[BRIGADE] PJB: The Jena 6 Scam
Published: Fri, 02/15/08
"If history is about truth, not myth, that news coverage
deserves another look, before the Jena Six enter the history books
alongside Emmett Till and "the Scottsboro Boys..."
Brigade, reading this column makes me wish, even more, that Pat had
his own cable or radio show. He takes us back to school and gives
the facts so we can steer clear of the media spin. This one blew me
away.
Feel free to forward to all on your lists.
For the Cause, Linda
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The Jena 6 Scam
by Patrick J. Buchanan
February 15, 2008
"(S)ome Americans do not understand why the sight of a noose causes
such a visceral reaction," declared President Bush to the White
House gathering for Black History Month.
As the Washington Post rushed to remind us, President Bush was
"responding to news coverage of such episodes as the 'Jena Six.'"
But if history is about truth, not myth, that news coverage
deserves another look, before the Jena Six enter the history books
alongside Emmett Till and "the Scottsboro Boys."
By now, most folks know the media story. White students at Jena
High in Louisiana hung nooses on a tree to warn black students not
to sit under it. After a fistfight over this racist outrage, black
kids in the fight were indicted for attempted murder, while the
white racists who hung the nooses walked away with a verbal spanking.
Last September, 20,000 traveled to Jena to march against this
prosecutorial outrage. Fortunately, however, there are still a few
real journalists around. Among them are Craig Franklin, assistant
editor of the Jena Times, whose wife teaches at Jena High, and
Charlotte Allen, who wrote an extended piece for the Weekly
Standard. According to Allen and Franklin, here are the facts and
chronology you have been denied by the Mainstream Media.
There never was a "whites-only" tree at Jena High. Both races sat
under it, though whites congregated there. The nooses, or lariats,
were the work of three young teens, who got the idea from watching
"Lonesome Dove" on TV, where rustlers are hanged.
Franklin says they were a joke aimed at white friends on the rodeo
team. As they were painted in Jena High's gold and black, Allen
reports that the kids said the nooses were directed at a rival
school's Western-themed football team.
When school officials confronted them, all were remorseful. All had
black friends, and none knew the nooses were offensive to blacks.
Far from being let off, they spent "nine days at an alternative
facility, followed by two weeks of in-school suspension, Saturday
detentions, attendance at Discipline Court and evaluations by
licensed mental-health professionals."
They were not prosecuted for a hate crime because none of those who
investigated the incident believed they committed a hate crime.
Hung on Aug. 31, 2006, the nooses had been taken down instantly.
Only a few students ever saw them. Case closed.
September, October and November passed at Jena High with no racial
conflict emanating from the noose incident of August.
On Dec. 1, however, Robert Bailey Jr. tried to crash a party at the
Fair Barn in Jena. One Justin Sloan, 22, not a student, put a fist
in his face. So witnesses and Bailey reported to police, and Sloan
was prosecuted for battery.
On Dec. 2, Bailey and two friends jumped a white male entering the
"Gotta Go" grocery. When the latter ran to get a shotgun out of his
car, they wrested it from him and took it. Two witnesses at the
"Gotta Go" agreed.
Two days later came the "schoolyard fight." Only this was no fight.
Black students barricaded an exit to the gym and lay in wait for
Justin Barker. As Barker went for another exit, he was struck in
the head from behind by Mychal Bell. Multiple witnesses say Barker
fell unconscious as a gang of eight or 10 blacks stomped and kicked
him in the head. The assistant principal who reached Barker thought
he was dead. Barker's emergency room bill ran to more than $5,000.
When the six were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree
murder, none of them and none of the witnesses mentioned the noose
incident. It had had nothing to do with this vicious racist assault.
After the charges were reduced to battery, Bell, tried as an adult,
was indeed convicted by an all-white jury - because no blacks
answered the summons to the jury pool. Why was Bell prosecuted as
an adult? Because he had four prior convictions for crimes of
violence.
After his conviction was overturned, Bell was ordered retried as a
juvenile. Rather than face the same 17 witnesses, he pleaded guilty
in December to hitting Barker from behind, slamming his head into a
concrete beam and kicking him in the head. Sentenced to 18 months
in juvenile detention, he agreed to testify against his
co-conspirators.
While some $500,000 has been raised for the Jena Six defense, its
whereabouts is unknown. Bailey did pose on the Internet grinning,
however, with $100 bills in his mouth. Bell's mom is said to be
driving a new Jaguar, and Bailey's mom a new Beamer. Two other Jena
Sixers, Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis, appeared in rapper attire
on Black Entertainment Television as presenters of a Hip-Hop Award.
A week ago, 6-foot 6-inch Purvis, who had transferred to Hebron
High in Carrollton, Texas, was charged with assault, choking a
student and ramming his head into a bench.
And that's the Saga of The Jena Six. It belongs right up there with
the Rev. Al's other classics: Tawana Brawley and the Duke rape case.
SOURCE: http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=946
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