Is this the part where everything goes silent?
Todd Lewan of the Associated Press the other day did a story on the Jena situation that clarified some of the misinformation surrounding the case. I first heard about some of this information by way of a fellow blogger pointing me to a piece written by Jason Whitlock who mentioned some of these findings in his latest piece. I had no way of confirming it, so I thought best to wait for a minute to see if any of this was being disputed. So far I have heard nothing. I even did a search for Todd Lewan’s name in Technorati (a site that keeps track of various subjects within the blogosphere) and found not one mention of his name or the article on any of the same websites that had been tracking this case from day one (as of 11:10pm PST on 9/24).
Here is a portion of Lewan’s article. I would advise readers to read the whole article by following the link at the end of this excerpt below as he also does confirm with locals that there has been some racial problems within the Jena justice system.
Black and white, they say that in its repeated retelling — enhanced by omissions and alterations of fact — the story has taken on a life of its own. It has transformed a school-yard stomping into an international cause celebre, and those accused of participating in it into what one major Southern daily came to describe as “latter-day Scottsboro Boys.”
And they say that while their town’s race relations are not unblemished, this is not the cauldron of bigotry that has been depicted.
To Ben Reid, 61, who set down roots in Jena in 1957 and lived here throughout the civil rights era, “this whole thing ain’t no downright, racial affair.”
Reid, who is black, presently serves on the LaSalle Parish council. He reads the papers. He hears the talk outside of church on Sundays about how the Jena Six business is dividing his hometown down racial lines.
He doesn’t buy it.
“You have good people here and bad people here, on both sides. This thing has been blown out of proportion. What we ought to do is sit down and talk this thing out, ’cause once all is said and done and you media folks leave, we’re the ones who’re going to have to live here.”
[...]
There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.
Consider:
_The so-called “white tree” at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students “were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them,” according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.
_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, NONE SHOWED UP.
#
The AP article doesn’t mitigate the core dilemma of the Jena 6 trial.
Whether or not people agree the beating of Justin Barker was the culmination of an escalating series of racial antagonisms doesn’t (or shouldn’t) impact the fact of the district attorney’s over-prosecution.
I don’t hear many people proclaiming the 6 teens’ innocence, but that the charges that were filed and potential sentences were excessive in consideration of the crime itself and its context. IMO, the actions of the LaSalle Parish D.A. in his prosecution, and those of the various school officials involved with adjudicating the multiple events leading up to the Barker battery pretty much exemplify racism for the systemic double-standards afforded Blacks and Whites in Jena.
Comment by MIB | September 25, 2007
I actually heard about this case some time ago on Real Time with Bill Maher. What intrigues me most is that a school house fight is in the court system. Clearly I am not that old (32 on the 28th) but when I was in school you got suspended for a fight. I would be interested to know why the DA chose to persecute opps I mean prosecute these young men. Has the DA ever charged other children with attempted murder or aggravated assault for a school house fight? At the end of the day we have got to take responsibility for our children. You are sent to school for an education not for a free for all. Hopefully, these young boys have learned a valuable lesson. Freedom is very fleeting thing and must be protected at all cost.
Comment by Saudia | September 25, 2007
The AP article doesn’t mitigate the core dilemma of the Jena 6 trial.
You are right, it doesn’t. However there is something deeply wrong when key information is being purposely left out of the discussion by those who could tell you what went down in their sleep. Even Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune (who is being credited for bringing this case into ‘the open’
did not include any of this information in is ‘detailed’ reporting of the case. IMO, the actions of Black folks who went down there are justified, however much of the protest was based on a very narrow view of events. Take out the nooses, take out the fact that it was only an all-White jury because Blacks refused to show up, add the fact that those White boys were disciplined for more than 3 days and I can assure you that you would have seen minimum response to this issue. There are other folks besides Bell in our criminal justice system who have also been given excessive sentences with no “fight the power” outrage to help them. What helped “the six” was all the other ingredients that smelled of racism.
I don’t hear many people proclaiming the 6 teens’ innocence.
But I do hear many people suggesting that ALL charges should be dropped–including Mychal Bell’s sentence.
Comment by Duane | September 25, 2007
I read portions of the article off MSN. I took the position that more information was needed. And was comfortable with the original charge…If Barker was unconscious…and they were still beating him..Then what were they trying to do? revive him by beating?
JC/Riverside
Comment by JC Lewis | September 25, 2007
However there is something deeply wrong when key information is being purposely left out of the discussion.
The media no longer reports in the traditional sense. They are actively trying to shape opinion and many of them view this as a feature rather than a bug. My local paper, the Palm Beach Post, is a gross offender in this regard.
Selectively told fact can be a bigger lie than something cut from whole cloth.
It goes back to the j-schools and who they’re attracting and graduating. Too many people get into that business because they want to be advocates and change the world rather than chroniclers and wordsmiths.
The public has not been oblivious to this (not always so) subtle shift in media practice with trust in the media steadily declining.
Comment by Purple Avenger | September 25, 2007
Another fact that I didn’t know until CNN reported it was that the ONLY student to testify against Bell was one of the students that hung the nooses. I thought that was kinda interesting.
Comment by Wizz | September 25, 2007
Switching a little bit here and sorta piggy-backing off of PA’s comment, notice how MSM is rushing into the O.J. situation? I’ve even heard some folks try to induce racism in the mix. They even brought back Marcia Clarke as a commentator–seriously!
I don’t think we realize just how much money is at stake and the pressure to produce a good story that has the legs to carry itself.
Wizz (unrelated),
I’m still trying to get the the bottom of the comment feature for this site. Another thing that I have discovered is that if you do a long comment there is something that causes a timeout–resulting in the error you told me (I get it too!). I’m working on it.
Comment by Duane | September 25, 2007
Here we go again with this silly nonsense.
Question:
If six teenage men beat your son unconscious would you not expect the DA to presue the maxium punishment against them?
Comment by Give it a rest | September 25, 2007
If six teenage men beat your son unconscious would you not expect the DA to presue the maxium punishment against them?
Hint: The beating isn’t “the story” here anymore. The media’s distorto-coverage is fast becoming “the story”.
Comment by Purple Avenger | September 25, 2007
“The media’s distorto-coverage is fast becoming ‘the story’.”
I disagree. As I disagree with Duane’s initial suggestion; that if Blacks knew there were two nooses instead of three, or that Mychal Bell had a history of deliquency, and so forth, they would not have been so moved to protest. Both the AP article cited by Duane and Jason Whitlock’s op-ed piece are classic examples of disinformation — information provided with the effect of minimizing or distracting attention away from a central issue.
Comment by MIB | September 26, 2007
Let’s define disinformation, shall we?
That is the part you wanted to hear. Now for what I actually said–
Blacks would have still responded the way they did regardless of the amount of nooses or if Bell had a past history of crime (you can look at the acquittal rates in mostly Black areas to prove the latter). What prompted the response was the other racial ingredients that I mentioned (I should also add the other drama flashpoint was the fact that this took place in a southern town who voted strongly for David Duke). Take ALL of those other factors away and Bell would have been just another poor Black soul lost in the system. Racism sold this story.
Check out the Innocence Project for cases of folks who were also given overreaching sentences with questionable evidence. Unfortunately in many cases they did not have the backdrop of an old southern town, nooses, or sheetless klan members to push their story.
Comment by Duane | September 26, 2007