Photograph by Will Counts
And out of all the incidents that accord after sitting under the “white” tree (WTF???), this is the most interesting:
In one incident, a young black student was assaulted by a group wielding beer bottles at a predominantly white party. But only one person was charged — with a misdemeanor — in the attack. In another incident, a white Jena graduate allegedly pulled a pump-action shotgun on three black high school students when they left a local convenience store. The teens managed to wrestle the gun away from the man.
The final incident involved the young black men now known as the “Jena 6.”
On Dec. 4, more than a month after the black students sat under the “white” tree, a fight broke out in the lunchroom between a white student and a black student. The white student was knocked to the floor and was allegedly attacked by other black students.
From Chicago Sun times by Mary Mitchell
I am a fair person. I can understand how someone can get away with something but later someone else can’t. I even get how prosecutors can decide to go after someone real hard while others get off with a warning… I get how some laws are harsher than others even though you would think, for example, rape, would get more years in jail than someone getting beat up.
I don’t quite get what is going on here. Young Black and Fabulous had something on this, but I can’t find it right now. It is where I first heard of this.
I get the “we must stop the violence from escalating… lets make an example out of somebody” tactic… but this is too far.
EDIT:
I am trying to be as fair as possible. I heard on the news that the kid was beaten close to death… while this seems disputed, it is clear that he get some pretty bad injuries (his eyes for one). I do wonder just how bad or life threatening they were. If the news did some real reporting for once instead of fluff pieces like why Paris Hilton didn’t do jail time (they could have done an expose on how the system works for people of different race and social status… BUT NOOOO…) MAYBE we could get to the bottom of this faster.
My personal opinion is that the ONLY REASON why the news started reporting this was because bloggers took the story (pro and con).
Did Civil Rights movement pass Louisiana by? :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Mary Mitchell
