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.
The fact that we waited to love Mychal Bell until after he’d thrown away a Division I football scholarship and nine months of his life is just as heinous as the grossly excessive attempted-murder charges that originally landed him in jail. Reed Walters, the Jena district attorney, is being accused of racism because he didn’t show Bell compassion when the teenager was brought before the court for the third time on assault charges in a two-year span.
Where was our compassion long before Bell got into this kind of trouble?
That’s the question that needed to be asked in Jena and across the country on Thursday. But it wasn’t asked because everyone has been lied to about what really transpired in the small southern town.
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. 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 Walters’ extreme charges of attempted murder.
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 almost never mentioned that Bell’s absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son’s life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges. At a bond hearing in August, Bell’s father and a parade of local ministers promised a judge that they would supervise Bell if he was released from prison. Where were the promises and supervision before any of this?
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.
This story is another in a long line of race hustles by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al. We now have the sight of hundreds of people marching with signs claiming "Free the Jena Six" which is basically asking law enforcement to ignore a vicious assault because there was some evidence of past racial discrimination at the school. Had the races been reversed, would anyone be asking for amnesty for the attackers? Racism does not justify violence.
The Jena Six were not falsely accused, as in the Duke "rape" case, another race hustle featuring the same players who were as always on the wrong side of the issue. These thugs committed the act for which they were charged, and you can argue whether they were overcharged in the crime, but they certainly don't deserve the free pass that's being demanded by yesterday's marchers. The crowds that marched yesterday can never be taken seriously as long as they continue to deny that violent criminal acts deserve punishment, regardless of the suspected motivation.
The media is just as complicit is making this an bigger story than it deserves to be. There's a startling lack of facts included in the media reports, and when facts are presented, they're not always presented in context. For instance, while watching the news last night they referred to the now infamous "noose" incident and their reporting indicated that no one was prosecuted for hanging the three nooses in the "white tree". The implication was that no charges were brought because the perpetrators were white.
The news report left out an important fact. In Louisiana it's not a crime to hang a noose in a tree, and therefore, there were no charges that could have been brought. It didn't matter what color the kids were, they didn't commit a crime.
Unfortunately we can't look to the media to correct the story or give us all the facts. There's no way they'll want to interfere with the actions of the race hustlers and the angry crowds they stir up.
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