Old-Fashioned Southern Justice in the Modern South
As you go about your day, think about Mychal Bell, the 17-year-old, who is to find out his fate today in a Jena, Louisiana court. Bell, part of the "Jena 6," faces what can be best described as injustice run amok.
Jena, whose population is roughly 3,000, has garnered national attention after Bell was convicted, facing 22 years in prison for his part in a racially motivated altercation at the local high school. Bell, 16 when the incident occurred, had been tried as an adult.
Last week, Bell had a portion of his charges dropped. Judge J.P. Mauffray threw out a conspiracy conviction against Mychal Bell, granting a defense motion that Bell's June trial was improperly held in adult court and should instead have been conducted as a juvenile proceeding.
But Mauffray let stand Bell's conviction on aggravated second-degree battery, for which still faces up to 15 years in prison. The good news for Bell is the possibility of his maximum sentence has been reduced by seven years. The bad news he still faces sentencing today.
After a two-day trial, in which Bell's public defender called no witnesses, the all-white jury originally found him guilty of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery for his role in the beating of a white male classmate who participated in last year's racial incident. The victim spent roughly one hour in a local hospital.
Bell and five of his fellow African American high school students, ranging from 15 to 17 years of age, are facing lifetimes behind bars for a schoolyard fight incident. In total, these young men could be sentenced to up to 100 years in prison, with charges of attempted murder.
Bails were set from $70,000 to $138,000; and coming from low-income families has resulted in these six young men languishing behind bars when the should be enjoying their final years of adolescents.
This case centers on a tree. Not just any tree, but a tree at the high school, known as the "white tree," which was symbolically labeled for white students only.
According to reports, an African American student, new to the area, asked permission from school administrators to sit under the infamous tree. Permission was granted, and the next day three nooses, draped in the school's colors, were hanging from the tree.
The school's principal recommended expulsion for the three white students responsible. The school superintendent overruled the expulsion and gave the students a three-day suspension for "an adolescent prank."
A school prank, perhaps. I am more accustomed to rolls of toilet paper on someone's house or car, I would like to think reasonable people could agree that a hung noose on a tree crosses the line of acceptability.
The barbaric legacy of legally sanctioned injustice that courses through the veins of every African American, in particularly those living in the South, makes the nooses hung from the school tree echo with the melodic sounds of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit."
It is a haunting reminder of a less favorable moment in 20th century American history when black people were lynched on average every three days spanning over a 25-year period.
Thousands from all over the country have descended on Jena in support of these six young men. Their glaring absurdity, however, is but the tip of the iceberg that reaches several fathoms below the surface of justice.
According to the Urban League:
• America presently incarcerates more than 10,000 youth in adult prisons.
• African American men are three times more likely than white men to face jail once they have been arrested in the United States.
• 24.4 percent of African Americans arrested in 2005 ended up in jail, compared with 8.3 percent of white men.
• African American men receive jail sentences on average 15 percent longer than white men convicted of the same crime.
The "Jena 6" case serves as a microcosm of the Urban League's findings. Instead of calling them the "Jena 6" perhaps the "American 6" would be more appropriate.
I know justice is blind but you would think she could see the injustice in this case from miles away.
Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist. E-mail him at byron@byronspeaks.com or leave a message at 510-208-6417.
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Sorry, Suki, one adult and six older juveniles beating another young man senseless is not "a schoolyard fight". Granted, all acts of disrespect and threats are reprehensible and should be dealt with appropriately, but the beating was criminal, and not justified by past actions, as our society struggles to deal with our history of differences. Surely the punishment should fit the crime, but crime it was, Rev. Sharpton's righteousness notwithstanding.
I never said it wasn't a crime. I never said they should not be punished. I said, and continue to say, that they should be charged as juveniles. And the white kids who committed earlier crimes should also be charged.
Suki, I've enjoyed your postings - they are very articulate and reasonable, and I have no big response. As I understood it, the 16 year-old was technically an adult, and had had several charges(convictions)against him previously. The others were, in fact, juveniles and, as you said, should be charged as juveniles. The other actions, by whites, SHOULD be charged for their acts as appropriately legally defined - I agree. BUT, you've gotta take the issues separately, does that make sense?
Dear Rev. Williams,
It has been a while since I last dropped in on ya, I found your essay/post to be profound in its eloquence. This is clearly a miscarriage of justice and is ugly to an extreme. Agape.
The SAME folks who called Abu Ghraib a "frathouse prank" by a few night guards, want to call putting NOOSES from a tree to TERRORIZE and ENRAGE Blacks...just a school yard prank.
Well hey Jena...how do you like your G*D DAMN PRANK today?
I am a hispanic mother of three kids. We live in a predominantly white suburb of Philadelphia. My 10 year old son was in a similiar situation as this. The DA in our case behaved very much like this DA Walters. This is about our children!! This is not justice. Children make mistakes, that is how they learn. My son was charged with a felony at the age of 10!!!!!!! Why? Because my son walked into the wrong house; he walked into his friend's house (when no one was home) whose father happened to be the chief prosecutor in the District Attorney's office in our county. I feel for these families. I know what they are going through. ALL THEY WANT IS WHAT I WANTED, TO BE TREATED FAIRLY AND JUSTLY!
Jena 6, you are in my prayers! I am wearing black today in your support. Let's end injustice everywhere!!!!
Richard's typo above
This has been systemic, the Hate and Ignorance which has risen it's ugly head from Michael Michard's, Imus, and Mel Gibsons anti semitism and misogeny, to the total acceptance of Jerry Lewis, Issiah Washington and Ann Coulter calling anyone and everyone FAGGOT.
"it's getting ugly out there" Zogby's latest poll
Perhaps the 6 black kids who beat up the 1 white kid were racists. We all know that if it were the other way around, there would have been a massive hue and cry from the very same people who are demonstrating now. Is it all right to kick someone in head who is unconscious if you’re African-American? Perhaps that is the message. Hanging nooses in a tree is disgusting, but it does not have the same consequence of landing someone in the hospital the way say kicking someone in the head does. And six on one sounds like real fair fight to me. It is exactly the sort of cowardly action that one might associate with the current Presidential Administration.
Teenagers in the heat of a fight overreact. Damn, imagine that?
Whatever happened it clearly was not attempted murder, which would involve planning and intent. These kids got angry, their only intent was to beat the crap out of the kid they were angry with.
Ever do anything stupid when you were a teen? Kids have crappy judgement, that is why we consider them kids and charge them as juveniles rather than adults. No one is saying they shouldn't be charged, just that this does not rise to the level of jailing someone for life.
Here's a question most people seem to miss in their commentaries: why are we becoming a country that metes out draconian prison sentences for marginally anti-social behavior? Regardless of the rascist aspects of the case -- and the prosecutors in La. are world-class bigots -- it seems absurd to incarcerate kids for school yard fights. If everyone in this country who ever participated in such an altercation was jailed, why, we'd need a million more prison beds!
Good point Kiva667. Maybe that is the larger issue we've been missing. But even if it isn't it's still an issue worth discussing.
This is the neo-authoritarian America where people get tasered for being annoying, jailed for wearing tee shirts with graphics on them that protest the president's policies, and jackbooted police thugs are called into kindergartens to deal with children having temper tantrums.
Ben Dixon: The whole issue was not known outside the community until a radio disc jockey took it on and talked every day about the Jena 6. Injustice is injustice. The Jena beat the white guy with a tennis shoe, which was declared by the DA as a deadly weapon. Nothing about threatening the black kids with a shotgun; those kids were charged with stealing the gun. Yikes!
Here is a question, and not to diminish the racial overtones of this whole event, but how come the "larger" black community only rallied to protest the racially baised sentencing of the young black men and not the apparently racially biased slap on the wrist of the young white men by the school superintendent. If you ask me proper anger should have been directed towards him early on.
Clearly, you have no idea what it is to be in a situation where you long ago accepted that you have no power.
Here's a note for future Historians
Cheney/Bush Administration wasn't just the Dark Ages 2, it was when REASON, TEMPERMENT, ENLIGHTENMENT got sucked down a Motherf*ckin' BLACK HOLE of IGNORANCE, FEAR, and HATE!
"Instead of calling them the "Jena 6," perhaps the "American 6" would be more appropriate."
Exactly, we are ALL americans afterall, so the question is, what is the need for the Black voter forums and such? Can't we all be addressed together? I guess I don't how equality and special treatment are supposed to go hand in hand.....
Bush record on Civil Rights have been abominable and by placing these "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil" civil servants in the AG offices across the nation.
The Jena 6 is nothing new but what is new is how the Black Community at large is handling it. No More turning away and pretending that Justice is equal and that the courts will uphold this...(okay, we got lazy and greedy). But what is going on now is LEGALIZE LYNCHING BY THIS PROSECUTORS AND COURTS.
And if you don't believe this, look at the O.J. Simpson case where 2 kidnapping charge plus 8 felonies applied on Simpson.....and you had Attorneys on national t.v. saying, they hope to retry the murder case....WTF.
Are Americans so arrogant that they don't see the world looking at how we conduct our self at home? Pres. Bush is going around the world saying we know best how to be a country and that everybody gets along and our country legal system is the best in the world...Then the world see this.
And this country is surprise that our credibility is questioned.
I'm troubled by the whole series of events. I cannot understand how the powers that be at the high school could be stupid enough to allow a "white tree". I cannot understand how if the noose hangers were identified they would only get suspended for three days. I cannot understand how a student could point a shotgun at fellow students and not face charges. I cannot understand how the students who disarmed the shotgun wielder could be arrested for not returning the weapon. and I cannot understand where the u. s. attorney was when all this was happening. Mostly now that we all know about it why hasn't congress impeached that negligent U. S. attorney?
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Posted September 20, 2007 | 11:48 AM (EST)