The Jena 6, have people forgotten that a kid was beaten? What would Dr. Martin Luther King say about the?

Question

reaction of the protesters? What would he say about the Jena 6?

I was born and partly grew up in Louisiana. I know full well the racial division that inhabits the small towns there.

Im also white if that matters to you.

Oxy: This story is very new to me could you sen me a link about the other kid that was beaten. Thanks

I just read an article that said he only suffered from a concussion and bumps and bruises. This is hardly attempted murder.

My question was based on the first and only report I read at the time. Guess that will teach me not to post questions without learning more about the subject.

Thanks for all the answers except for you Homedawg500!

Answer 1

The young man that was hurt was throwing racial comments around. I do not think 6 high school football players should gang up against one man, I believe it was over the top. I do believe that the way the tension was in the city led to this. The young man who was hurt was not hurt so badly he couldn't go to a school event that evening and he was never admitted to the hospital. Does that mean it is ok? No, but neither is an attempted murder charge.

The young white man in question was mocking a young black man who had been attacked for going to a "white" party, a party some of his white friends invited him to. The young white man in question threw racial insults. This is high school, not grown adults. What ALL the parties did was wrong. Should this have become the issue it is? Maybe it is a VERY good issue to show that there can be injustice and discrimination in all areas of life. Do I believe most people are racially motivated? Nope, most of us don't even think about race when we make decisions, but a few ignorant jackasses do.

Many things built up to the fight. Those things do not FORGIVE the actions or even justify the actions, but lets get real, it was not attempted murder.

RE: MLK. I believe he would support the protesters but would also condemn the actions. These young black men were treated much more harshly than they should have been, but also deserved punishment.

Answer 2

I think they picke the wrong battle.
At least one of these kids has like 3 priors for the same thing assult.

Yep a very big difference between a rope in a tree and a boy beaten till he was unconscious and beyond for what a word if that.

The boy had blindness and a swollen head and still has headaches which of course a doctor can't determine the cause and yet grown people can't understand why they want these poor innocent jena 6 locked up.

If it were me or my kid I'd lock them up and everyone here knows they would too.

Nope I'm not a racist just confused as to why they a white boy getting beaten means nothing while a rope in a tree which hurt no one physically is more imprtant.

Answer 3

Oxy,
There was a white male charged with battery in the case you are referring to. There are reports that a bottle was used to hit black student Robert Bailey. He was given probation. I can't seem to find whether he was a student or if he served any time while awaiting trial.
Mychal Bell has been in jail since the day of the incident (12-4-06) in which the white student was beaten. He was charged with attempted murder (2nd Degree) then tried and convicted of 2nd degree battery. In the trial, the prosecution maintained that a tennis shoe was used as a deadly weapon(the use of a deadly weapon had to be proven to convict on the battery charge).

So if I understand this, weilding a "deadly" tennis shoe gets a black student what is now over 10 months in prison, while the use of a bottle gets a white male probation.
No injustice there at all.

As for what would MLK say- lets see if the protest remains peaceful. He would not, despite what some moron has said in a previous answer, condone violence of any kind.

Answer 4

What if things were reversed. What if 6 white students beat one black student to near death. Civil rights activists would still be protesting in Jena, the only difference is the signs they hold would say "SEND THE JENA 6 TO JAIL FOR LIFE"

Answer 5

King would have demanded the pursuit of justice so he would have addressed the actions in September and then on December 1st or 2nd as well as the incident on December 4th which is why the Jena 6 are on trial. The attack didn't happen in a vacuum. To just look at the one incident without looking at everything that led up to it is not justice.

Answer 6

I am so sick of hearing that this is only because the guys who beat the white boy up are black. If people wouldn't make such a big deal about it all, it wouldn't have escaladed to this point...but anyhow...

So, as a resident of Louisiana, this S*it is everywhere. For most of you from up North, you wouldn't understand the racism down here.

Kids fight. End of story.

Is hanging nooses right? By all means, no. Are fights right? By all means, no. But what many of you don't understand is that seems to be the way it is down here. I, however, seem to be "used" to hearing stuff like that since it's been around all of my life. Kids (especially in high school) will racially taunt one another. It happens. It doesn't mean, because you are called the "n" word, that you should go start beating the hell out of folks. I grew up in a pretty much mixed high school with a graduating class well in the 300's with about 900 kids total in the school. You hear stuff like that. Most people just blow it off. People call others names. Is it right? No. But they're kids.

If the shoe was on the other foot, though, it would be all over the place as far as the news. If a group of white guys beat up a black guy, it would surely be considered racism also.

Sadly, racism exists and it's still pretty strong down south, especially here in Louisiana. I, by no means, am racist. Alot of my friends in high school were black. I heard from them and from the white kids at school all about the name calling, but of course, it always goes both ways. Blacks talk about whites, whites talk about blacks. It's just skin color, people! Some people are so shallow as to only see the skin color of a person.

Do I think a few kids who got in a fight at school over something so stupid (name calling) should spend 22 years in prison? NO WAY! It just goes to show how screwed up the system is.

Best of luck to those guys and I hope they don't have to spend 25% of their lives behind bars over a stupid fight that happened between immature students in high school. :( Maybe jail for a short amount of time to make them learn that beating someone to hospitilization because they called you a name, doesn't mean that you get off the hook so easily, in my opinion.

Answer 7

i grew up in a small town in louisiana, so i know how the towns are racially seperated, if the white kids beat the black kid as badly as the black kids beat the white kid then i think they should have gotten the same treatment, but remember is these small towns it wont happen, in the town i lived in there was a school just for whites (i didnt go there), so that should give you an idea of how things are run down there

Answer 8

The district attorney didn't file charges when a black kid was beaten under similar circumstances.

Dr. King was all about equal justice under the law. He would have defended the Jena 6 as victims of judicial inequality.

Answer 9

A kid was beaten?

Yeah, he was beaten so bad he was released from the hospital the same day and went out that night with friends. Hardly sounds like "attempted murder" to me.

Answer 10

MLK was all for violence if it is directed towards attaining his goals....he would enfdorse the beating of the white kid just as Jessie and Al have....Jena is going to blow over some black kid not staying in his place and away from the white tree...