Jena 6 - Update

Raw Story tells us that Mychal Bell, one of the six African-American students involved in the hate-crime incident at the high school in Jena, LA, has been sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile facility. The decision was handed down by Judge J.P. Mauffrey on the grounds that the teen was in violation of probation. Judge Mauffrey also presided at the initial trial, which had such a notably biased outcome.

"We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement," said Sharpton. "His parents were also charged with the cost of all court costs and witness costs and will have to pay for him in the facility. I have committed that National Action Network will financially support the parents through this unusual financial strain imposed upon them."

"I don't know what we're going to do," Bell's father had told AP. "I don't know how we're going to pay for any of this. I don't know how we're going to get through this."

I'm glad that someone's speaking up for the young man. But I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this new sentence. The fact that the judge has not set bail is interesting.

I note that none of the white students involved in originally provoking the fracas and pulling a gun on AA students has been punished. According to AP, they were suspended from school but faced no legal proceedings despite the provocative hate-crime nature of their actions.

The AP report also states that District Attorney Walter Reed, who originally brought the charges of attempted murder against Bell, was involved in this case:

"This matter was unrelated to the December 2006 event at Jena High School, and that case was not even mentioned in the court proceedings," District Attorney Reed Walters said Friday.

This is how black, Hispanic, and working-class white youth are criminalized. They do something stupid and possibly destructive (which seems to be part of being young and male, and reprehensible in my opinion, especially when they're doing it to me or someone I know), and they get juvie. The next time they do something stupid and destructive, they "have a record" so, if they're old enough they get charged with a more serious offense, or receive a stiffer penalty. And then they violate some condition of their probation, so that becomes an added charge, and the next thing you know, they're doing serious jail time because they're a "repeat offender" or "habitual criminal," or whatever the phrase of the day is.

Consider, as a contrast, the behaviour of Jeb Bush's son John Ellis, who was discovered naked in his car with his girlfriend in 2000, and who was arrested in 2005 for DUI (much like his uncle, the preznitwit). I can't find anything saying that he was sent to jail, although DUI is a pretty serious offense. And John Ellis' older brother, George P. broke into his ex-girlfriend's house, got into an argument with the woman's father, ran away (seems to be a family trait), then returned and drove his SUV in an aggressive manner all over the front lawn, leaving swathes of burned grass. Not arrested because girlfriend declined to press charges. Or John Ellis' sister Noelle, the druggie, arrested for prescription drug fraud, placed in rehab, twice violated conditions of probation by possessing crack cocaine (mere possession is, apparently, a felony), and although nothing major has been heard of her lately, I kinda doubt she's sitting in jail. Here's an interesting detail from the story about her rehab lapses:

Drug prescription fraud, as in the Tallahassee case, is a third-degree felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted. Rolon said she might not face charges if the judge overseeing her case decided to intervene.

Why not accord Mychal Bell the same courtesy? Yes, he's a brawling brat, but you can't beat up more than one or two people at a time, and he's highly unlikely to kill them. It seems as if the Bush juveniles could easily kill someone by driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Multiple someones, even.

Where's the justice?

Stumble It!

Outraged over Guantánamo? Why not San Quentin?

In 8 October 2007 issue of The New Yorker, there is a really good essay in The Talk of the Town section in the front of the mag ... by Steve Coll. He's written a number of books which also look interesting. For example, Ghost Wars : The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (2004) ISBN 1-59420-007-6.

His essay is about the Jena Six and how Jena, Louisiana is not the worst of the worst as far as racial discrimination is concerned and how blacks are sentenced. His point is that the disparity between how blacks and whites are sentenced is the norm or as he puts it, "the national embarrassment." He states that the number of blacks in prison has quadrupled since 1980.

Quadrupled.

He goes on:

The state of Louisiana, true to its reputation for rococo extremism in all matters political, locks up in prison a higher percentage of its population--black, white, and all other races combined--than any other state in the nation. It might be of some comfort to politicians, then, if the Jena case, like the disgraceful treatment of displaced African-American victims of Hurricane Katrina, could be rationalized as an isolated, swamp-inspired exception to a more temperate American norm.

The opposite is true, however. In July, the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy group, released a state-by-state study of prison populations that identified where blacks endured the highest rates of incarceration. The top four states were South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Vermont; the top ten included Utah, Montana, and Colorado--not places renowned for their African-American subcultures. In the United States today, driving while black--or shoplifting while black, or taking illegal drugs, or hitting schoolmates--often carries the greatest risk of incarceration, in comparison to the risk faced by whites, in states where people of color are rare, including a few states that are liberal, prosperous, and not a little self-satisfied. Ex-slave states that are relatively poor and have large African-American populations, such as Louisiana, display less racial disparity.

Discrimination in the American justice system is not only a Deep South thing; it is a national embarrassment. Tocqueville, who initially came to America to study its penal system, might wonder how a democracy can so earnestly debate the justice of detaining foreign nationals at Guantánamo while displaying not a whiff of discomfort about the record number of its own citizens--now more than two million--stuffed into jails and prisons, or about the causes of racial disparity in this forgotten population.

Stumble It!

Social Justice - Jena 6 Update

Mychal Bell has been freed on $45,000 bail. Jena D.A. Reed Walters has agreed not to appeal the higher court ruling that held that Bell should have been tried as a juvenile.

Yes. Now if only we could have a positive identification on the body found at 4 am today in Calumet City as anybody OTHER than Nailah Franklin, I will sleep a peaceful sleep tonight.

Incidentally, I'm well aware that several news sources have confirmed that the body is that of Nailah but I urge her well-wishers to take heart. The body was too badly decomposed for police to positively identify anything, even the victim's race. They are working with dental records to determine the victim's identity. There is still hope.

Stumble It!

Jena Six, an invitation to help

Folks, there is so much to learn and write about ... in the wide wide world and in our land here. This land is your land. This land is my land. We've got to take it back. It's like Take Back the Night marches. Take back the land. Take back America.

Right now I want to write about a small portion of that land. I don't think any of us on this blog has written about the Jena Six ... maybe PolCat has ... can't remember.

In a short summary, the Jena Six are a group of African American teenagers in Jena, Louisiana who have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a European American fellow student. And, I think, one of the Jena Six is actually charged with second degree battery charges - Mychal Bell. Which I think is outrageous if you read about the case at all. If you want to know more, go here. Second degree battery requires the use of a "deadly weapon" and the prosecution is claiming that the defendant's use of his sneakers (via kicking the victim) was using a deadly weapon.

In reading about it and listening to interviews on the radio (Democracy Now was doing a full show of interviews today) ... it seems like the usual thing is happening in this case -- the Black teenagers are being punished severely for reacting to something that was outrageously racist. Some Black teenagers DARED to sit under a tree that normally the White students sat under. Next day: nooses were hanging from the tree. If the European Americans cannot understand that this is not a jest (as it was called by a citizen in Jena on today's broadcast of Democracy Now) ... NOT A JEST ... it's a stone cold racist act ... highly provocative ... if European Americans cannot understand that, they need to study their history books. They need to walk in some other people's shoes somehow. They need some real education.

I believe this is an important civil rights issue. There was a victory of sorts the other day when the judge ruled that Mychal Bell should be tried as a juvenile not an adult and reduced his bail.

I still don't know why there are no European Americans on trial for their part in the hate crime and acts that escalated the situation. Why?

There's still a long road ahead for the Jena Six. I just donated some money to their defense. I think it's that important. I invite you to do the same. Here's where you can donate money.

Tomorrow is also a National Day of Action for the Jena Six.

Stumble It!