The Associated Press Monday, September 10, 2007; 12:18 PM
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- University of Maryland police on Monday were investigating as a possible hate crime what appeared to be a noose hanging in a tree near a building that houses several black campus groups.
The rope was found between the student union and the Nyumburu Cultural Center, where organizations that include the Black Faculty and Staff Association and the Black Explosion newspaper are based.
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Nooses Found At Downtown Fire Station
POSTED: 10:43 am EST February 17, 2006
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The fire station at Duval and Jefferson streets downtown became the scene of a hate-crime investigation Friday morning when two black firefighters arrived at work to find nooses on their gear.
Firefighter Rufus Smith found a noose on his suit when he reported to work at 7 a.m. Smith immediately reported it to his superiors.
Smith said finding the noose made him angry and scared.
At Oceanside Sewage Treatment Plant August 15, 2001
Carmi Johnson, is a San Francisco stationary engineer and member of IUOE Local 39 who works at the Oceanside sewage treatment plant near the San Francisco Zoo. Carmi on July 26 was confronted with a "hanging noose" that was placed on the property to terrorize and force her to leave the plant. Carmi had the union file a grievance and also called the police department. She also complained to the Public Utility Commission management about this incident but apparently the PUC bosses and Mayor Willie Brown have not gotten the message. On Tuesday September 11, 2001 another noose was put up on the property. This outrage must be exposed and stopped. On Monday September 10, 2001, the San Francisco Labor Council passed a unanimous resolution condemning these hate crimes including the incident at the Oceanside sewage treatment plant and calling for a national labor political education campaign by all of labor including the AFL-CIO to stop this epidemic of "hanging noose" incidents.
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posted
gotta keep things in context...endeavor for perspective.
If my lariat loop somehow gets blown/lifted over my tailgate, can any and every minority who sees it claim "fear" ?
Gawrsh, I hope not...
On the other hand, there's some seriously bad actors in these parts; if I somehow got crosswise with one of them, a certain kind of wink might default me into pre-emptive mode. Wormy as our justice system is, I'd still rather deal with a jury than a killer operating on a private agenda.
A noose in a tree, here--say, at Halloween (for context)--implies no threat whatsoever. A noose elsewhere, elsewhen might be easily interpreted as a kiss of death.
imo, what needs to happens in this case is a massive infusion of cooler, calmer heads. Get these kids together and posit a situation in which they all win, or they all lose... nip the grandstanding.
quote:Originally posted by T e x: imo, what needs to happens in this case is a massive infusion of cooler, calmer heads. Get these kids together and posit a situation in which they all win, or they all lose... nip the grandstanding.
like that M8. that's the first thing I thought of as they were loading 3 buses in route to la from norfolk a few days ago. I don't think I've stopped shaking my head since.
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After a dead raccoon is found in a noose at a predominantly black church, community leaders ponder how to respond.
By ABBIE VANSICKLE Published January 26, 2006 On Saturday afternoon, someone found a dead raccoon hanging from a hangman's noose on the porch of the Mount Carmel Methodist Church, a predominantly black church, on U.S. 41 just south of the stoplight in Floral City. There was a note with a racist message next to the animal, according to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office. http://www.sptimes.com/2006/01/26/Citrus/Hate_crime_shocks__pu.shtml
this is happening alot...
Metro Briefing | Connecticut: Avon: Man Charged With Hate Crime
By STACY ALBIN (NYT) (COMPILED BY ANTHONY RAMIREZ) Published: July 25, 2002
A man accused of leaving a clothesline formed into a hangman's noose on a black co-worker's car has been charged with a hate crime. On Tuesday, the man, Timothy W. McDonald, 26, of Granby, turned himself in to the police and was charged with intimidation by bias or bigotry, and threatening. Melvin Johnson, who is black, found the noose on the door handle of his car on July 2 while working on a house. Mr. McDonald and Mr. Johnson work for a roofing company, L S Remodeling. It was not clear what prompted the incident, but the police said Mr. Johnson confronted Mr. McDonald, who removed the noose. Mr. McDonald has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment. Stacy Albin (NYT) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990ce3d81038f936a15754c0a9649c8b6 3
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posted
Nooses, Symbols of Race Hatred, At Center of Workplace Lawsuits
By SANA SIWOLOP
Published: July 10, 2000
Gloria Hamilton never saw a double-looped noose hanging on her door in 1992. Friends at the Detroit cargo facility where she worked as a service manager for Northwest Airlines took the noose down before she came to work that day, she said, so that she would not be upset seeing it.
Many companies still prefer to settle such cases out of court, but officials at the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission say they have at least 20 noose-related lawsuits pending or recently resolved. For an agency that files only a few hundred lawsuits a year, they add, that is a disproportionately high number. Jeff Lanza, a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Kansas City, Mo., says his office is investigating two cases of nooses left in workplaces. The regional office of the equal employment agency in Charlotte, N.C., has three racial harassment lawsuits pending where nooses were said to be involved.
The Miami office has an equal number, including one in which a Sanibel Island, Fla., country club has been charged with failing to act against several workers accused of holding up a hangman's noose to a black groundskeeper before asking him whether he wanted ''to go for a ride.'' Art Cassell, a member of the board of governors of the Sanctuary Golf Club in Sanibel, said the suit was ''completely without merit.'' The Dallas office of the commission is investigating four such cases. In Detroit, the agency is continuing to pursue a lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Hamilton. And the agency has one current lawsuit in California. Mr. Lanza, the Kansas City F.B.I. agent, said that until recently cross burnings seemed to be the ''hate crime of choice,'' in his area, but that noose incidents are now appearing instead.
''I've been here 12 years and I can't remember any other noose cases that preceded the two we now have,'' Mr. Lanza said. The Justice Department considers noose incidents to be federal crimes of intimidation, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The Justice Department considers noose incidents to be federal crimes of intimidation, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
so much for the DA not being able to find a law to support prosecution...
posted
No doubt Glass. These cases will continue to happen imo. And when they are caught I would hope those in charge would deal with each case diligently.... And I add with extra effort competently
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quote:Originally posted by T e x: imo, what needs to happens in this case is a massive infusion of cooler, calmer heads. Get these kids together and posit a situation in which they all win, or they all lose... nip the grandstanding.
like that M8. that's the first thing I thought of as they were loading 3 buses in route to la from norfolk a few days ago. I don't think I've stopped shaking my head since.
ya, the real problem now is *not* the original problem...
posted
FBI, Pitt close Wheelock case By: SAM ANDERSON Staff Writer Issue date: 1/10/03 Section: News Because of a lack of evidence, the FBI and Pitt police have ended their investigation into the events surrounding the noose found behind the lectern of black professor Stefan Wheelock.
The noose, which Wheelock discovered before his Nov. 21 class, was found next to a copy of Ralph Ellison's "The Invisible Man." Ellison's novel concerns race relations in America, and was required reading for Wheelock's introduction to critical reading course. Upon finding the book and noose, Pitt police were notified and conducted a joint criminal investigation with the FBI.
posted
it depends on how "original" you want to get imo. law as it is now or how it was originaly. past or present. last week or today. the demonstrators imo are a part of "grandstanding" to be seen as a force that is meant to be heard for equality and justice. but are they paying heed to todays law? or are they grandstanding against what the law was decades ago in attempts of fortifying support for current agendas?
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: i think the feds will step in before it gets too outahand...
there's dozens of FBI cases involving nooses
well, hopeably that will be the cooler, calmer heads... this reminds me not of another race-problem incident, but of nuclear-power protesters at Glenrose, TX, when local law enforcement was overwhelmed by "topics" they were neither prepared for (to discuss authentically) nor willing to understand...
quote:Originally posted by BooDog: it depends on how "original" you want to get imo. law as it is now or how it was originaly. past or present. last week or today. the demonstrators imo are a part of "grandstanding" to be seen as a force that is meant to be heard for equality and justice. but are they paying heed to todays law? or are they grandstanding against what the law was decades ago in attempts of fortifying support for current agendas?
all I'm saying here is this: obviously, there's a local problem. Outside forces might be calming--leading to better understanding--or outside forces may be agitant...leading to more conflict...
quote:Originally posted by BooDog: it depends on how "original" you want to get imo. law as it is now or how it was originaly. past or present. last week or today. the demonstrators imo are a part of "grandstanding" to be seen as a force that is meant to be heard for equality and justice. but are they paying heed to todays law? or are they grandstanding against what the law was decades ago in attempts of fortifying support for current agendas?
here's a link to the town paper, Town Talk, complete with b-log...
-------------------- All post are my opinion. Do your own DD. Who's clicking your buy/sell button!? Posts: 7800 | From: Virginia | Registered: May 2006
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-------------------- All post are my opinion. Do your own DD. Who's clicking your buy/sell button!? Posts: 7800 | From: Virginia | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by BooDog: it depends on how "original" you want to get imo. law as it is now or how it was originaly. past or present. last week or today. the demonstrators imo are a part of "grandstanding" to be seen as a force that is meant to be heard for equality and justice. but are they paying heed to todays law? or are they grandstanding against what the law was decades ago in attempts of fortifying support for current agendas?
all I'm saying here is this: obviously, there's a local problem. Outside forces might be calming--leading to better understanding--or outside forces may be agitant...leading to more conflict...
Agitant because all Sharpton is, is a media whore. He doesn't care about justice though he likes everyone to think he does. By being outspoken and in the spotlight like he is, he gets more donations or however he contrives a salary so he can wear expensive suits and claim tax exemption. Once the spotlight dies down he moves on. Would Sharpton have gotten involved and cared if it wasn't in the spotlight in the first place? The answer is a big fat NO.
As for Glass citing all those Noose incidents. We'll not one that I read consisted of violence. Here in NY we get youths who are just bored and drinking beer spray painting swatiska's , upside crosses or what have you on synagogue walls, grave markers, churches etc. In all the cases I read they were charged with vandalism and not a hate crime. And none of the cases resulted in violence even for the ones in which they were not caught.
This case in Jena was blown out of proportion and then came the opportunists like Sharpton. The nooses can be contrive as a threat but I would bet nothing would of came of it in terms of violence from the whites. They were just being stupid phucks who were probably bored & someone came up with the bright idea of doing that much like the ones who vandalize synogogue's here in NY with Swatiska's.
The point is they have the right to express themselves in a non violent way as long as they are not committing a true crime like physical assaults. Because if we arrest everyone for such things then you have to fear what you express in this country and not have free thought just because it's unpopular.
Plus where will it end? Charge rednecks for hate crime because they wave the Confederate flag?. Arrest a Red Sox fan that has a noose around a Yankees doll? Get my meaning. And on and on.
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by BooDog: it depends on how "original" you want to get imo. law as it is now or how it was originaly. past or present. last week or today. the demonstrators imo are a part of "grandstanding" to be seen as a force that is meant to be heard for equality and justice. but are they paying heed to todays law? or are they grandstanding against what the law was decades ago in attempts of fortifying support for current agendas?
all I'm saying here is this: obviously, there's a local problem. Outside forces might be calming--leading to better understanding--or outside forces may be agitant...leading to more conflict...
Agitant because all Sharpton is, is a media whore. He doesn't care about justice though he likes everyone to think he does. By being outspoken and in the spotlight like he is, he gets more donations or however he contrives a salary so he can wear expensive suits and claim tax exemption. Once the spotlight dies down he moves on. Would Sharpton have gotten involved and cared if it wasn't in the spotlight in the first place? The answer is a big fat NO.
As for Glass citing all those Noose incidents. We'll not one that I read consisted of violence. Here in NY we get youths who are just bored and drinking beer spray painting swatiska's , upside crosses or what have you on synagogue walls, grave markers, churches etc. In all the cases I read they were charged with vandalism and not a hate crime. And none of the cases resulted in violence even for the ones in which they were not caught.
This case in Jena was blown out of proportion and then came the opportunists like Sharpton. The nooses can be contrive as a threat but I would bet nothing would of came of it in terms of violence from the whites. They were just being stupid phucks who were probably bored & someone came up with the bright idea of doing that much like the ones who vandalize synogogue's here in NY with Swatiska's.
The point is they have the right to express themselves in a non violent way as long as they are not committing a true crime like physical assaults. Because if we arrest everyone for such things then you have to fear what you express in this country and not have free thought just because it's unpopular.
Plus where will it end? Charge rednecks for hate crime because they wave the Confederate flag?. Arrest a Red Sox fan that has a noose around a Yankees doll? Get my meaning. And on and on.
well spoken, articulate, etc...
much as I hope my response earlier might be taken.
However, I do think you're glossing over context...
Just for instance, I had a very, very close friend when I was in college-textboook publishing. One night this gorgeous black woman gave me a ride to my local pool-hall, and I invited her in. She saw the huge, Confederate flag on the interior wall and politely declined. Even though she knew me well enough to know she would not be injured in my company, she still declined.
posted
i bet the LOCAL African Americans will be cursing Sharpton before long too Mach... IMO? he made it worse... but we'll just have to wait and see...
he is after all, a politician, and you know how much i love politicians and i don't care about their race, creed, or party, i'll critisize 'em all....
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posted
He's not a politician at all... he's never been elected to office that I know of though he has tried and he's suppose to be a "Rev". I'm sure to get tax free donations.
The African Americans, and especially from the South are not aware of what a manipulator Sharpton is. He always makes situations worst. You can just look at his past history in famous racial cases. I wonder whose paying his travel accomadations and such. But mark my words he will leave when the media loses interest.
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote: Just for instance, I had a very, very close friend when I was in college-textboook publishing. One night this gorgeous black woman gave me a ride to my local pool-hall, and I invited her in. She saw the huge, Confederate flag on the interior wall and politely declined. Even though she knew me well enough to know she would not be injured in my company, she still declined.
I don't blame her a bit...
I don't blame her neither but it still was not a crime to have that Flag up there any more then Lynyrd Skynyrd waving that flag at their concerts.
Btw you end up dating her if she was that gorgeous? Did she look like Vanessa Williams?
And btw I always find your posts articulate even in your texas twang tawk
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
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No immediate release for 'Jena 6' teen A court ruled Friday that Mychal Bell, the sole defendant who remains behind bars from the group of teens known as the "Jena 6," will not be released immediately. Bell's mother left the courthouse in tears. full story
Top Stories Arrests near Jena over nooses Hearing ordered for jailed teen as thousands rally On the road to Jena with protesters 'Jena 6' member, mom interview (5:12) Martin: 'Jena 6' rally was about justice, not race D.A.: Case isn't about race (10:23) Jackson criticizes Obama on Jena 6 reaction Court: It's 'premature' to release Jena 6 defendant U.S. attorney: Nooses, school beating not related Timeline of events in Jena
-------------------- All post are my opinion. Do your own DD. Who's clicking your buy/sell button!? Posts: 7800 | From: Virginia | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by BooDog: it depends on how "original" you want to get imo. law as it is now or how it was originaly. past or present. last week or today. the demonstrators imo are a part of "grandstanding" to be seen as a force that is meant to be heard for equality and justice. but are they paying heed to todays law? or are they grandstanding against what the law was decades ago in attempts of fortifying support for current agendas?
all I'm saying here is this: obviously, there's a local problem. Outside forces might be calming--leading to better understanding--or outside forces may be agitant...leading to more conflict...
Agitant because all Sharpton is, is a media whore. He doesn't care about justice though he likes everyone to think he does. By being outspoken and in the spotlight like he is, he gets more donations or however he contrives a salary so he can wear expensive suits and claim tax exemption. Once the spotlight dies down he moves on. Would Sharpton have gotten involved and cared if it wasn't in the spotlight in the first place? The answer is a big fat NO.
As for Glass citing all those Noose incidents. We'll not one that I read consisted of violence. Here in NY we get youths who are just bored and drinking beer spray painting swatiska's , upside crosses or what have you on synagogue walls, grave markers, churches etc. In all the cases I read they were charged with vandalism and not a hate crime. And none of the cases resulted in violence even for the ones in which they were not caught.
This case in Jena was blown out of proportion and then came the opportunists like Sharpton. The nooses can be contrive as a threat but I would bet nothing would of came of it in terms of violence from the whites. They were just being stupid phucks who were probably bored & someone came up with the bright idea of doing that much like the ones who vandalize synogogue's here in NY with Swatiska's.
The point is they have the right to express themselves in a non violent way as long as they are not committing a true crime like physical assaults. Because if we arrest everyone for such things then you have to fear what you express in this country and not have free thought just because it's unpopular.
Plus where will it end? Charge rednecks for hate crime because they wave the Confederate flag?. Arrest a Red Sox fan that has a noose around a Yankees doll? Get my meaning. And on and on.
Well put Mach... You've inspired me to put my Jenna Jameson poster back over our bed.
Doesnt mean I want to sleep with her...
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posted
vanessa williams too don't forget tina in that outfit in "Sgt peppers lonely hearts club band" the movie
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posted
it wouldn't be in Sharptons best interest to bail him out...
the problem trying to understand the facts here is that the kids is a juvenile, with the privacy right of a juvenile, but he was tried as an adult, so they can't release alot of info...
the DA never should have put him up as an adult.
apparently the charges were attempted murder with a deadly weapon... the weapon was a tennis shoe...
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Now we love Mychal Bell, the star of the 2006 Jena (La.) High School football team, the teenage boy who has sat in jail since December for his role in a six-on-one beatdown of a fellow student.
Thursday, thousands of us, proud African-Americans, expressed our devotion to and desire to see justice for the “Jena Six,” the half-dozen black students who knocked unconscious, kicked and stomped a white classmate.
Jesse Jackson compared Thursday’s rallies in Jena to the protests and marches that used to take place in cities like Selma, Ala., in the 1960s. Al Sharpton claimed Thursday’s peaceful demonstrations were to highlight racial inequities in the criminal justice system.
Jesse and Al, as they’re prone to do, served a kernel of truth stacked on a mountain of lies.
There are undeniable racial and economic inequities in our criminal justice system, and from afar the “Jena Six” rallies certainly looked and felt like the righteous protests of the 1960s.
But the reality is Thursday’s protests are just another sign that we remain deeply locked in denial about the path we need to travel today for true American liberation, equality and power in the new millennium.
The fact that we waited to love Mychal Bell until after he’d thrown away a Division I football scholarship and nine months of his life is just as heinous as the grossly excessive attempted-murder charges that originally landed him in jail.
Reed Walters, the Jena district attorney, is being accused of racism because he didn’t show Bell compassion when the teenager was brought before the court for the third time on assault charges in a two-year span.
Where was our compassion long before Bell got into this kind of trouble?
That’s the question that needed to be asked in Jena and across the country on Thursday. But it wasn’t asked because everyone has been lied to about what really transpired in the small southern town.
There was no “schoolyard fight” as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree.
Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack.
A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the “Jena Six” case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker’s assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the “Jena Six” in reaction to Walters’ extreme charges of attempted murder.
Much has been written about Bell’s trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell’s public defender was black.
It’s almost never mentioned that Bell’s absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son’s life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges. At a bond hearing in August, Bell’s father and a parade of local ministers promised a judge that they would supervise Bell if he was released from prison.
Where were the promises and supervision before any of this?
It’s rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker’s attack. And it’s never mentioned that white people in the “racist” town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell’s father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.
You won’t hear about any of that because it doesn’t fit the picture we want to paint of Jena, this case, America and ourselves.
We don’t practice preventive medicine. Mychal Bell needed us long before he was cuffed and jailed. Here is another undeniable, statistical fact: The best way for a black (or white) father to ensure that his son doesn’t fall victim to a racist prosecutor is by participating in his son’s life on a daily basis.
That fact needed to be shared Thursday in Jena. The constant preaching of that message would short-circuit more potential “Jena Six” cases than attributing random acts of six-on-one violence to three-month-old nooses.
And I am in no way excusing the nooses. The responsible kids should’ve been expelled. A few years after I’d graduated, a similar incident happened at my high school involving our best football player, a future NFL tight end. He was expelled.
The Jena school board foolishly overruled its principal and suspended the kids for three days.
But the kids responsible for Barker’s beating deserve to be punished. The prosecutor needed to be challenged on his excessive charges. And we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once they’re in harm’s way.
I’ve been the spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City for six years. Getting black men to volunteer to mentor for just two hours a week to the more than 100 black boys on a waiting list is a yearly crisis. It’s a nationwide crisis for the organization. In Kansas City, we’re lucky if we get 20 black Big Brothers a year.
You don’t want to see any more “Jena Six” cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Now we love Mychal Bell, the star of the 2006 Jena (La.) High School football team, the teenage boy who has sat in jail since December for his role in a six-on-one beatdown of a fellow student.
[ skip to summary -- tex excerpt]
You don’t want to see any more “Jena Six” cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law.
But it would be unfair to claim they threw the match that ignited the Jena Six case into a global blaze of hostility and misinformation.
That distinction belongs to Alan Bean, a 54-year-old white, self-proclaimed Baptist minister from Tulia, Texas.
“Do I know him?” was LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters’ sarcastic and dismissive response when I asked about Bean during a 45-minute interview.
“People are reluctant to say it,” said Craig Franklin, editor of the Jena Times, “but there is no doubt that Alan Bean created all of this.”
This is different things to different people. To some, this is a long overdue civil-rights reawakening, which points out pervasive racism in the South and in our justice system. To others, this is a horrific public-relations crime against the white people of Jena and irreparable damage to race relations in the poor oil town. And to some dispassionate observers, this is an unfortunate situation being exploited by white and black racial extremists.
On Sept. 20, when Jackson, Sharpton and Jena Six family members led competing rallies in support of six black youths accused of brutally attacking a white classmate, this — more than 20,000 marchers — was something no one in Jena could ever imagine.
But Alan Bean could.
Bean — the creator of Friends of Justice, an organization primarily dedicated to helping poor minorities victimized by our justice system — had warned prominent members of the Jena community as early as January that the town would be painted as racist by the national media if Walters didn’t back down.
“I told them I was going to bring media attention to this situation, and it was likely the same thing would happen to them that happened to my little hometown,” Bean said by phone on Friday. “Tulia got a bad rap, a rap it probably didn’t deserve. But the media doesn’t do its job. It’s in the entertainment business.”
“Tulia” refers to the case that made Bean and Friends of Justice a player in the world of American criminal justice. In the late 1990s, Bean exposed a corrupt cop in his hometown. More than a dozen drug convictions against minorities were overturned because of Bean’s work. Tulia was labeled as racist, and Bean became the person to call if you thought the police and/or a prosecutor were exploiting you.
A lawyer in New Orleans put Bean and parents of the Jena Six in contact with each other in December. Within three months, Bean had researched Jena and the events surrounding the assault, and published a 5,400-word narrative titled “The Making of a Myth in Jena, Louisiana” and a 2,400-word, media-friendly narrative titled “Responding to the Crisis in Jena, Louisiana.”
These two pro-defense narratives form the outline for most of the world’s understanding of the case. Bean connected the December assault on Justin Barker to the September noose hangings, to Reed Walters’ infamous “I can ruin your life with the stroke of a pen” statement at a hastily called school assembly, and to separate off-campus confrontations between Robert Bailey and white men on the Friday and Saturday before the attack on Barker.
Walters said Wednesday he’d never heard that the attack on Barker had anything to do with the noose hangings until the defense filed motions in the spring to recuse him from the case.
Bean said he first spoon-fed his narratives to Tom Mangold of the BBC because Mangold had worked with Bean on the Tulia drug cases. The BBC filmed a documentary on the Jena Six titled “Race Hate in Louisiana.” Bean said he then gave the Jena Six story to newspaper reporter Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune, which published a similar story on May 20.
“I put it in the hands of people I knew would do a good job with the story,” Bean said.
Bean also gave his story to a ****ger, Jordan Flaherty, and a law professor, Bill Quigley. From all of these sources the story mushroomed and became fact.
The Jena Six beat up Justin Barker because they were still angry about the lack of sufficient punishment given to white kids who hung nooses on a whites-only shade tree, and the six were railroaded by an overzealous district attorney who failed to properly prosecute white men who viciously assaulted Robert Bailey and later pulled a shotgun on Bailey and two others at a convenience store.
Walters, police investigators, school officials and some Jena residents say Bean’s story is hogwash. There is at least some legitimacy to those claims. Bean’s story and subsequent posts on his Web site contain factual errors.
The three kids responsible for hanging the nooses were given more punishment than just a “few days of in-school suspension.” They went to an alternative school for nine days and received two weeks of in-school suspension, LaSalle Parish school superintendent Roy Breithaupt said.
But more than the factual errors, Bean’s story is framed — by his own admission — as an indictment of the criminal justice system and the people in power in Jena and, therefore, the story is unfairly biased. Bean never examined the other forces at work that contributed to the Jena Six assault and Walters’ heavy-handed approach to justice as it relates to the alleged perpetrators.
“I didn’t know,” Bean said when asked whether he knew of defendant Mychal Bell’s violent juvenile history when he was crafting his narratives. “I never talked to Mychal’s family, and I never talked to Mychal. He was in jail. I knew he had a history for getting into trouble. I knew he was a kid at a crossroads.”
Bean also didn’t know that in fall 2006, Bell, who 16 at the time, was living with his then-18-year-old best friend John McPherson and McPherson’s then-16-year-old wife, Ashley, in a three-bedroom trailer. The McPhersons are white. Bell is the godfather to their 18-month-old daughter.
Bean has a very idealistic view of the Jena defendants.
“These are fun-loving, impetuous, athletically gifted black males that don’t drink and don’t smoke, and they go to church as well,” he told me.
The church-going contention flies in the face of what Rev. Jimmy Ray Young, pastor at L&A Baptist Church, said Wednesday.
“None of these boys have been in church except when Al Sharpton was in town,” Young complained. “I’ve told the ministers we need to get these boys back in church.”
Walters claims that Bean and the media have distorted other key elements in the case.
Bean reported that Walters directed his “stroke of the pen” remark at black students when the school called an assembly to quell protests of the noose hangings. Some pro-Jena Six chain e-mails create the impression that Walters met privately with black students and threatened them. Not true, Walters and police say.
Paul Smith, Jena’s chief of police, says he and sheriff’s investigator Jimmy Arbogast called Walters to the school after a student took a swing at Smith when he was breaking up a fight between students.
“Tensions were high. Everybody was upset,” Arbogast said. “We wanted Reed to explain to them that, ‘Hey, look, you have to think for a minute. Look what age you are. Y’all are in high school.’ ”
Flanked by Arbogast and Smith, Walters addressed the entire student body. He said he began by telling the students about an aggravated rape case (possible death penalty) that he was considering.
Walters recalls saying: “ ‘I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. With the stroke of a pen I can make life miserable on you or ruin your life. So I want you to call me before you do something stupid.’ That last part doesn’t get reported. It doesn’t make good press.”
Bean also wrote that three days before the Jena Six assault a white man, Matt Windham, pulled a shotgun on Bailey and two others. He wrote that they wrestled the gun away from the man and ran off, and that Walters charged them with a crime rather than the white man.
The police contend that Windham — not the boys — called the police, claimed the boys threatened him, chased him back to his vehicle and wrestled his gun away. The police also say that two uninvolved female witnesses backed Windham, and that’s why the boys were charged.
Bean also mischaracterized the simple battery that Bailey suffered at the Fair Barn party four days before the attack on Barker, according to Walters, police, several witnesses and Bailey’s statements to police.
“Robert Bailey Jr. was attacked by a savage white mob at a local dance,” Bean wrote. “True, he wasn’t knocked unconscious — but that is just a matter of aim and good fortune. He was punched, he was kicked, and he was smacked over the head with a beer bottle (and he’s got the scars to prove it).”
Walters, who prosecuted Bailey’s lone attacker (Justin Sloan), said there was no mob attack. It was simply a dispute at the door of a mixed-race, invitation-only party that Bailey was denied access to.
“It wasn’t a fight,” Walters said. “Robert Bailey didn’t swing. He didn’t do anything. The kid hit him, knocked him down. No beer bottle, no anything. There was no statement of the victim at that time indicating any weapon was used. … The defendant (Sloan) was arrested on a simple battery. He was prosecuted on a simple battery. He pled guilty to a simple battery.
“It was only after the fact that I learned that a beer bottle was involved, that stitches were involved,” Walters continued. “And I checked after the fact with my local hospital: Did this happen? The information (about a beer bottle) came up in a motion to recuse me from the current charges. That’s the first time I’d heard about that.”
Ironically, Bean is now growing frustrated with the way the case has turned, particularly since Jackson and Sharpton got involved. He said they wouldn’t return his calls. He indicated there was a riff between the Bailey (Bean camp) and Bell (Sharpton camp) families.
People in Jena say the feud is over money. The families are handling the donations to the Jena Six defense fund. Robert Bailey recently posted and took down MySpace photos of himself and another Jena Six defendant with wads of $100 bills stuffed in their mouths and splashed across their bodies.
“I can tell you there is no misappropriation of the funds,” said Bean, adding he was not being paid for his services. “I’ve been there and seen them handling the checks. Where Robert got his hands on that money, I don’t know. He’s a kid. It was a stupid thing to do.”
As for Bean’s thoughts on Jackson and Sharpton?
“I’m not at all comfortable with the way this has been handled by the Jackson and Sharpton folks,” Bean said. “What’s wrong is that Jesse and Al have tried to turn this into an old civil-rights story in which Mychal Bell emerges like Rosa Parks, and that’s not right. These guys (Jackson and Sharpton) have lost their gravitas, lost their credibility. People are really tired of the same old 1960s shtick.”
Based on the crowds in Jena on Sept. 20, I’m not so sure.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Sharpton was in my neck of the woods this weekend.......YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!
Hate Crime Charges Dropped Against Two Suspects In SI Attack
The two men arrested in connection with an attack on Staten Island earlier this week were charged Thursday with gang assault, despite calls from some for hate crime charges.
Mark Maleto, 21, and Daniel Avissato, 24, pled not guilty to gang assault in the second degree charges. Two other suspects have been questioned and a fifth person is still being sought.
Hate crime charges against the two were dropped because the district attorney says there is not enough evidence to support that claim.
"Based on the evidence provided to my office by the NYPD, we are trying to establish whether [the victim] was targeted for this alleged assault on the basis of his race as the hate crimes statute requires. At this point, I believe the evidence provided to my office by the police is legally insufficient to support hate crimes charges,” said Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan. “Our investigation is ongoing and as our efforts move forward I am not excluding the possibility of presenting to a grand jury evidence in support of an indictment under the hate crimes statute."
Both suspects were released without bail and face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
The charges stem from Tuesday night's attack on 20-year-old Skylar McCormick, pictured above, in Mariner’s Harbor. Police say McCormick was beaten by a group of white men shouting racial slurs.
McCormick is unable to speak because his jaw was broken in two places, but he appeared Thursday with Reverend Al Sharpton, who called for action in the wake of the incident.
"We cannot live in a city, state or nation where people cannot safely be in the streets or anywhere else because of the color of their skin,” he said. “There's no reason this young man should be in this condition. And the only way these attacks will stop is when someone pays for hate crimes and for racism."
Lawyers and friends of the suspects both dismissed charges from Sharpton and others that the attack was racially motivated.
"These are good kids they are not racists at all,” said Avissato’s friend “L-Dot.” “I believe it was just a little misunderstanding, you know, a little retaliation but nothing serious."
“Al Sharpton and myself have both been defending civil rights for a long time, but this individual also has civil rights,” said Maleto’s lawyer Mark Fonte.
“The people here is Staten Island, particularly in that community, have lived in harmony for years,” said John Murphy, the attorney for Avissato. “It’s an integrated community and, as you can see from the people out here, this is not a crime of hate."
At a press conference earlier Thursday, Kelly explained the circumstances leading to the assault.
"It appears that three individuals were having a race in the street - they ran in the street - and one of them, an African American, put his hand on a car or perhaps stepped on the car. They then left the scene,” said Kelly.
From there, Kelly says the group of white men followed the victim in a silver Cadillac. They caught up with him a few blocks later.
One neighbor – who asked to remain anonymous – says he saw what happened.
"I heard some screaming, and I looked out and one guy was surrounded by three,” said the neighbor. “And one came from behind and pushed him, another one punched him and another one started going down and another one kicked him in the face."
Sharpton says McCormick could face permanent damage as a result of his injuries.
-------------------- "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Posts: 4005 | From: Shaolin | Registered: Oct 2005
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-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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