Tom....slow your roll down...it's not about that...if you take....the ....time...to read....what was posted. it's not a matter of guilt or innocence...we have agreed that the assult was wrong!

..you know what.....go back to pages 2 and 3 and read the posts...i really don't feel like typing it all over again!

This thread and this situation are two different things.

Not in Jena, LA but I did wear black today and will continue to wear it with PRIDE.

No justice! No peace!

just say "I don't know."

I think both this thread and this incident via the projected problems of others have been infested by a lot of extraneous and irrelevant information.

-- that much I know.

Man...whatever....

still doesn't excuse the fact that procedures of dealing with crime and dishing out punishment is unbalanced in this country towards members of the minority and the poor (in many cases both go hand in hand) and no matter how you and your attitude want to pretty it up, the REALITY is, this is how it is.

good night...

Like how it was used against the innocent rugby players at Duke?

"no justice, no peace" ?

WTF.

lacrosse players at Duke, I think.
Injustice knows no color boundaries.

I dont remember any rugby players at duke being involved in any crime...I didnt know duke had a rugby team

Tom, you were definitely born.

:eek: That's really close to my hometown ...

Lacrosse..whatever.

I just want you to know that this statement made my day. The post couldn't have been ended in a more perfect way. :)


Yes, I wore black today. If the rally had been tomorrow, I would've been in DC (no class, no work) but, since it was today, I had to be there in spirit.

ETA: Did anyone else know that there was a movement today calling for people to wear green(to symbolize growth away from hate and towards justice)? :confused: I just saw it on facebook a minute ago.

So my last question wasn’t received very well and to be honest I thought it was a valid question but I actually have another question and I really think it’s valid so please don’t pick it apart.

Has there been any collective effort by the parties involved to raise money to rebuild the section of the high school that was burnt down?

kevlar...my apologies if that was how it came off.....but the question is relevant and we should have taken more time to discuss

but....what I was trying to say which is the whole point to what this situation is all about is simply this....if you are going to punish someone of a heinous crime, make it fair...and that is the problem when race has been added to the mix, this is why people are in Jena now...not so much that Mychael Bell is innocent....he isn't... but the punishment is way too excessive...in the eyes of the 40000+ that went and those of us all around the country who rallied yesterday....same thing with Glenarlow Wilson in Georgia...in jail for something that in most places would at worst be a misdemeanor and something that some parents should have sat down and discussed...some hateful thug of an attorney decided to dig up an old law and crucify a young man for being a teenager...(anybody here had sex as teen think they should be doing 20 years right now?....don't answer!!! LOL...messed up part is all he got was a bj and not even full intercourse...if they had FULL intercourse he wouldnt BE IN JAIL!!!) his punishment was too severe....now....out of all this (and let me make sure this is relevant enough to this thread so that way Kevin won't say something inane like"that's irrelevant") here is something else we all need to keep an eye on...

The Logan 6.....the 6 people involved in raping, beating, and kidnapping this one girl for a week and justify thier holding her by using racial slurs, have about 109 nice lil visits with the cops. Oh...and did I add in that the poor girl was mentally disabled?

Let's watch and see how much punishment will be handed down when this happens....also there are supposedly are 2 more suspects out that, I wonder if the cops are diligently looking for those people too?

New news updates
 

today a judge is expected to decide on whether to release Mychael Bell from jail....

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3628506&page=1


also another story from yesterday



http://www.katc.com/global/story.asp?s=7108678


BTW did anyone know that David Bowie donated $10000 to his defense fund?

http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stor...e=search_story

I don't know if you all knew this, but David Bowie is kind of my real father (well, at least since Labyrinth has been out) and I am extremely proud of him for this. :)

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

LOL! Yeah... I think he's awesome. And Iman, too.

The saga contiues:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/21/car.nooses/index.html

ETA: Uhhh, Alex? Yeah right!
The area in Louisiana from Alex on up is straight up.....and from Alex on down is.... :smirk: But, it's worse up there!

2 things....

1. As police were questioning the driver, he said he had an unloaded rifle in the back, which police found. They also found a set of brass knuckles in the cup holder on the dashboard, according to the police report.

<why? and moreso...will police down there investigate to make sure that the weapon is legally registered? My guess is no>

2. State police estimated at least 15,000 people gathered in Jena on Thursday to protest what they consider unequal punishments meted out in recent racially charged cases.

< just like they downplayed the numbers from the Million Man March...not surprising at all...>


And they being 18 and 16 shows exactly how institutionalized and brainwashed people still are in this day and age.

ORIGINALY: Don't forget to punish the kids that beat up Bell at that party.

The kids that attacked were in fact charged...with a misdemeanor.

But Soror, this isn't about race. :rolleyes:

Right. It's institutionalize...uh oh, I mean, isolated pranks! :rolleyes:

No...just some kids foolin' around....

Can we just nuke the whole city at this point and start over?

This whole episode is sad for our country, and yes, there should be equal justice.

Is there, maybe not.

But to take up sides about race does no good.

I read in the local newspaper that the comparision was between the nooses and the beating and the difference between the charges. Da, of course there is a difference in charges.

So is the fact that there is much more racisim in some races than others.:(:o

It isn't about taking up sides due to race. It is about equal justice. There were people who marched yesterday of every race, creed, and color. The point is that you have these white boys who hung nooses on a tree which is a hate crime which is a federal offense and nothing happened to them when they should be jailed for just that.

Request for Bail Denied
 

Not entirely surprised.

My alma mater posted Mychal Bell's address in jail for those who wish to write letters of support.

Mychal Bell
Inmate, A-Dorm
LaSalle Correctional Center
15976 Highway 165
Olla, LA 71465-4801

I have not read this whole thread but I wanted to tell you guys that I went to Jena yesterday. I didn't know what to expect, but it was a wonderful feeling just being there!! I didn't go to the activities held in Alexandria, because we came back home



BTW My granddad said he saw me on CNN!:D

Uh.. the U.S. Attorney (who is probably better at law-stuff than you) disagrees.

-- don't you hate when facts get in the way?

Yeah, whoever did that is a racist jackass. Fortunately, in this country, we don't yet punish people for thoughtcrime. Just because an act was motivated by hate doesn't make it a hate-crime.

jackassery reconizes jackassery......I guess that would look familiar to you huh?


Think about that last statement....exactly how much sense does that make....?

But then you may be right.....

"Just because an act was motivated by hate doesn't make it a hate-crime."

I guess the Logan 6 didn't 'hate' that girl....huh....but they they sure left a weeks worth of dislike all over her.

And I guess those guys didn't 'hate' your grandfather either....just hated getting screwed out of a deal?

Hell...I would 'hate' being on the wrong end of a money deal gone bad....

I'm going to have to put some of these in my sig. :cool:

As ridiculously foolish as that statement sounds, Law-boy has a point. A crime can't be a hate crime because it's motivated by hate alone. It also has to be motivated by a prejudice and/or intolerance of some sort--without that second part, it doesn't legally fit the category.

I'm really disappointed about the bail being denied, but I'm sending him a letter of encouragement tomorrow. While I definitely believe those boys were never innocent and all deserved punishment, Mychal has been through enough. If he hasn't learned a lesson after all this (and I believe he has), no amount of jail time is going to teach him. It's time to let this boy get on with his life.

He may have a point but it still "subject to interpretation"...let's see who they get to 'interpret' the hate laws in the Logan 6 case as well.

BTW...I did find an FAQ

http://www.acjnet.org/youthfaq/define.html

and another link

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offen...ime/index.html

and they are subject to law boy's interpretation as well...

I am also sure he can provide us with some other illuminating links that can clearly (or murkily) define what get's defined as a hate crime.

be careful with that...the FBI is probably creating a database for all of us rabble rousers.

Here's a link to the U.S. Code (Title 18, section 245) covering this sort of crime.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ht...5----000-.html

In short, it can only be a hate crime if the following rights are interfered with:

I think your understanding of what qualifies as a "hate crime" is incorrectly expansive. There might be a case under "E" since schools receive federal financial assistance if you want to argue the act was interfering with the black students' rights to attend the school. However, the counter argument to that is that the activity interfered with was hanging out under a tree... an activity it'd be hard to argue receives federal assistance.

Further, if you were able to make that case, you could probably make a case that the Jena 6 committed a hate crime as well.

I don't consider myself to be an expert at all regarding civil rights legislation -- especially the criminal type. I'm pretty up to speed on 42 U.S.C. 1983 though. I understand based on about 5 minutes of research that this is the big daddy of the federal hate crimes statutes. It seems that the U.S. Attorney has come to essentially the same conclusion I have, so I can't be too far off.

I have not seen anything that makes what the six against one did to make it right.
Just because a lot of people swarmed down on the small town does not make it right either.

Imus can call female black basket ball players Ho's and a huge cry comes down and he is fired, but the situation with the Duke Team who were villified and prosicuted/persecuted when there was no cause for it!

It probably be better if Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton kept their noses out of everything. They seem to cause more problems than not.

Stirring to almost a riotist situation.

A riot? A RIOT?

ok.....tell me this...what problems were there that came in Jena? Was the town razed to the ground? Were people beatne and killed? Was there mass looting and destruction?

Inciting a riot?

I guess the news report of 2 teens who drove by folks still congregating from the day's activities with NOOSES hung on the back of their truck carrying an unloaded shot gun and brass knucks with claims of family ties to the KKK attemtping to stir up trouble, just waved hi as it waltzed by under your radar huh Tom?

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/09/21...ref=edition_us

That's enough to spark a riot but guess what, we have more than enough sense than that and for you to assume that rioting is what we went down there to do makes you no better in my eyes than Kevin and any other person small minded to think that just because you protest an injustice you are there to start trouble.

Hang on...I have something to show you all...