I highly doubt anyone would be objecting if your post was something along the lines of:

"FREE THE JENA 6!"

I disagree that these punks deserve a rally. This seemed like a good place to voice that opinion. There are maybe 5 posts that have anything to do with a roll call. The next 2 1/2 pages are discussions pertaining to the appropriateness of the event.

I still fail to see how any of that is "inflammatory." Oh well.

Gee Kevin, for someone who is always spouting that mods should be held to a higher standard, you're being awfully snotty, condescending and disrespectful of other people's opinions and expressions.

Injustice in the real world is okay, but snarkiness on an internet message board is just intolerable!!!

Weren't some of these people on the other side the last time a crazy DA railroaded some students?

No. I just disagree. If you take that as being "disrespectful" or whatever, fine.

Hadn't thought about that one. I wonder what a search would churn up?

Because they are black. Free OJ.

So just so I’m clear, what is considered fair justice for six people who blindside another person and continue their melee even after the victim has lost consciousness?

Kevin...it's RACIST attitudes like yours that cause people to dislike and distrust Whites in this country.

IM NOT DIRECTLY AFFECTED?

Please.

Hey I have work 2 times as hard to make sure that what I say or what I do will not cause me to lose a job, lose my income and most of all lose my FREEDOM.


This event going on is Jena is nothing NOTHING but a direct reminder that things HAVE NOT changed.....hell, reading your cavalier comments are proof of that already!

I am a target and a statistic every day I walk out of my door.

I am a target and a statistic each time I go out in public because someone is waiting for another of us to ACT OUT to get us on the news as a homicide statistic, a drug user or in jail.

Everytime I go into a class room I lower one stat and barely push up another...because I am one of few who are educated.

Every year I get closer to 40 I do the same....I don't have a rack of kids being taken care of by child support and I am not incarcerated nor am I causing a woman to be on welfare.

Everyday I punch in at 730 and get home at 4pm the same because am not pushing up the unemployment rate.

I got two little nephews who are 3 and 4 I worry about because of the world they are coming into and thankfully THEY TOO are not statistics because GUESS WHAT....thier FATHERS are married to thier MAMAS and LIVING in the home.

But I am not directly affected...yeah ok...believe that dumb stuff if you want.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been pulled aside because "I fit the description" or been told that I need to "watch where I am going..." or been stopped and had an ID checked because I 'didn't belong here"

It's racist idiots like you who still want us to believe that everything is alright when it isn't. That everyone here in this country gets their fair shake when we know good and dayumed well that we don't. If this was the case, we wouldn't STLL be protesting....we wouldn't have to warn our YOUNG BLACK MEN to stay outta trouble because if the cops get ya we may not see ya again! We wouldn't have to tell our Black women to stay smart and get smarter because they are burying us daily and have been doing so since birth because we are marked for prison bars by 4th grade!

That's right Kevin I am calling you out....and to make this clear so that way YOU know exactly where I am coming from...I am NOT CALLING EVERY WHITE PERSON IN AMERICA A RACIST...I am talking to YOU and people LIKE YOU.

See...YOU and people LIKE YOU are the people that messes it up for everyone else.....people like you are the reason WHY others lump IN everyone else.


I am tired.....

I am tired of having to read your crap and having to debate issues that are relevant to me to have someone LIKE YOU tell me thatit's petty BS and let it go simply because it DOES NOT affect you and therefore 'irrelevant'

I cannot and will not and the sooner you realize this and the sooner you realize that folks are UNEQUAL and we aren't protesting over some NONSENSE but protesting that 19th century attitudes still exist in this 21st century US of A then the sooner you will realize my opinions ARE RELEVANT and this sh*t that is happening to me and mine at an ALARMING rate is REAL!

Kevin your prob is....you got the luxury of a keyboard and monitor plus a thousand miles of space to project your idiocy to the world.....I always wonder what folks like you who do this would say and do if we were to ever meet in person.


Interesting thing happened on my way to the Capitol (pics coming later)

This British lady pulled me aside and was genuinely interested in what everything was all about...I told her and also told her where she can get info on the 'net about it....her reactin "What is worng with people in the United States?"

and..."I hope you don't think we all are like that" and no....I don't and after we talked for a few minutes, I was GLAD of her support.


....stomach bug be damned...should gave that girl some pepto!

Sydney.....thank you...your intentions are in the right place.

And so is not-DaemonSeid! :(

Bad joke?

Just like a kid getting a bottle broken over his head then then getting beat up by a group of kids?

considering the victim went to a party later that night...I don't think facing 80 years in jail was a fair shot...now was it?

Sweet, so because injustice occurred in one situation, this violent kid should be celebrated!!! Good call. Lets have a march!

Anywhoooo....the rally in DC was peacful, organized and dignified. At least a 1000 people was there.

A) Thank you!
B) I'm so glad to hear that it went well.

Racist?

That's completely uncalled for. Not even deserving of any more response than the following:

:rolleyes:

Yeah.. you can't even get away with blindsiding a kid and kicking him in the head while he's unconscious anymore.. gee what a shame.

How were these attackers unfairly accused? There are multiple witnesses who say one of them punched the victim in the back of the head. They say that they saw these guys kicking the unconscious victim in the head, body and face multiple times. Were they singled out and incorrectly accused due to the color of their skin?

Yeah.. they are such victims.

It seems you're projecting your racial-victim status onto them. These guys are thugs. Five of the six have prior convictions. The juvenile without the prior is being adjudicated as a minor.

It seems you're buying into the Sharpton/Jackson hype and blowing this up into being something it's not. There are 5 men who will, if guilty, go to prison.

-- where did you come down on the whole Duke thing, btw?

I guess the US Constitution has no merit in this case? So the good ole forefathers wasted their time creating the document. :confused:

I forgot, it protects a certain few...oh and of course, dogs! :smirk:

You got called a racist, so what? You called people thugs and punks. Get over it.

First off, I have to say that I am just heartbroken and shocked at the events going on in Jena. DaemonSeid, you're thread helped me to understand what was going on down there, before any other news organization covered it. I heard the story on NPR but I'm ashamed to say that I didn't think much of it at the time.

I live in a predominately black area outside on New York City. I went to a very diverse elementary and middle school, and moved to attend a predominately white high school. My college was predominately white as well. It always freaked me out.

My family is from the Midwest but I was raised in NY. My family shares the same opinions that some of you on here do. I get just as, if not more, angry with them, in regards to a topic such as this or politics, money, religion, anything. Not that my opinion is necessarily right or that it matters, it's just different. I think there is a grave social injustice in this country (on MANY different levels not just this situation.) I see it everyday, at home, my neighborhood, I see it in the Bronx where I work. I'm in a more "enlightened" state. I feel like I need a damn passport to go south or west.

This whole case disturbs me. On Monday, I went to all of my friends and asked them what they knew. They knew nothing about it, so we talked about it, looked it up. They are wearing black today.
I wish I could go to Jena to show my support, I wish things like this didn't happen.

I just wish people would do what was right. Do I think what the boys did was necessarily right? No. However, I think that the situation was spurred by an already inflamed situation. Who's fault is it?

True, we need to stop letting such communities use the label "racist" as a weapon. White people unfortunately give them this power by cowering in the corner anytime something like this happens.

"But one of my best friends is black!"

Not at all...(I love how people see what they want).

My post was in response to the post saying that basically the two fights kind of cancelled each other out. Also, in both instances a kid got beaten by a group. The difference in the extent of the charges brought were imbalanced to me.

Like I said earlier...people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear and fail to see and read the entire thing to know what THEY NEED to know

They probably were. The DA or City Attorney is probably racist.

I'm just stunned that some kids brutally beat a kid and are now being celebrated and portrayed as victims. Black people are concerned about inequitable application of justice, which could be legitimate. I'm concerned about their selective memory and history of double standards. After all, according to many at the rallies, "we gotta look after our own"...

Yes, I'll get my objective information from you from now on, thank you, thank you.

thank you ....now go read.......

I read a lot. You're biased. Welcome to reality.

I am biased?

Prove it.

BTW I never said I play fair......then again....I think that is what today is all about huh?

Somebody didn't play fair and shenanigans was called.

To answer you question Ilaria, I am in my all black and there in spirit.

>>>>>>>really want to say something but some people are not interested in getting real...just continuing to speak from a place of half-truths behind a computer in the safe haven of their home...so I'm going to cruise on down to Wollie World now(Walmart)<<<<<<<<

Keep Everyone Lifted In Prayer!

My preface to everything I'm about to say -- I'm with Obama here (which is the LAST thing you'd ever expect me to say), but this shouldn't be a black/white issue, but rather a right/wrong issue.

People talk about the jury and how people knew the DA and what not... well Jena is a town of not even 3,000 people, that's to be expected.

It is BEYOND a shame that in a case like this Bell was given a subpar public defender. I would have expected someone to step in and work pro-bono if nothing else. I'm still confused as to why this didn't happen. Yes, he has new representation now, but it's a shame he didn't get it sooner.

Bell does have a record, and while a record is not the equivalent of guilt, it doesn't sit well with me either.

Now I don't think it was right that he got beat up at a party. However, it doesn't seem to compare to the beating that Barker got. However, I'm not trying to compare wrong to wrong. No he wasn't invited to the private party, but he wasn't asking for a beating either. Then again, I'm sure there are those who'd argue that in going he doing just that. Either way, I'd imagine if he really was beaten that badly, the case wouldn't have just stopped. People can appeal cases and that's the point. If a severe injustice has been done to you, why would you just let it rest? It seems to me now that the beating from the party is being used here as evidence to say "well I was beaten too and they didn't get in this much trouble, why should I get in this much trouble for beating him?" It just doesn't work that way.

Finally, there are appeals for good reason and this case proves how valuable they are.


But the details of the case aside, I think this whole ordeal proves just how alive racism is, coming from all directions. Instead of pointing at it and drawing attention to the problem, we need to start thinking of a solution and acting on it.

True, they did call shenanigans, and hopefully this kid will have some time to think about playing fair...in juvenile lockup.

shiner...now see...we can agree on that.....as long as the punishment was fair and doled out all around TO ALL GUILTY PARTIES...that would have been ok....but 80 years and tried as and adult was ridiculous.

You're not gonna get any argument from me that the justice has been shadily administered thus far.

My problems are:

-The "leaders" of the black community (I use this term lightly, some black people get pissed at the generalization) blowing this situation up as if a brutal white town is destroying the lives of harmless black students.

-The obvious double standard between this, Duke, the Knoxville killings, etc.

-The obvious double standard between people claiming that laws must be administered fairly, yet this white kid deserved what he got and the young men who brutally beat him shouldn't be punished (based on what you said, this wouldn't apply to you, Daemon).

You are right, people we shouldn't celebrate criminal acts. As far as your comment on application of justice and double standards I think that that line is EXTREMELY fine.

Correct. It shouldn't be about race. It should be right or wrong. The problem is that many black people have been shown a discrepancy when it comes to right and wrong and race is why that discrepancy occurs.

nobody deserves an @sswhupping...well actually some do...but that is another thread.....heh

BUT...the point is...as they say...the punishment must fit the crime and I think what a lot of people are angry about is that one wrong caused another wrong and so forth and everyone is not getting punished for all the wrong doings going on and the ones that are are being punished far too harshly.

I mean...look at it...there is like a whole bunch of things that happened and kept on happening because obviously, there is a problem and Jena is showing us something that a lot of us in the world (and from what I said earlier this is true) know about the US....that justice peeks under that blindfold from time to time and deals out punishments unfairly.

That is EXACTLY the point and that is all there is to it!

I'm firmly in the "some people just deserve an ass kicking" camp as well. However, from what I've read most of these kids (white and black) were probably not morally qualified to administer such baseball bat justice.

Let me put it to you this way. Stuff that is happening in Jena today is what keeps people like me from caring. For an analogy...I'm not a huge Bush fan. I'm a Republican, but he pisses me off a lot. However, I'll often battle those who hate him, and refuse to get fired up about their concerns, just because I think they're ridiculous in their attacks. Its similar here. If this wasn't blown up into a sensationalized event with unsavory people suddenly being portrayed as taking the moral high ground...the legal side of me would probably care that something questionable had occurred. But instead I feel that lending my support at this point (although I'm obviously willing to question the justice doled out here), would only strengthen certain elements that I think are absurd.

OK - this is pretty easy:

I mean, it's clear you're biased - in fact, all of us are.

Don't fight the label - just recognize it and work to make sure you try to see the other side. Just like you ask all the white people later in your post.

The issue is unequal application of justice, right? This has gone way beyond that, though, in my opinion - it has partially turned into a spectacle for a few interested parties to take to the soapbox. Whether they use this power for change or for their own self-service is to be seen, and none of us have any authority to say - only time can tell, unfortunately. However, I see no reason to discount the assertion that this may be getting attention for the wrong reasons, in some ways.

Also, shinerbock's point about "taking sides" and inconsistencies in viewpoint with the Durham DA malfeasance is striking - I really sympathize with the Jena kids, because they have strong opponents trying to screw them, but that point made me consider, for the first time, that for some people, it's no longer about what's right, but about what they want (or what makes them famous).

I hope both sets of kids serve the exact same punishment, in scope and degree, and people take an honest look at systems that are corrupt and bankrupt on race issues - not just the Jena schools and the LA legal system, but the way in which we all handle race, from myself to CNN.

k sig...thank you...LOL


I knew that I was...just wanted to see if someone could do it.... *wink*

and not to mention your comments are on point

A really interesting article about the issue (not sure if this has been posted before?): http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510

I really haven't done extensive enough research to know whether I support all the claims of the article or not, but I do have to agree with the main point. I can't believe that the people in that town ever let things get this far. What is wrong with people?? :mad:

I propose a battle royale.

-Rudey
--But please, I beg you, keep the guns at home.