what are your thoughts about this?
Six black teens charged in the beating of a white classmate.
The teens were initially charged with attempted murder after they allegedly knocked out Justin Barker – a white classmate – while stomping and kicking him during a school fight on December 4, 2006.
Barker was taken to a hospital with injuries to both eyes and ears, as well as cuts. His right eye had blood clots.
here is a link that gives a detailed description of the case and the beating and how Jesse Jackson and thousands of people are travelling by the busload to “free the Jena 6”
Advocates of the Jena 6 said the story actually began three months earlier, when three white students hung nooses from a tree on campus. The white students were suspended from school but didn’t face criminal charges. The protesters argue they should have been charged with a hate crime.
Yea, because hanging nooses is sooooooo much worse than 6 guys kicking the shit out of 1 guy.:smash2:
I was reading about that a while ago. The whole thing is fucked up. It’s a heavily segregated society. Some black kids started hanging out under the white kids’ tree. The white kids hung nooses in the tree to tell them to stay away from their tree. No hate crime charges filed. Tensions build, fights break out, black kids kick the shit out of a white kid. Attempted murder charges against the white kid. Cue the racial ambulance chasers.
Lovely.
Although I don’t totally disagree with the protesting. Kids in a fight != attempted murder. That’s an awfully steep charge for a high school fight.
No they shouldn’t be set free. But attempted murder? It’s not like they tried to curb stomp him. He had a concussion and black eye.
I think the kids need some serious punishment, but putting them in jail from the time they’re 14 till the time they’re 50 seems disproportionate.
This seems a bit more objective:
Be sure not to miss the part where a white kid pulled a shotgun on a black kid, black kid wrestled it away and got charged with stealing the gun. :bloated:
A request to lower Mychal Bell’s $90,000 bond was denied on August 24, 2007, due to his juvenile record, which showed that he had been previously convicted of four other violent crimes. Bell was put on probation for a battery that occurred December 25, 2005, and he was later convicted of yet another battery charge and two charges of criminal damage to property.
Yeah, real upstanding citizen people are getting behind here.
As for attempted murder, maybe it’s a bit high. 6 kids beating up one, then continuing to kick him when he’s down I’m pretty sure the arguement can be made. That’s what juries are for. They can choose to convict on a lesser charge after all the evidence has been presented. Besides, reading the entire story, the charges were later reduced to assault anyway.
It does sound like there are some serious race issue though, especially the part about the “stolen” shotgun. And what the hell is up with none of the 350 black people sent jury duty notices showing up? You can’t bitch about all white juries when none of a race will show up for jury duty.
im not trying to stir shit up, but why are these guys scum bags? yeah, they beat the hell outa someone and it was pretty bad, but you take color, al sharpton, jesse jackson outa the picture, and then what ? you look at all the facts and see the story as things really happend then tell me where it lays.
i dont agree with racism, but im sick of EVERYTHING being a race issue, im tired of seeing how the color of skin absolves someone from any wrong doing… BUT its not like these guys walked down the hall and saw a white kid and just beat him up that bad for no reason. there has been obvious tension and incidents that lead up to this, and because it was a group of black kids, that beat up a white kid, in a southern town… que in the rallys