Jackson Jambalaya

I think Maggie's article is fine. Her read on the case isn't much different from my read on the case.

Jena only has 3,000 people in it, and it's 85% white. Jena has also gone strongly Republican in every election except the last one, where it went strongly Blanco...and the Republican candidate just happened to be non-white. Not that I'm alleging anything, mind you.

But all of this is to say that I trust the Jena Times for analysis of the Jena Six about as much as I trust the Franklin Advocate to determine whether the Dee/Moore slayings should be reexamined. The official word from that paper, by the way, was that they shouldn't be--they were anyway, and James Ford Seale is finally serving time in prison because of it.

As far as statements of fact go, there is very little difference between Maggie's article and the chronology presented in the Jena Times. But the Jena analysis of that data is, shall we say, more charitable to the majority community in Jena. And small wonder why; in a community of 3,000, don't you reckon the paper is run by a few folks, probably older folks, who just don't want to stuff stirred up in their community? That's fine. But they don't have the staff to cover the situation properly. The papers and activist groups that do have the resources to investigate have done so, and their version of events is not quite as Mayberry-esque as the version described in the Jena Times.

I think you should revise this blog entry with respect to how you describe Maggie. We both have disagreements with her boss and her boss' priorities, but if she made mistakes, it looks like they'd be the same ones I made. So have at it. Where, specifically, do you think I got my facts wrong?

Yeah, that was a cheap shot by me. Bad attempt at being a smartass. Hence I changed the post.

Good on you, chief. There are lots of people who would have been offended that someone else said something like that, lots of others who would have happily said something like that themselves, not that many who would have said it and then taken it back.

I can understand the frustration, and to be honest it's hard not to see the JFP as a single monolithic entity sometimes.

Re the Jena Six situation, certainly I'm not saying that it's okay to beat up a schoolmate on the playground. It isn't. Nor am I saying that criminal charges should have necessarily been filed in the noose incident. But let's say he did this at 16. He's sentenced to 22 years, serves 14. He gets out at 30. In that scenario, how likely is it that he lives a long, happy, productive life?

This is why we have juvenile courts: To take these kids (and obviously there is an issue with his father) and give them the tools to function. In the case of Bell, he was well on his way to a football scholarship, college, and telling his kids down the road about how he and his friends once lost their temper on the schoolyard and beat up a white kid. The prosecutor's response was "Screw it. 100 years. Lock 'em all up and throw away the key." He clearly wasn't interested in rehabilitating anybody, even 15- and 16-year-old kids.

Which would have been a more sympathetic decision if he had also filed charges in cases like the Fair Barn incident the previous week, but he hadn't. The district attorney has a responsibility not just to punish the guilty, but also when dealing with young defendants, to do what he can to bring them back on the straight and narrow. The prosecutor's great scandal is that he didn't see the lives of six black teenagers as lives that were worth saving. There are cases where juveniles should be tried as adults, but this doesn't sound like one of them to me.

I thought the sentence was way out of line as were the charges. Kid should've gotten 1-2 years or so I thought. Football is a way to college but it is also a privelige. He doesn't have a right to play it. If he doesn' t learn now about consequences and stop going down the current path, then you got yet another Vick in the making. Look at Vick's brother and how he turned out at VT. This kid is getting in trouble for violent crime repeatedly. Time to say STOP!There is obviously a problem there.

Oh yeah, and my more recent post. Supposedly, according to posters on an LSU board, Mommy of Baily is living in a trailer driving around in a nice white jag. NOW I'm not stupid. If its internet rumor or if it has legs, then it will come out.

and by the way, they didn't beat him up on the playground. They beat him up in the school and prevented other teachers from intervening. Knocked him out with the first punch and kept on beating him after he was on the ground and out cold. He couldn't even defend himself. I'm also curious if anything was said. If Bell says "I'm gonna kill you man" while he is doing it, well, that can be taken to be intent. However, I think the charge was too much. He should've only gotten 1-2 years.

I'm definitely not suggesting that he should have gotten away with it, but when the perp is 16, the context is emotionally charged, and it has not been proven that the victim's life was in danger, I think juvenile court is generally the way to go.

One thing that never added up about the attempted murder charge: If I were unconscious and six people were beating up on me while I was unconscious with the intent of killing me, I'm reasonably certain I'd have to be hospitalized overnight for injuries, at the very least.