The Jena-6
Cameron , 9/20/2007 1:57:28 PM
Thousands march to Jena, LA to support the accused NOT the victim...
Anytime adolescent idiocy is fueled by anger and bravado you typically expect the worst of all possible outcomes. If you couple that scenario with a dash of ?revenge? you have the recipe for disaster.
Such in the case in Jena, Louisiana, where the now infamous ?Jena-6? stand trial for a merciless beat down of a young man who they claim was responsible for a despicable ?prank? which stirred up generations of racial tension.
Thousands of protesters have swarmed the small town of Jena to make their voices known. The facts in this case may be straight forward, but that does not make the situation any less turbulent. Before I lay out the ?undeniables? I would first like to draw your attention to a few select comments from the gallery.
"This is a march for justice. This is not a march against whites or against Jena," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the protest organizers. "[The Rev. Martin Luther] King went to Selma. That wasn't the only place you couldn't vote. That was the point of action. They went to Birmingham. That wasn't the only place we didn't have public accommodations. It was the point of action. Jena is a point of action for the Jenas everywhere." (I still have NO idea what he means).
"There's a Jena in every state," the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the crowd in Jena on Thursday morning.
JoAnn Scales, who brought her three teenage children on a two-day journey from Los Angeles, had this to say. "The reason I brought my children is because it could have been one of them?if this can happen to them [the Jena 6], it can happen to anyone,"
"It breaks our heart to see him (one of the defendants) handcuffed and in leg shackles," Sharpton later added. "But his spirit is high. He has said that he is very encouraged to know that thousands are coming to this town to stand up for him and his five friends."
Based on the commentary, one might suggest the Jena-6 were victims of some kind. That somehow the prosecution, trying them for the vicious assault and battery of one man is not a hard fact. Sadly the facts speak for themselves, but anytime race enters the equation facts often fail before public opinion.
The Jena-6 are all young black men whereas the victim is white. In a town with a storied and racist past that is still 85/12 percent white to black, anything is but certain in this case. When you consider the bi-lines, that this ?assault? was in retaliation for a series of nooses that were hung from a tree three months prior?.expect to enter all the race peddlers and their standard bag of inflammatory tricks.
Do these six young men deserve to be tried for ?hate crimes?? Probably not. But when the likes of Sharpton, Jackson and co. argue fervently that hate crimes should be charged against the the young men suspended from school because of the aforementioned prank? Well then my sympathies to the Jena-6?s dire predicament start to fade.
Sadly this case should not be about race, but about the crimes committed. It should be about teens doing what teens typically do?namely make stupid decisions that often times result in grave situations that spiral out of control. But unfortunately when the likes of Al Sharpton and his ilk enter the equation?bottom feeders that have jockeyed racial tension into fame and fortune?then you create a circus like atmosphere that stokes the hateful sentiments of an era long past.
Society may never be colorblind, and perhaps it shouldn?t be. There exists a grave inequality amongst races when it pertains to crime. According to the Department of Justice, each year ~1.2 million violent crimes involving blacks and whites occur nationwide. In 90 percent of those cases the perpetrators are black and the victims are white. This includes the following astonishing statistic...black men rape white women by a ratio of ~200 to 1 (when compared to white men raping black women).
What am I trying to say??.I am sure you can figure that out all by yourself.
