Incident in Jena,La.

[Taso]

What I find most interesting is your inablity to argue or debate the facts, and instead resort to useless statements intended to take attention away from you not knowing anything about current racial issues in the United States (as evidenced by your use of "African American" instead of "black").

And I let you know that some of my friends are black because the last time someone disagreed with you in this thread, you automatically declared him a racist.

What is also interesting, to get back to your point regarding the chain of events, is that none of the police reports or testimony from the 6 on 1 beating that took place even mention the "white tree" (wikipedia). The truth is, the students that were affected by the nooses being hung could have pressed charges against the white students responsible citing hate crime laws. Instead, events escalated, and eventually this latest event happened. By "this latest event" I'm referring to when the one student was hit in the back of the head, knocked unconciouss, and then repeatedly kicked by 6 other students. Whether or not this was just a "schoolyard" fight, it is a physical assault.

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I wasn't there, as I'm sure you weren't, but as a result of eye witness testimony the police charged the black fellow, Bailey, with robbery, and some other charges (Wikipedia). I don't know if this was the correct decision, I wasn't there.

But, this does not, first of all, constitute assault, and secondly, allow for vigilante "justice", especially in this case in which it wasn't justice at all; it was 6 men beating up 1 man.

[/ QUOTE ]

What I find most interesting is your focus on the end of the chain of causal events, but not on the beginning,

I am most delighted for you to let me know that some of your best friends are african americans... LOL

PS You are missing the point. I hope someone close to you points it out to you!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thoughtcrime, of course!

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
Midge, are you just joking around here? Or do you really not understand ANYTHING about America and United States law?

You are seriously coming off as completly clueless. Is this how all people outside the USA act with regards to matters IN the USA? A quick jump to conclusions without understanding anything about anything, and then sticking with that conclusion no matter what anyone says?

[/ QUOTE ]

Wait, I thought that was how "civilized" and "enlightened" non-Americans told us that all dumb, predudiced USAians acted!? I'm confused.

LOL IRONYAMENTS

[ikestoys]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I wasn't there, as I'm sure you weren't, but as a result of eye witness testimony the police charged the black fellow, Bailey, with robbery, and some other charges (Wikipedia). I don't know if this was the correct decision, I wasn't there.

But, this does not, first of all, constitute assault, and secondly, allow for vigilante "justice", especially in this case in which it wasn't justice at all; it was 6 men beating up 1 man.

[/ QUOTE ]

What I find most interesting is your focus on the end of the chain of causal events, but not on the beginning,

I am most delighted for you to let me know that some of your best friends are african americans... LOL

PS You are missing the point. I hope someone close to you points it out to you!

[/ QUOTE ]

You are missing the point that in America, it is perfectly legal to call someone an N bomb, but its not to beat the [censored] out of someone. If you want to go somewhere where "hate" speech is outlawed, go to Canada

[swingdoc]

@Taso

The outrage (at least my outrage) has nothing to do with these young men being arrested for beating another young man. Regardless of what the victim said, I hope we all agree that a beating is not justified and the perpetrators should be punished. The problem is in the apparent inequality in punishment meted out to black and white people in this town.

<ul type="square">[*]Black student attack white student = attempted 2nd degree murder[*]White man pulls gun on black students = theft of a fire arm by the black students[*]White students/townsfolk beat black students at a party day(s) before white student is beaten = no action taken[*]16 year old black student found guilty of attempted 2nd degree murder in adult court by a jury of all white "peers"[*]Reports of intimidation by DA toward black students[/list]Maybe we're just getting one side of the story. Maybe a town with a white's only shade tree is progressive enough that it's justice system doesn't have underlying threads of racism. Maybe the town uses nooses as decoration all the time and this symbolic act was simply misconstrued by the black students. Obviously we'll never know absolutely all of the details, but this smacks of prejudice that pervades to all levels of this town's society and that is more than enough evil for me to become upset.

[bobman0330]

There's an old Holocaust-denial thread where MidGe explains that he doesn't believe in inflammatory free speech. That might explain the mutual lack of comprehension going on.

[4 High]

Is this considered a school fight? Did it happen in School? Do all school fights get prosecuted now?

[Taso]

Charges of assault can always be made when an assault has occured. If I was this kid, I would press charges as well.

[Taso]

[ QUOTE ]
@Taso

The outrage (at least my outrage) has nothing to do with these young men being arrested for beating another young man. Regardless of what the victim said, I hope we all agree that a beating is not justified and the perpetrators should be punished. The problem is in the apparent inequality in punishment meted out to black and white people in this town.

<ul type="square">[*]Black student attack white student = attempted 2nd degree murder[*]White man pulls gun on black students = theft of a fire arm by the black students[*]White students/townsfolk beat black students at a party day(s) before white student is beaten = no action taken[*]16 year old black student found guilty of attempted 2nd degree murder in adult court by a jury of all white "peers"[*]Reports of intimidation by DA toward black students[/list]Maybe we're just getting one side of the story. Maybe a town with a white's only shade tree is progressive enough that it's justice system doesn't have underlying threads of racism. Maybe the town uses nooses as decoration all the time and this symbolic act was simply misconstrued by the black students. Obviously we'll never know absolutely all of the details, but this smacks of prejudice that pervades to all levels of this town's society and that is more than enough evil for me to become upset.

[/ QUOTE ]

- I believe those charges were lessened. And by believed, I mean, that's what I've been told by CNN all morning long.
- The account of this specific event is so clouded its hard to know exaclty what happened. That charge was arrived after eye witness testimony though.
- Source? Wikipedia is saying that 5 black students tried to enter a private party, were denied, and persisted, and then a fight ensued outside of the party. One white male was charged with battery.
- Again, this charge was reduced (I'm pretty sure on this)
- Uhh, intimidation? Meh, hardly.

(Sorry for taking so long, Bush came on and I got distracted)

[MuresanForMVP]

[ QUOTE ]
@Taso

The outrage (at least my outrage) has nothing to do with these young men being arrested for beating another young man. Regardless of what the victim said, I hope we all agree that a beating is not justified and the perpetrators should be punished. The problem is in the apparent inequality in punishment meted out to black and white people in this town.

<ul type="square">[*]Black student attack white student = attempted 2nd degree murder[*]White man pulls gun on black students = theft of a fire arm by the black students[*]White students/townsfolk beat black students at a party day(s) before white student is beaten = no action taken[*]16 year old black student found guilty of attempted 2nd degree murder in adult court by a jury of all white "peers"[*]Reports of intimidation by DA toward black students[/list]Maybe we're just getting one side of the story. Maybe a town with a white's only shade tree is progressive enough that it's justice system doesn't have underlying threads of racism. Maybe the town uses nooses as decoration all the time and this symbolic act was simply misconstrued by the black students. Obviously we'll never know absolutely all of the details, but this smacks of prejudice that pervades to all levels of this town's society and that is more than enough evil for me to become upset.

[/ QUOTE ]

In regards to the 16 year old: he was found guilty of second-degree aggravated assault, and not only was he previously convicted of four violent crimes, but at the time of the "incident" he was on probation.