked myself where's Oprah, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Andrew Young, and the rest of those who are so sensitive to racism issues, and why has only David Bowie stepped forward publicly to date and offered a sizable donation to the boy's defense fund? Why haven't any of these millionaire activists bailed the kids out?

Why was bail denied for the young high school football star Mychal Bell?

"This is the most blatant example of disparity in the justice system that we've seen. You can't have two standards of justice. We didn't bring race in it. Those that hung the nooses brought the race into it." - Rev. Al Sharpton on CBS's "The Early Show" before arriving in Jena

According to the fore mentioned activists, it was all about racism. It was a white town persecuting young black boys. It was a white school committee that overturned the expulsion of the white kids who hung the nooses. It was about a white kid who justifiably got his ass kicked for calling the young boys "[theN-word]". It was about a racist white D.A. who railroaded the young black boys, once again calling into question the fairness and integrity of the criminal justice system. Once again, according to the Goodmans, Jacksons, and Sharptons of the world, it was all about racism.

Again I asked, if these acclaimed activists know these kids were set up with one being in jail for months, why wasn't bailed out? What didn't we know?

"It is not and never has been about race. It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions." - District Attorney Reed Walters, 9/20

As it turns out, a bond hearing revealed that Mychal Bell has a history of juvenile scrapes with the law, one of which involved him punching out a 17-year-old girl.

I know this will come off as piling on the victim, but as I wrote in my first piece on this subject, it's the choices these boys made that put them in this situation. The little dickheads who put the nooses on the tree in the first place would have to live with their prank, and walk around with their heads on a swivel, for the rest of their lives. The expulsions-turned-suspensions would be something in their academic record they'd have to answer for. The tree where the nooses were white kids hung out and the nooses were hung was cut down. This was an ugly incident, but the town of Jena, Louisiana could have moved on.

Instead Amy Goodman, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the thousands they enraged descended on this small town, implied every white there is a racist and every black is a victim. When the ends justify the means, the truth can be a victim as well.

According to the Louisiana Weekly, "The Rev. Al Sharpton told the Associated Press Thursday that he and Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and William Jefferson, D-La., will press the House Judiciary Committee this week to summon Jena district attorney Reed Walters to explain his actions before Congress."

Should those hearings happen, it may be more embarrassing to those seeking "justice" as there are facts associated with this case they either ignorant of, or just plain ignored.

In the future, when these people are involved in their next cause, I would hope people would be cautious as to their motives. For them, the truth may be an inconvenience, so we may not hear it at first, if at all. If it creates a thick tension in the air that the residents they visit have to live with long after they're gone, so be it.

This is why I'm a cynic when it comes to these people and their motives. I called this a classic example of "blaxploitation".

I rest my case.

[Amelia]

I also liked this commentary

Quote:

Jason Whitlock Says What Media Won't Regarding ‘Jena 6’

By Noel Sheppard

September 21, 2007

News Busters.com

In the midst of the media's typically one-sided view of Thursday's civil rights protests in Jena, Louisiana, Jason Whitlock, the black sportswriter who called Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton terrorists during April's Don Imus controversy, penned an op-ed in the Kansas City Star that should be must-reading for all Americans.

Entitled "Lessons From Jena, LA," Whitlock's piece marvelously exposed a side of this story that mainstream media outlets, as well as folks like Jackson and Sharpton, want to desperately withhold from the public in order to provoke racial tension rather than reduce it.

After a wonderful introduction, Whitlock got down to business (emphasis added throughout, h/t NB reader Thomas Rosenbrook):

Jesse Jackson compared Thursday's rallies in Jena to the protests and marches that used to take place in cities like Selma, Ala., in the 1960s. Al Sharpton claimed Thursday's peaceful demonstrations were to highlight racial inequities in the criminal justice system.

Jesse and Al, as they're prone to do, served a kernel of truth stacked on a mountain of lies.

There are undeniable racial and economic inequities in our criminal justice system, and from afar the "Jena Six" rallies certainly looked and felt like the righteous protests of the 1960s.

But the reality is Thursday's protests are just another sign that we remain deeply locked in denial about the path we need to travel today for true American liberation, equality and power in the new millennium.

Fortunately, Whitlock was just getting warmed up:

There was no "schoolyard fight" as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree.

Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack.

As NewsBusters noted, media have almost universally ignored or downplayed this. But there's more:

A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the "Jena Six" case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker's assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the "Jena Six" in reaction to [Jena District Attorney Reed] Walters' extreme charges of attempted murder.

Didn't hear anybody report that last night, did you? But there's more that appears to have gone largely un- or under-reported:

Much has been written about Bell's trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell's public defender was black.

[...]

It's rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker's attack. And it's never mentioned that white people in the "racist" town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell's father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.

Yet, Whitlock saved the really inconvenient truth for the end:

I am in no way excusing the nooses. The responsible kids should've been expelled. A few years after I'd graduated, a similar incident happened at my high school involving our best football player, a future NFL tight end. He was expelled.

The Jena school board foolishly overruled its principal and suspended the kids for three days.

But the kids responsible for Barker's beating deserve to be punished. The prosecutor needed to be challenged on his excessive charges. And we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once they're in harm's way.

I've been the spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City for six years. Getting black men to volunteer to mentor for just two hours a week to the more than 100 black boys on a waiting list is a yearly crisis. It's a nationwide crisis for the organization. In Kansas City, we're lucky if we get 20 black Big Brothers a year.

You don't want to see any more "Jena Six" cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law.

Sadly, this isn't how media or folks like Sharpton and Jackson work. After all, if cases like this were prevented, how would these entities foment racial tension for their own benefit?

Bravo, Jason. Bravo!

[Dr. Shane]

Quote:

Let’s see..., we speak of Macho Man Savage do we not?

Sorry... I gave credit to the wrong person. I meant Micheal Savage, not Randy Savage.

[Dr. Shane]

Quote:

I find it highly offensive for someone to say that as a result of something posted about the Jena 6 on this board, which may or may not be true, that all black men are made to look bad. Or, that all, or many races, namely hispanics and asians, fear black men.

We are talking about stereotypes. I have already explained that I got this from an anger management course I went through which was which focused on anger and racial issues. The class was taught by professional counselors. The counselors themselves were hispanic and I was the only non-hispanic in the group.

Stereotypes do exist. That doesn't make them true or right but they are a reality that exists. Jews are stereotyped as being stingy or greedy. Hispanics are stereotyped as being ignorant. Germans are stereotyped as being stubborn. Irishmen are stereotyped as being hot tempered. Red-heads are stereotyped as being passionate. Frenchmen are stereotyped as being romantic. Italians are stereotyped as being mobsters. Blacks are stereotyped as being thugs. Asians are stereotyped as being smart.

I didn't make these stereotypes up. My comment was simply that stories like this reinforce the negative stereotype of the black male that already exists. And furthermore, when I made that statement I even went on to say that statistics do not support the stereotype. I was saying the stereotype is false! It isn't true. But stories like this serve to reinforce it as being true even though statistics say otherwise. I am at a loss to why any black person would be upset about me saying that.

Here where I live we had a hispanic couple that both got high from sniffing glue together and then took a meat cleaver and chopped up all of their children. Did anyone ever hear about that on the national news? That sounds like a big story. Why is it that when the white woman in Houston drowned her children that made national news but this hispanic story involving blood and both spouses didn't go national? I don't know the answer but the hispanic case certainly would have drawn more ratings.

Quote:

Who gave you the omnipotent ability to know what all asians and hispanics know and feel about black people?

I guess I should have asked the professional counselors in my anger management classes that question.

[jasd]

>>The only place I've heard the 6 on 1 stuff is from stuff you posted.<<

This thread is titled “The Jena Six”? Are you suggesting that that attack took place serially, one boy finishing with another then taking a turn, and so on...?

>>I don't believe in rush to judgment by 'copy and paste'.<<

There exist no negatives per se for a ‘copy and paste’: only caveats (examp: I mentioned FBI when I should have quoted the Dept of Justice). Also, one might be surprised with that which one can “copy and paste” from such as the Library at any number of our Schools of Divinity. Etc.

>>Whatever the true facts may be, let them be discovered in a fair and honest court trial,<<

Umm, there was already a trial and conviction with its attendant transcript.

>>...if there is such a thing in our legal system.<<

Come, come.

>>The young man that was hit in the head suffered a concussion and then 2 hours later participated in a graduation exercise.<<

Actually, he was released from the Hospital three hours later and later that evening attended a ring ceremony.

Would you willingly subject yourself to having your head repeatedly kicked while you lay upon the ground unconscious? One unfortunately placed kick could kill you, paralyze you for life, or turn you into an idiot the rest of your life. I’ve stated before and it really ought not need repeating that –

the cervical vertebrae are extremely vulnerable and an attack by six men on one helplessly unconscious – should face charges commensurate to the act and not commensurate to the good fortune that the victim wasn’t killed.

(I’ve noticed the attempt to diminish the act by referencing ‘tennis shoes’. Football players often kick the football 50-yards and upward with ‘tennis shoes’)

>>The main person accused is thrown in jail for 10 months, charged with attempted murder, and is still in jail.<<

(A student at Delaware State University was shot in the ankle. The charge is attempted murder. I don’t know about you but I’d rather be shot in the ankle than kicked in the head)

Anyway, Bell made bail.

>>Yet, someone that was white attempted to pull out a gun which was taken away, and this person only gets a misdemeanor.<,

Bailey, one of the Jena Six, showed up at an all-white party and was treated unkindly (someone broke a beer bottle over his head). The next night Bailey and two friends ‘ran into’ one of those party kids – who feared for his person – and brandished a shotgun. ‘Brandishing’ is quite far-ranging by definition and subject to much subjectivity. (my friend who worked in a gun store in California could not even unholster his gun to show it to a customer – that would have been construed as ‘brandishing’)

Legally,

it may have been that the ‘brandisher’ was in the right. Were I to be confronted by three guys at night – I’d be as Jesse Jackson on the streets of Washington DC at night – fearful. Morally,

questions have been raised regard the boy’s brandishing, both pro and con.

>>That's blatant racism.<<

Trust me, racism cuts both ways.

>>Like I've posted before, I personally know of cases where someone black was hit in the head and permanently damaged, and nothing happened to the people that did it. that occurred within the last 40 years.<<

Would you believe me if I said, I believe you? As long as

we’re gonna trade anecdotes let me tell of my uncle – who adopted two kids and worked three jobs to provide a good home for them and his wife. One of those jobs entailed driving through an area of South Los Angeles. One early morning

he was stopped by the guardrail at a RR crossing – at which time he and others who were also stopped were set upon, robbed, and beaten by residents of the area. My uncle was so severely beaten that for the rest of his life he was incontinent – and eventually died from complication of those injuries.

>>There have been cases where black people have been been, murdered, hung, etc., within the past 10 years and there was hardly a mention in the press, much less someone thrown in jail.<<

What do you know about the Zebra killings/squirrelling (they called their victims squirrels) in the San Francisco Bay Area some few years ago?

>>It is unfortunate that the person in Jena was hit in the head, but he survived. At the least they could let the young man in jail out on bail.<<

Bail was set. Restating: Mychal Bell made bail.

>>As to the 1992 riot in LA, that started under similar circumstances. You had 5 or 6 lapd beating and kicking a prostrate and defenseless Rodney King, and the whole thing is caught on tape, for the whole world to see.<<

My sympathies were with Rodney King. That stated, following a car chase he refused to comply with demands of the police and resisted.

At that time, the ‘Spirit of the times’ (as it were) angel dust/PCP was the drug of choice. It was so popular that it was très chic to sprinkle it on cigarettes that they might smoke it – anywhere. As you know, those on angel dust possess great strength – able to resist – you guessed it: six to eight men/police. Naturally,

law enforcement personnel were cautious around perps seeming to have been using PCP – enter Rodney King.

(the problem was so prevalent that some Police Stations even painted their holding cells PINK! Hoping to quiet and subdue those arrested on PCP)

>>The powder keg of pent up emotion and frustration exploded, and as a result a lot of businesses, got destroyed.<<

It were not the homes and business of law enforcement that were targeted.

Rioting Blacks targeted Korean businesses for imagined slights. Example: Interviewed on TV a complainant groused that the Koreans charged more for his pint of booze than Ralph’s supermarket or other chain stores charged. (Umm, take a minute guy and put the booze away...), Ralph’s had huge purchasing power and received commensurate discounts on their purchases: not so the mom-and-pop-and-kids-and-grandma-and-gradpa-run storefront. The old coot/whiner stated that it was for like reasons of this sort – that Korean businesses were targeted. You may call it “pent up emotion and frustration” but

after those storefronts were burned or otherwise destroyed – these same coots/whiners were forced to thereafter wait at the bus stop for sometimes an hour late at night, pay the $1.20 to board the bus, take a 20-30 minute ride uptown to Ralph’s to purchase their pint of booze, wait at a bus stop for another hour, pay another $1.20 to board the bus for the 20-30 minute ride back home. Say What!?

The owners of those small storefronts paid enormous insurance rates (given the history of riots in those ‘risky’ areas). These families worked all hours for the pittances net per item sold, bore up under the often absolutely reprehensible behaviour on the part of their clientele – living very, very meagerly and enduring great privation – to save enough $s to move “uptown”.

2,280 family businesses were burned out or otherwise destroyed. Many lost everything – as they operated on borrowed monies – mostly, from high school classmates (that being the basis for business associations).

Pent-up emotion and frustration? Whose?

>>I have relatives that live near Western and 26th st. I've visited there several times.<<

Years ago I worked at a bank in Compton. No problem. What the blep happened since? The Black was, though less well-off then, immeasurably more civil... How was it that they began to become so vicious?

>>Who gave you the omnipotent ability to know what all asians and hispanics know and feel about black people?<,

I think you have me confused with Shane.

>>Also, I've been connected to this board for awhile, or msg boards similar to it, and I don't recall similar statements being made about whites when some of the before mentioned events were perpetrated by white people, events like columbine, jonesboro ark, va tech, the b2k killing spree, etc.<<

Regrettable. Whites perpetrate crime, as well. I believe America will be punished – very soon – for the many Treaties made with the Native American – that we’ve failed to honour..., opting, in many instances instead, for the easy kill.

But what statements, specifically, do you reference? If it is to the following...

Quote:

Quote:jasd

There are few aspects of the Black heritage or culture that I oppose other than their stereotyped (?) excessive violence. (can violence be defined as a heritage?)

I answered a direct query – truthfully, as is expected when asked a question.

You’ll also notice that I qualified it with a parenthetical punctuation.

>>Then, someone else suggests that excessive violence is part of black culture. HUH?<<

That “someone” would have been me: the quote follows...:

Quote:

Quote:jasd

There are few aspects of the Black heritage or culture that I oppose other than their stereotyped (?) excessive violence. (can violence be defined as a heritage?)

You’ll notice I qualified with a parenthetical punctuation.

>>What planet have you been living on doo doo bird!<<

“doo doo bird”? A shat bird? Tskity, tskity, tsk. It may be that I torqued the vigor of my post a tweak too much – to have elicited such a quaint and puerile observation.

If so, you’ve my permission to slap me along side my head. No stomping or kicking: just a slap ‘longside mah haid.

>>Who gave you the omnipotent ability to know what all asians and hispanics know and feel about black people?<<

Aw shucks..., you know Gd only is omnipotent.

Besides, I never claimed any ability other than that of existential experience. I lived in Los Angeles nigh-on 40ty years. In that time I witnessed, among other things, two very serious riots – not by Hispanics, nor by Asians, nor White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, nor any other ethnic community – but by Blacks.

>>Europeans have violently killed untold millions of people in world wars, regional wars, like vietnam and iraq, afghanistan. Hitler, a white man, killed 6 or 6 million jews, white men during the middle ages slaughtered 100 million plus people. Whole countries have been destroyed in the name of european colonialism, and imperialism, war was declared on China because they didn't want to continue to be enslaved to opium. I could go on and on and on.<<

True, but I’d not noticed that this thread was intended to span history and to advert to International events. However, as long as we’ve expanded our parameters...; all of those ‘peoples’ you mention were, in their own histories, either subjugated or enslaved – as were our own specifically discussed American minority. The American Black has won his and her civil rights. It is time to move on (no pun intended) – relying upon their individual talents and abilities – and not emulate the coot/whiner mentioned above whose biggest issue was over the extra buck the Korean family mart charged for a pint of whiskey.

>>And yet you want to slime me and my culture as being excessively violent? I suggest...<<

I ruminate upon the “suggestion” because when I left Los Angeles ‘bout ’94..., the preceding years’ stats published by the FBI stated that for every 10 murders committed – 8.6 were committed by Blacks.

Okay, I’ll concede that that figure may have been skewed by any number of factors – yet, there it was.

(Geo Will, on This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts, in mentioning that fact, found it so appalling – he rounded it off to the whole number downward – to 8)

In all fairness, the numbers may be skewed by such as the war in Los Angeles between the Crips and the Bloods: a youth, in the one gang, visited his grandmother who pressed him to go to the grocery store with her. He begged off – the store being on the ‘wrong’ side of the street. She insisted. They went together.

Whilst in the store a member of the other gang saw his ‘colors’ – pulled his piece and started shooting. He, in turn, pulled his piece and returned fire. Neither of them gave a rat’s fundament about the danger to other patrons in the store or to damage to the store. ...story turns out well, no one was killed.

>>...you need to pull your head out of whatever tight, stinky, hole you got it stuck in and get a grip on reality, because the fantasy land that you and your so called facts live in is bogus.<<

You’re cute, funny-cute, you wascally wascal you.

Is there a marked divide between intemperance and violence? ...not likely. And which would be cultural and which would be heritage?

How about some Govt stats?

“/ Almost 1 million white Americans were murdered, robbed, assaulted or raped by black Americans in 1992, compared with about 132,000 blacks who were murdered, robbed, assaulted or raped by whites, according to the same survey.

/ Blacks thus committed 7.5 times more violent inter-racial crimes than whites even though the black population is only one-seventh the size of the white population. When these figures are adjusted on a per capita basis, they reveal an extraordinary disparity: blacks are committing more than 50 times the number of violent racial crimes of whites.

/ According to the latest annual report on murder by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, most inter-racial murders involve black assailants and white victims, with blacks murdering whites at 18 times the rate that whites murder blacks.

...the cumulative effect has been staggering. Justice Department and FBI statistics indicate that between 1964 and 1994 more than 25 million violent inter-racial crimes were committed, overwhelmingly involving black offenders and white victims, and more than 45,000 people were killed in inter-racial murders. By comparisons 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam, and 34,000 were killed in the Korean war.

When non-violent crimes (burglary, larceny, car theft and personal theft) are included, the cumulative totals become prodigious. The Bureau of Justice Statistics says 27 million non-violent crimes were ommitted [sic] in the US in 1992, and the survey found that 31 per cent of the robberies involved black iffenders [sic] and white victims (while only 2 per cent in the reverse).

When all the crime figures are calculated, it appears that black Americans have committed at least 170 million crimes against white Americans in the past 30 years. It is the great defining disaster of American life and American ideals since World War II.” --(this is ‘Out of Australia’; however, the stats are available from a hundred different sources)

It is not this, as many assert, that will see America tip over the brink into civil war – but the numbers of Blacks that are turning by belief to Islam. It bodes no good for America as that same unrest will certainly spill over into our armed forced and there work to divide between our Black and our White service people.

We will shortly, imho, become as ‘a bird that peepeth out of the dust of the earth’. ...just opinion.

>>...same thing with asians. They leave in their corollas and camry's and lexus', in the evening. The next morning they are back at their inner city convenience stores selling wine, 40 oz. beer, horse hair, rolling papers, and anything else that will turn a buck. They're scarred alright, all the way to the bank.<<

Not in Los Angeles. You’ve not seen the facelift Korean businesses have provided large swaths of Los Angeles. Even the poor Korean businessman/woman resist going into South Central Los Angeles.

Besides, the above quote sounds awfully much like envy to me. You do know that this country rewards individual effort and capital investments, don’t you?

You have no idea the sacrifices these ‘Asians’ make to move into the business sector because – their culture stigmatizes the working man/woman.

Okay, summing, as this has been a long post:

Gratuitously, it is, primarily, their youth/young adults amongst those of the Black community who instigate and initiate violence. Let’s just call them the one-percenters.

“Adult black males only make up 1.2 % of the population (ages 16 - 45), yet commit 74% of all severe violent crime.”

Should ever I find that my name is written in the Book of Life, I guarantee that the Blacks will be ahead of me in the buffet lines at the Feast of Tabernacles. When it is my turn to file past the buffet I would likely find only leavings – except for the grace of Gd.

Simply, most Blacks are better than I am.

I simply thought to address the issue (though not as forthrightly as I might have) as truthfully as I am able.

(oh, by the way, Nixon’s Justice Dept wanted to arrest Jesse Jackson charging him with extortion but Nixon nixed the idea saying that he’d rather Jesse stayed out of jail that he might prove divisive in the Democrat Party

[Amelia]

EVERYONE, please refrain from making this thread personal. Stop pointing fingers at other members and keep to the topic of the thread. I would hate to begin culling posts.

[Neil D]

long winded individual.....

hope the reply will not be longwinded as well....

[Kountzer]

I'll read this gadfly gibberish when I get the time.

Why all the anonymity? Come from behind the white sheet.

[Kountzer]

This and the last post was directed to JASD, whoever you are.

I skimmed what you had to say in your last post. If you're not honest enough to come out of anonymity, then why should I believe your stats?

Black crime is an issue no doubt. We are not the only community with this problem, by a long shot. I just saw a report of CNN about a community near LA, Hollenbeck, with 34 street gangs, all or most of them hispanic.

There are other stuff happening in this world that moving to nearly lily white oregon is not going to save you from. N korea, shaky pakistan, India, all have the bomb. hundreds of nuclear war heads are missing from the former soviet union. The neighboring countries in that region hate your guts. global warming is melting the ice caps, infectious diseases, like tuberculosis, among others. The economy is shaky. Sound to me like people like you and Ron Savage, or Fred Savage (whatever his name is) are nothing but loud rats on a sinking ship. With all that in mind, you were probably glad the jena 6 incident made the news. It gives you another reason to feel smug and superior again.

Also, what's with all the narcissistic verbosity? I understand what you are saying, but the kiss approach is much more effective.

[jasd]

>>long winded individual.....<<

Sometimes, astuteness certainly is to be admired.

>>...hope the reply will not be longwinded as well....<<

So why hope: just ignore. Simple, eh?

[jasd]

>>I'll read this gadfly gibberish when I get the time.<<

Gibberish? you would think so. That's the problem: making the assertion before reading. Who knows? it may be that it has been writ in granite.

>>Why all the anonymity?<<

When I joined I was one of the very few whose profile revealed both real identity and the very city and state wherein residence is held.

Did you do likewise?

I did so purposefully, surmising (correctly, it turns out) that there would be an individual or more in a select community in my town who would welcome the opportunity to apprise specific ones of this list things delicious about my person.

I wanted it emphasized that I have absolutely no authority as there may be those lurking who would be advised to take what I say with a grain or, better yet, a lump of salt.

>>Come from behind the white sheet.<<

What’s that to do with stats, truth, or reality? Come now, that quote could use polish...

[jasd]

>>This and the last post was directed to JASD, whoever you are.<<

the diminutive, please – jasd ...it is ever so much more appropriate.

>>I skimmed what you had to say in your last post. If you're not honest enough to come out of anonymity, then why should I believe your stats?<<

It matters not a whit to me whether you believe either the anecdotes or the stats. Speaking of ‘honesty’,

I’d think one concerned would seek it out – and then ponder upon it.

>> Black crime is an issue no doubt. We are not the only community with this problem, by a long shot.<<

I’m glad to see that you, here, are facing the issue square-on.

>>I just saw a report of CNN about a community near LA, Hollenbeck, with 34 street gangs, all or most of them hispanic.<<

I lived in Hollenbeck. I guarantee that most of them are punk kids with overblown senses of ‘meanness and toughness’. That is not to say that there are not homeboys in Los Angeles

who will kill you – gladly – to earn the right to a ‘teardrop tat’.

>>There are other stuff happening in this world that moving to nearly lily white oregon ... The neighboring countries in that region hate your guts. ... Sound to me like people like you and Ron Savage, or Fred Savage (whatever his name is) are nothing but loud rats on a sinking ship. With all that in mind, you were probably glad the jena 6 incident made the news. It gives you another reason to feel smug and superior again.<<

Take a deep breath...

Anyway, it wasn’t I who originated The Jena Six thread. I simply responded to another seeming attempt to further the dialectic that Blacks continue and ever – to suffer at the less-then-tender mercies of Whites in America.

Frankly, it grows tiresome. How much does Oprah knock down annually?

>>Also, what's with all the narcissistic verbosity? I understand what you are saying, but the kiss approach is much more effective.<<

Do you equate verbosity with narcissism? Unfortunate.

I should hope you understand what I’m saying: that would be a twofer as I wrote also to those who turn their thinking caps back to front for PC’s sake. Enough with PC already: let’s talk hardball, well, that is, if 'hardball' might be stylized 'truth'.

KISS leaves too much unsaid.

[Guest charis]