Year of racial unrest in La. [Jena, Louisiana] town

Los Angeles Times Newspaper ^ | September 15, 2007 | By Miguel Bustillo - LA Times Staff Reporter

[TheThinker]

To be perfectly honest and personal with you I will share my fear. My fear is that the more aggressive minority individuals, under their special protections, will find it easier and easier to attack, maim, murder whites as whites depopulate. It is happening more often and blacks complain that you can’t do anything to white people for fear of going to jail. I think that was true in the past but is becoming the opposite scenerio. I mean, just look at what happened to Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome and they’re not alone.

[Charles Martel]

In case you didn’t realize the KKK is alive and well in the south

In the south, and nearly everywhere else in the nation, too. The Southern Poverty Law Center (ptui!!) shows 24 "hate groups" active in Louisiana as of 2006. That's the same number as New York state, and less than half of the number listed for oh-so-enlightened California. Yep, there are West Koast Klansmen.

As for narrow-minded cretins, I believe the most glaring examples in the Jena affair are named "Jesse" and "Al".

[Charles Martel]

As for narrow-minded cretins, I believe the most glaring examples in the Jena affair are named "Jesse" and "Al".

Whoops... I heard that Ray Nagin turned up there too. Better add his name to the narrow-minded cretin list (though I'm not entirely sure Ray *has* a mind, narrow or otherwise).

[ketsu]

Just curious - if someone you knew was attacked from behind and knocked unconscious, and then 6 guys surrounded the person and kicked & hit him/her...do you really believe 6 months would be enough?

We’re NOT talking about a fight. We’re discussing beating an unconscious person lying on the ground. ANYTIME you knock a person unconscious, there is a chance of killing him. Further blows greatly increase the chance of permanent injury or death.

If someone did that to my wife, I’d expect them to get a lot more than 6 months - even if she recovered just fine. Attempted murder does NOT require you to fully plan on killing someone. It suffices if the actions you take have a reasonable chance of killing someone. Kicking a body lying on the ground fills the bill.

Nope, as nasty as the attack was it wasn't aggravated battery although IANAL. The only way the DA got to try the kids as adults was by claiming their tennis shoes were "deadly weapons". Anywhere else the kid would have gotten misdemeanor battery and 6 months in Juvie.

[dixiechick2000]

You surely get around, and I don’t think I’ll EVER hear you say “don’t taze me. bro.” lol

You are too tough for that!

You have a great perspective on “things”, and it’s been a life experience for you, and others.

BULLY for YOU! And, for those of us who’ve experienced the same.

[dixiechick2000]

Oh, goodness!

I meant to ping you to my post above.

You are one of the GOOD guys!

[CajunConservative]

Shown is an image that was taken from “Jena Six” defendant Robert Bailey’s Myspace Web page.

"Robert Bailey even posts a page on Myspace stuffing his mouth with hundred dollar bills he's been sent, above a caption that there are no fifties in his stack."

Pictures of Bailey, one of the six black students who have become known as the "Jena Six" after their December arrest in connection with the beating of Barker, showed him with bills in his mouth, fanned in his hands and spread across his body.

As of Friday, the pictures had been taken off of Myspace.com, a social networking Web site. Repeated telephone calls placed Friday to Bailey's mother, Caseptla Bailey, went unreturned.

Catrina Wallace, a relative of Robert Bailey, said the photos are already gone and that Robert Bailey's attorney is aware of them.

"We're not worried about that," she said.

[Squantos]

Poor job of presenting both sides.......rumors have no place in the story.

[ladyjane]

There is an article on Fox Sports by Jason Whitlock that gives some interesting facts about this case, things not covered in other articles.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510

The article is very good. The comments made by readers are FRIGHTENING.

[topher]

FOX SPORTS COLUMN, by a black columnist, is probably the best reporting on the Jena 6 that I have seen so far.

The LA Times article is inflamatory as is the Baltimore Sun article.

However, now the FBI is stepping and also the Louisiana State Police. Why?

An Anti-Jena 6 web site has appeared by some white racists -- giving out the families phone numbers and addresses, and suggesting people call and/or start lynching people.

Matt Drudge currently has this on the Drudgreport. I also saw that this was also an AP article via Yahoo.

[dixiechick2000]

"We're not worried about that," she said."

Ha!
Of course they aren't worried.

That must be why they took them down from the site. ;o)

[topher]

Why are the comments by the readers of the Fox News article frightening. I read a few, but not all. The first 10 or so seemed to compliment the columnist. Do I need to read the first 50 or so?

[topher]

I agree with you...

I fear it is only getting worse...

There is the report tonight of an anti-Jena 6 website that the FBI is now monitoring.

There is the noose incident in nearby Alexandria that was covered by CNN... (Nooses hung over the tailgate of a red pickup...)

I have emailed Alveda King on this (the niece of Martin Luther King). But she may also be not interested in heading off more violence/problems...

The whole reason I started to get involved were things I was hearing from African-Americans here in South Louisiana about this...

[topher]

I have had to do a lot of research to try to separate truth from rumor (in this case).

The link you provided gave some of the best insight that I have seen. There is also the post by LadyJane later in this thread (#89, I think) that has a link to a sports columnist commenting on this.

Sadly, this sports commentator (who is black or an African American) probably has more facts right than a number of media outlets.

[topher]

I guess I have to question what you say and what the Jena Times saying there was no connection between the attack of the Jena 6 on Justin Barker (12/4/2006).

There were a number of incidents that RAISED TENSION in the community the previous 4 days.

These were:

1. School ARSON fire of November 30, 2006.

2. BEER BOTTLE incident at party on Firday night, Decemeber 1, 2006. It was a Sheriff's department investigator who made the comment that unusual racial tensions started in the community started the night of December 1, 2006. This was Paul Smith. This incident was about a black person trying to enter a party and was stopped by a WHITE MAN (age 22 and not a student at the High School).

3. The SHOTGUN incident occurred Saturday night, December 2, 2006. This the Gotta Go Gocery incident (by location). Three black maies attacked a white man (age?) and the man/teenager went to get a shotgun to defend himself. The three black males stole the shotgun from the man and they were arrested. One of the people arrested was one of the Jena 6 black students (Robert Bailey, Jr).

4. Sunday, December 3, 2006 was a day of rest for most of the town and a time of no violence.

5. Monday, December 4, 2006 was the first day at the High School after the Arson fire. After lunch, Mychael Bell hit another student so hard from behind that he became unconscious immediately. This is the now FAMOUS JENA 6 incident. The role of other members of the group was to keep students and teachers from coming to the aid of the unconscious student on the ground. There were actually 7 people involved in this incident (so much for calling this the Jena 6 incident...)

6. The WHITE MALE STUDENT who was attacked attended a ring service that night at a Church. It turned out that one of the Jena 6 was at the RING SERVICE that night.

The point I am making is that there were a number of events in days from November 30, 2006 to December 4, 2006 that probably are part of the WHY of the ATTACK.

At my own high school, I had a pretty mean WHITE FOOTBALL PLAYER that I was always afraid of. After he was done with HIGH SCHOOL (I think he might not have graduated for smoking the last day of classes to spite the principal) was later charged with murder and I believe he is still serving a prison term in Angola. I believe he first went to Angola in either the late 1970s or early 1980s.

This WHITE GUY was possibly a Mychael Bell type. (Or maybe Mychael Bell tries to be as mean as this White Guy I knew...)

So much of the facts of this case are very vicious rumors that might lead to race problems...

[topher]

My last statement of the previous post should read:

So much of the facts of this case are being twisted and distorted into very vicious rumors that might lead to race problems...

[dixiechick2000]

Please...provide links to back up your story.

Otherwise, I will have to put you in the “race baiter” category.

One thing...why do you constantly put in all caps “WHITE”?

[topher]

One link is this LA Times article -- if you read it in its entirely. That is what this thread is based on... (See the link at the top of this web page to link to LA Times article.)

The other one is the Jena Times newspaper timeline:

That link is:

http://www.thejenatimes.net/home_page_graphics/home.html

That one is referenced elsewhere in this thread.

The reason was that I showed both positive and negative examples of WHITE people. One was the case of the WHITE victim of the Jena 6 (which really was the Jena 7).

The other case I used was someone I knew in High School who was very mean. He was a WHITE guy. I wanted to make sure people did not think I was referring to a black person.

The Jena 7 (called Jena 6) is about 7 black students attacking a single white student. It is called JENA 6 because only 6 of the 7 students were charged.

The white student was struck from behind and was immediately unconscious by that blow by Mychael Bell. The other six black students formed a barrier to prevent both TEACHERS and STUDENTS from coming to the aid of an UNCONSCIOUS student being attacked.

I used WHITE as both a positive and a negative. So I considered that fair. In one case, the incident at the party, it was a WHITE MAN (age 22) who was involved in the incident. This was to show it was not a student at Jena High School.

In the case of the GOTTA-GO-GROCERY, I was totally neutral. I don't know what happened here. It was a case that a white male was attacked by three black males. One of these is one of the Jena 6 (Robert Bailey). I downplayed this one. The white person seemed to be trying to get a gun from his pickup when it was taken away from him. The three blacks were arrested and charged.

Though the GOTTA-GO-GROCERY incident was also about a SHOTGUN, the conflicting stories made it impossible for me to comment on it...

On this forum (Freerepublic), it tends to slant towards some bigotry towards blacks, which is why I refrained from highlighting black.

The posters on this thread have been civil and have refrained from that.

But one article that was not posted last night on Freerepublic was the article about the FBI MONITORING an anti-Jena 6 site (with a Roanake, Virginia website).

[topher]

You can view all Freerepublic articles (at least that I could find on this) using keyword search JENA6 in Freerepublic.

I don't recall if I used any information from these sites.

Oddly, the commentary by a black sports columnist from Fox had more facts/information than many of the Mainstream Media on the Jena 6...

[Seabee133]

It is just ashame that when I see something like that poor girl in W.Va. not getting any assistance and she is the one who deserves it, from the Revs. it makes me angry. Plus you add in they are tearing up a town I know and love and for me it doesnt make much sense. Good luck with everything thanks for posting this in the forum.