Hate crimes and the Jenna 6?

Question

Why are we dealing with so much racial tension these days?

Some people are trying to claim that hanging a noose from a tree is a hate crime. How exactly? What crime has been committed? What actual damage has been done?

It seems to me that this action was considered to be a threat rather than a prank. Why would you expell or even suspend students for pulling a "boyish prank"? Isn't that what kids do... joke around and play pranks on each other? The fact that the boys responsible for this act were suspended for three entire days makes it quite clear that their behavior was more than just a prank but rather a threat. Since it appears to be a threat, the boys should have not only been suspended but also arrested. If the law says that threatening to hit someone is the same as assault, isn't threatening to kill someone the same as murder or at least close to it? No doubt this act was not just a prank but a threat to kill. Something more should have been done.

In addition, one boy was attacked and repeatedly kicked and beaten after he had been knocked unconscious. Was not this also a hate crime? How could it not be? I can find reasonable doubt in the claim that it was an attempt to murder, but surely it was hate-inspired.

Was it a reasonable response? If I believed someone had threatened to kill me, I may very well attack them before they have the chance to attack me first. It makes sense to me at least. Do I think this should be legal? Absolutely not. That's what we have police, courts, judges, and juries for. It is their job to protect me and punish those threatening me. It is not my legal right to take the law into my own hands and seek out my own justice even though it may seem right in my eyes.

All of the boys involved should be punished, black or white. Skin color should make no different since we are all equal. It doesn't matter what they reasons were for hating each other. It escalated to threats and violence. Punish them all.

For those who are confused, question restated: "Why are we dealing with so much racial tension these days?"

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/jena6.asp

mingchewhochowhole, my point is that people on both sides were guilty of instigating and participating in violence toward each other. The fact that their motivation had to do with race should not really matter. The threat to kill is still a threat to kill. A beating is still a beating. So why must everyone else jump on the racial bandwagon? By turning this into a racial issue, we become just as guilty as the boys involved for promoting and contributing to more racism.

Princess*J*, why do you tell me to read the entire story (which I already have) and then proceed to take sides, when the facts of the story show that both sides were guilty -not just one?

lacedoutmami, it is quite ironic indeed that you assumed I am white and labeled me as a racist. In actuality, I am just as much black as I am white. It appears as though you have judged me by the color of my skin. If anything in this conversation is racist THAT IS. However, since most of us here are not racists, we know that my race or the color of my skin should not matter. While I choose to view this as juvenile violence and hatred, you and people like you insist on making this a racial issue only furthering the racism involved. And that is the whole point of my question. Why is this happening?

Princess*J*, I agree that more action should have been taken, and it clearly wasn't. In addition, I assert that fighting racism with more racism will not solve the problem but only make it worse.

lacedoutmami, you call me white as if it is a bad thing. Unless you are a racist, my ethinicity should not come into question here. I do not have to claim to be black. I know what I am and have nothing to prove to you. There was no trying on my part to reverse the racism. You clearly judged be based on the color of my skin and judged me because of it. If not for racism then why? Even if I was all white and not black at all, the facts of the matter would not change. You call me ignorant (among several other insults) and accuse me of trying to justify hanging a noose, when I am clearly not. I acknowledge that hanging a noose in such a manner is a threat to kill. An act like that alone is much worse than disliking someone because of their skin color... kinda like how you dislike me because of my skin color and refuse to accept the fact that I am half black. It is racists like you, both black and white, who caused this whole mess in the first place.

lacedoutmami, how am I backed into a corner? I am falsely accused, but that does not mean I am backed into a corner. How am I pointing fingers? I am pointing out racist remarks and undertones just as you are pointing out my skin color, which is not relevant to this issue. How am I avoiding anything here? I am well aware of what the hanging of the noose meant and I agree that it was a wrongful act. Why are YOU insulting black people by implying that any approach to this issue other than a racist against white people approach is wrong? Why are you fueling the fire of racism in whites by implying that racist acts from blacks are acceptable while racist acts from whites are not? Racism is the problem in this issue, and you are only feeding it by adding more racism rather than discouraging it like the rest of us are. It is quite ironic indeed that you claim I am backed into a corner when you clearly are. If you think I am lying, ask around. Ask people who are not biased or prejudiced.

lacedoutmami, so now you claim that since this was retaliation that it is right and justified because it is a natural reaction. Since when did we as humans decide that all natural reactions are right or acceptable? Most of the wrongful killings that have occurred throughout history could be considered to be natural reactions. Perhaps the beating of Rodney King was a natural reaction for the police officers. Perhaps the hanging of a noose from a tree was a natural reaction for the boys who did it. The fact remains that these acts were not justified, whether they were natural reactions or not. When a white person commits an act of violence toward a black person, you view it as a hate crime. Yet when a black person commits an act of violence toward a white person, you look for ways to excuse the behavior. That mentality says that blacks and whites are not equal. Dr King suffered & died for the sake of equality and people like you insult him and all who have done the same with your racism.

Answer 1

We're dealing with so much tension because everyone isn't as reasonable as you appear to be. [Assuming that my understanding of what you are saying is accurate. I believe your point is not that hanging a noose isn't racist, rather that it should not be prosecuted because it's racist. It should be prosecuted because it's a threat of violence and a threat of violence is a threat of violence motivation notwithstanding.] Most, in this country anyway, are more like Ming. When a situation occurs, they don't say how can we work together to address this issue because we all have to live here together and this action (whether hanging things from trees, jumping someone of a different race, allowing a so-called "white" tree to exist in the first place, holding someone captive for a week and torturing them, etc.) is not representative of whites or blacks or whatever race as a collective whole. They point fingers and try to justify the unjustifiable by countering with "they have their own place" or "try walking through the ghetto" or "that's just how they are" and a variable cornucopia of other counterproductive, unenlightened excuses. This only serves to further exacerbate the problem because when you make it a racial argument, peole tend to side with their own race rather than looking at the crime for what it is. It's super easy to justify a judge telling a black person in his courtroom that he incited a riot by sitting under the tree in the first place by saying "well, they have their area too," when it's broken down in purely racial terms. Not so easy to justify when you look at it in terms of where we as a nation should be or at least should be striving to be in 2007.

We (the people of all races who actually have the intellectual capacity to see the forest through the trees) have to stand up and say "enough is enough." That we as human beings are not going to tolerate acts of senseless violence no matter who is under attack and who is attacking. Until we do that, things will continue to deteriorate and we'll all suffer in the long run.

Answer 2

Ok....so you act like this incident was isolated and just happened. This has been escalating in this town for a long time. The black kids at this school have been repeatedly discriminated against, who the hell tells anyone that they cant sit under a tree, and then they hang a noose from it. Clearly that is a message that if you go where you are not suppose to, that something is going to happen to you, so to me that is a threat. When you think of a noose, what is the FIRST thing that you think of? Lynching, that is a physical act of murder. So if that white kid got his a** kicked so bad and was just so hurt, why in the h*ll was he at a party just 3 hours later after his release from the E.R? The white people of that town let those kids do whatever they wanted to and they thought that they were above it. What about the black kids that was hit over the head with bottles and constantly beat up and tormented BEFORE the 6 on 1 fight. Why dont you read the ENTIRE story and find out what really happend and how it got to this point....

So are you trying to tell me that there wasnt racism going on in this town? Do you really think that this one incident made all of this happen? What do you do when you are getting tormented by a whole group of people that are protected by police, school officials and everyone else? Why didnt those white kids get in trouble about the nooses? Do you think that if the parents or the school would have done what they were suppose to, do you think that it would have escalated to this? H.E.L.L no it wouldnt have. Because justice would have been served. The Jena 6 honestly should have really hurt that kid, at least it would justify the trouble that they are in now!

Answer 3

In my opinion, the boys who hung the nooses and the 6 boys that jumped 1 should all be punished. I absolutely believe the noose incident is a hate crime. It's a form (however mild by today's standards) of terrorism. What if that situation were a little different and those kids had pasted pictures of gas chambers and Schwastikas (sorry for the misspelling) to the lockers of Jewish student? Wouldn't that be considered a hate crime? I'd say so. I think the boys who hung the nooses had it coming to them when they were suspended and they should have to perform community service with a program that counsels victims of violence. Let them see the long-term effects that "pranks" like theirs carry. However they're punished, their behavior needs to be stopped NOW before it escalates and they grow up to be hate-filled adults.

As for the boys that jumped the single boy, they absolutely deserved to be arrested and charged with aggravated assault and anything else the state sees fit. There is NO excuse for one person being beaten by 6. Regardless of the fact that the victim wasn't seriously injured, that was the intent of his attackers and they should be punished. But do I think that that assault should be considered a "hate crime"? No, not unless the state can prove that he was attacked simply because of his race, gender or religion.

I think this entire ordeal has been blown out of proportion. All of these boys, the one that hung the nooses and the ones that jumped that kid, should be held accountable for their actions and race should play no part. Al Sharpton needs to reexamine his priorities and deal with the fact that the "Jena 6" are criminals, not angels, and deserve to be punished. If ever there were a racist bastard, "Reverend" Sharpton is surely him!

Answer 4

I agree with your points. Regardless, of race, each student must be accountable for his/her actions. I don't know if hanging nooses is a crime or not, but the students who done so should pay the consequences. Six guys beating one guy, should be punished, they certainly should go unpunished. There's no way one guy can pose a threat to six guys. I do think the media is turning this into a racist circus. No of those behaviors are acceptable, but lets all work together rather than dividing each other. Good luck. 2D

Answer 5

was hanging 3 nooses from a tree a "crime"? certainly not in the traditional or legal sense, but it was far more than an innocent prank.

You already have racial tensions in this town, and then 3 blacks decide to hang out under a tree where only whites normall hang out, and then the next day, 3 nooses are hanging from the tree.

That certainly implies a possible threat by the white students that the 3 blacks should not hang out under that tree or they might get lynched.

It's not concrete evidence of course, but it is certainly circumstancial, and the students responsible should have been dealt with more seriously than a minor in-house suspension.

Hate crime? No. Reprehensible, ignorant, bigoted, cowardly act by dumb hick racists? Yes.

To address your question more specifically;

anytime there is a large amount of social unrest in a population, people tend to go more into their fears, ignorance and prejudice as they find comfort in that. Right now, our great country is more divided than it's ever been in history, largely due to the Iraq war, terrorism, the ecomony, health care, immigration and a number of other issues that the politicians are basically spinning their wheels on.

Our country has grown fearful and mistrustful of those who are not like us. Yoda probably said it best "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, and Hate leads to suffering." People tend to fear what they don't understand, and the tensions in the world have induced more fear in people than they normally posess.

Answer 6

You propose Jena 6? besides, i think of that this is all right down to prejudice. especially because of the fact the white childrens in contact (which includes people who hung the nooses from the tree) fairly have been given a slap on the hand at the same time as the African-individuals have been given arrested. this is the twenty-first century and curiously this is nonetheless the civil rights flow...40 years later. human beings mandatory to be dealt with a similar regardless of shade, race, faith, etc. i could bypass on forever, yet I doubt human beings want that plenty.

Answer 7

i don't live there, and i don't really care about what happens to them because i don't beat people up or hang nooses from trees. Everyone in Jena should get a life.

Answer 8

Near as I can figure out, 'cuz you never did get to the point, you may be right. It's not even illegal to hang a noose from a tree unless the threat is specifically directed at someone. For there to be a hate crime, there has to be a crime where hate is the motivation.

The biggest reason for racial tension these days is that too many people of all races think that the world revolves around them and that EVERYTHING has to be about race. African Americans are the most visible proponents of this belief--but are far from being the worst.

Answer 9

THEN WHAT DO HANGING A NOOSE AROUND A TREE MEANS TO YOU???????????????
WHY DO THEY HAVE TO HAVE A NOOSE AROUND A TREE IN 2007.
NOW LOOK WHO STARTED THIS CRAP? THE WHITE KIDS, AND YOUR TALKING ABOUT BOYISH PRANKS WHAT IS THAT. NO, THOSE WHITE KIDS KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING AND THAT IS BEING RACIST, NOW JUST BECAUSE THE WHITE KID GOT BEAT DOWN, NOW EVERYONE BODY WANTS TO COMPLAIN, WHO WAS COMPLAINING WHEN THE NOOSE WAS HANGING AROUND THE TREE

Answer 10

i believe in Jesus and the Bible and "end times"

i don't know if these are the EXACT ending times but things are "winding down"

well, all types of evil are increasing - murder, rape, child abuse, etc

hatred is part of the seed of evil, which as I said in earlier posts, cannot be fully eradicated until the Lord Himself comes and does it

i say to all, be prepared for more evil to come and to black people specifically to get ready and demand good things