Black Youth Facing 22 Years for Schoolyard Fight

The FBI, Justice Department, and the U.S. attorney's office are set to meet in Jena, La., today to discuss possible civil rights violations revolving around a racially-charged schoolyard beating.

The case involves the assault of a white student, Justin Barker, at Jena High School by six black schoolmates. Mychal Bell, the first of the six students to be tried in court, was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery and faces up to 22 years and six months in prison. The remaining five students have not yet faced trial.

Critics have called the charges outrageous, citing the facts that Barker only received minor injuries and was released from the hospital that same day so he could attend a school ceremony. Civil rights leaders say the black defendants, now known as the "Jena 6," have received unequal treatment compared to white defendants charged with similar crimes.

"Justice in La Salle Parish is not meted out equally," said Tory Pegram, development and public education associate for the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The attack on Barker was the latest incident in a series of conflicts between white and black students sparked when black students found three hangman's nooses dangling from a tree on school property. Robert Bailey, one of the Jena 6, was assaulted at a local party by white students using bottles and fists. Those who assaulted Bailey were only charged with simple battery by the district attorney in La Salle Parish, the district in which Jena lies.

Bell's attorney, Louis Scott, said, "Actions by black students were treated more harshly than actions by white students."

The Blotter: Black Youth Facing 22 Years for Schoolyard Fight
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/03/2260/

Is this a hate crime? Is this punishment extreme or just? Does this belong in Elitist Debate? If so, move, but I put it here due to the fact that many wouldn't bother reading and just post "Nigger deserves it".
Discuss.

Wtf. That's homosexual. That judge must like white men or something. I find this beyond extreme. Maybe a year or so would be enough or something but definitely not 22.

Whites weren't punished enough, blacks punished far, far too much.

But they should all be punished. Fighting is not something that should be tolerated.

Six months for all, I say.

Adding to that: I'm sorry, but you can't help but look really dumb when you allude to the Little Rock 9 with something like this.

Lol, I thought that sounded familiar.

It's hard to say, just because that's the sentence doesn't necessarily mean that he will serve it. I think that it's the motivation of the judge that has to be taken into account:

Was he making an example on school yard bullying? If this is the case, I think that he is doing an excellent thing, the school ground is nothing but a den for uncivilised apes and something needs to be done to stop this crisis.

If he is trying to make an example on hate crimes on the other hand I would be fully against it, hate crime laws are nothing but laws stating that black/gay people are indeed different from us. It does not matter the motivation of a crime, it is the crime itself that counts, we are all just human beings, we should not be separated into different classes especially in the judicial system.

Of course he could also have done it because he was a racist prick, in that case, yeah, ts for the nigger.

It appears that the man who judged these two cases is obviously racist. It seemed to me the assault on the black kid was/could have been much worse than the one on the white kid. It also seems that the white kids were unprovoked while the black kids were offended by the nooses. The white kids should defintely gotten more punishment while the black kids WAAAY less.

Race hostility exists because races and cultures that don't mix well are forced to coexist, this kind of thing is enevitable and happens far more than you may realize. The solution is obvious to give each race it's own space. Whether that means simply allowing housing descrimination on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis or whether it will necesitate something more extreme like deporting or expatriating the incompatable ethno-cultural groups remains to be seen.

Fighting is not something that should be tolerated.

Wimp! We have to fight eachother and allow the strong to dominate and exploit the weak because advanced technology and medicine has allowed to many weaklings to continue existing when they should have died. Cultures must also battle to determine which is the more determined or supperior. Evolution.

No "race" is ever "forced" to do anything. The weak hearts of inferior beings that forces them to believe they are a superior race or culture is rather pathetic. People are never forced to coexist with anything! It's like kicking your own dog out of the house because he is of a different race and can't live under the same roof.
So what if he's the only white guy in an inner city school? He wouldn't have been picked on if he were friends with the blacks rather than grouping with the few white people he has. It's pathetic that people believe they must stay with their own race and attempt to gain supremacy among the others.
You fail to realize the fact that color variations among humans does not constitute a different race.

Sorry boy, Anarchy doesn't exist in this world.

You are intentionally missunderstanding or missrepresenting. I live with my dog who is an entirely different species from me and we live in perfect harmony. The difference is that blacks/whites, blacks/latinos, arabs/anyone just don't get along and won't, and really shouldn't be forced to when it goes against their nature and instinct cries out against it.

As for colour =/= to race, I know. I clearly made reference to "ethno-cultural groups" which encompases skin pigmentation as well as other differenciating factors.

The difference is that blacks/whites, blacks/latinos, arabs/anyone just don't get along and won't, and really shouldn't be forced to when it goes against their nature and instinct cries out against it.

Haha, I want to see you admit, that you are in fact, a racist.
Nobody is born into the world with an "instinct" of hate towards another group. Nobody forces blacks and whites into the same neighborhood. Those people CHOSE to live there. It is not a white policemen's nature to beat up black people on sight, although media/press may tell you it that way. It is not a black person's nature to join a gang to kill Latinos. It is not an Arab's nature to kill and hate anything that moves. THOSE ARE STEREOTYPES.
The cause of this fight could or could not have been provoked by race. Everyone who goes to school knows that fights aren't arrogantly started just because a white guy goes to the same school. It starts because the white guy was either talking shit and/or being a fag. Why did I describe it like that? Because it's true. Nobody fights for no reason like race, but for stupid reasons like attitude.
If anyone is racist in all this, it was the judge, and maybe you. A 22 year sentence is 3 years under life, but the judge/jury has the time to reconsider.
If you actually bothered to look out for more than 10 seconds, the world wouldn't seem as mindless and pathetic as you said. I'm friends with every distinguishable race in the world, and you don't see me beating up them because of their colors.

You could have asked and I would have responded that I believe race exists and matters and influences peoples natural inclinations and is worth preserving without mixing up with others creating raceless grey people and that history shows again and again that some races just acomplish more and get more done than other races making me a racist.

Yes, I am a racist, guess your "clever" mindgames to trick me into admitting what I freely admit where a waste of time.

As for your nonsense about people being born as pure innocent "clean slates", that is hogwash. Most people prefer to live with and work with and date and marry people of the same race, and it has nothing to do with hating or even disliking other races, simply prefering those who are like yourself.

I won't bother addressing the other stuff you babble about because it has no relavence to anything.

One society cannot address the needs and values of people from different races and cultures at the same time. So we all end up in a bubbling cauldron of race riots, pop-culture and interest groups. We also get your six schoolyard battle niggers and trigger happy judges, enjoy the world you keep voting for!

1. We have an edit button
2. The only reason you didn't bother reading the rest is because you simply don't want to face facts. That segregation of races is futile and useless.
3. We accomplished more in the 7 years into the 2000s of mixed races than the 100,000 years of separated races.
4. Your two posts are meaningless and are merely worded to contradict previous posts regardless of the lack of sense they make.
5. Who cares if you "freely" admit you're a worthless, pathetic and inferior racist being. I still got you to do it.

I'm done with you, feel free to say what you like without any contradiction. Freedom of speech and all that. Freedom of speech.

I'm glad you've chosen to wisely back out of an argument you could surely never win.

You are a very funny man.

     You make a few decent points, but you use the wrong evidence to back them. The...self segregation argument, for example. Yes, people tend to migrate towards those like themselves. But people are completely malleable at day one. Raise a white person in a society of 100% black people, and he will believe he himself is black. (albeit the white skin) You could be a much more powerful debater, regardless of your point of view, if you would consider things from multiple angles. I'm not saying change your opinion, (it doesn't matter if I or anyone else here agrees.) just that you shouldn't just dismiss it as "hogwash", as you said, right off the bat.

Moo: 1 is nitpicking, 2 is useless, 5 is irrelevant and makes it look like you're trying too hard to pump yourself up.

point 1:  Why are the courts dealing with a school yard fight?  more importantly why are we teaching children to be dependent upon systems (government) that are by and large spectacular failures? if you've got to punish them give them a detention. Or better yet, teach them to resolve their conflicts and work together? I always forget that creative and effective solutions go against official policy.

point 2: could we please stop dignifying racism with a response?

Heck, I have a friend who made a bomb threat at our school, and he only got one day suspension. If he can escape real punishment entirely for something like that, then any judge who thinks this guy should go to jail for 22 years is all of the following:

*doing some kind of new drug
*drunk
*dropped on his head multiple times as a baby
*had a mother who did cocaine while he was still inside her
*has no friends


Please insert like 20 more messed up characteristics to describe the moron who's bright idea it was to even think of saying this guys getting 22 in jail.

It's a mild form of racism, at least to my point of view it is. I mean, the victim received only minor injuries and was able to attend school the next day, then you give the youth 22 years? It's just not fair and terribly not balanced, not at all.

Bell's attorney, Louis Scott, said, "Actions by black students were treated more harshly than actions by white students."

Owned, and that was reality check. 

Have you seen what they did to that kid?!

All six beat him down into unconsciousness, and continued to kick and stomp him! he didn't even do anything!

I would have had them killed!

Assault, Hate Crimes, Attempted Murder.

Assault, Hate Crimes, Attempted Murder.

They're all evil, we all know that, there's no stopping it.

Well if the six black students were gang members or had a history of physical disruptions like this then it could be justified. Plus six on one sounds very gangish. Some judges and jurys also feel like better we punnish them now than later for a different more extreme crime.

I like the judges thinking, charge blacks for crimes they will commit.

I like the judges thinking, charge blacks for crimes they will commit.

So...what..all black jails..?

I like the judges thinking, charge blacks for crimes they will commit.

I have been on a jury for a simple crime. One count of telephone harassment. I personally felt the man was guilty, but our jury foreman (who is a cop btw) said that we should scare the guy straight before telephone harassment turns into something more serious.

There was evidence of other harassment , however, that specific case was for a single count of telephone harassment. The other harassment was 6 months full of harassing calls, damage to property (that could never be proven it was from the defendant).

2 best friends. 1 dated a girl for 5 years, the girl fell for the best friend, then married him. That was the root of the harassment.

That doesn't relate to our topic unless he is a nigger.