RadiantBride

Just saw in your title: Support the Jena 6

What is that?

Click Here There are many articles on this.

This was taken from what someone wrote on another site:
Last September, at a high school in Jena, Louisiana, a black student asked if he could be allowed to sit underneath the big leafy tree in the school's hot courtyard. Previously, only white students were allowed to sit there. The next day, three nooses hung from the tree. All the black students were outraged and sat under the tree together. Soon, the local police and district attorney showed up. 'I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen' said the district attorney to the mass of students.

In Jena, 85% of the population is white. The blacks were scared. Tensions continued to rise for the next few months. A black student was beaten up at a white party. Two black students were threatened with a sawed-off shotgun in a convenience store.

Finally, on December 4, 2006, the tensions rose to a boiling point. A fight broke out at school and a white boy was injured and taken to the hospital. He was released later that day and was smiling with his friends before the sun set. Six black students who participated in the fight were charged... with attempted murder. No one came even close to dying that day.

At one time, these six young boys and futures, hope, now they face up to 100 years in prison. One boy has already been tried, by an all-white jury. He was convicted of aggravated assault. In Louisiana, for aggravated assault to occur, a deadly weapon must have been used. In this case? The weapon was a pair of tennis shoes. The boy faces sentencing on July 31, he could serve up to 22 years in prison. The other five boys still face second-degree murder charges and 100 year sentences.

The district attorney claims he could end their lives with the stroke of a pen; and he can. But someone can stop him. Louisiana governor, Gov. Kathleen Blanco has a mightier pen. She has the power to save these boy's lives. And we have the power to convince her to do so.


UPDATE -- On September 4, 2007, charges on two of the six were dropped from attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. The two now face up to 22 1/2 years in jail - still far too much for a three hour hospital stay.

A third awaits his sentencing hearing on September 20 for his convicion of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy.

The other three still face attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, giving them a possible 80 year jail sentence.

--UPDATE as of September 18, 2007

Mychael Bell's conviction has been overturned by the judge. Hopefully this will set the tone for the other five boy's trials.

We are winning this fight, but now's not the time to stop.

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Posted by AmandaLynn04

Just saw in your title: Support the Jena 6

What is that?

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All I know is 6 black kids were arrested in Jena, LA for attacking a white kid. As for everything else, I'm reading it now.

it really is a lot more than that, but everyone would need to read up on it to know whats going on.

P.S. not to offend anyone but this has been a really big story the past few weeks, on tv & in the paper, none of you heard of it??

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Posted by DomTriniBRL

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All I know is 6 black kids were arrested in Jena, LA for attacking a white kid. As for everything else, I'm reading it now.

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I was actually still up at 5AM watching news reports about this yesterday..but they were only giving updates and I never knew the whole story.

That is disgusting!! I hate that racism still goes on.

I hope these boys are set free. They are kids, they get into fights...and with that much tension it was bound to happen.

I don't know too much about the story so I won't ramble on, but from what you just posted I am really discusted!

Okay - FIRST - Don't wanna start drama!!!

I cannot believe that racism still exists. I really can't. Maybe it's because I am from a town on Long Island, that is pretty mixed, race-wise...... and everyone got along - black, white, hispanic, asian.... etc.

That is just SO crazy.

It ***** that a boy was hurt. It ***** that the 6 boys involved were charged with what they were charged with. (They SHOULD have been charged with assault - they shouldn't have been charged with attempted murder, but, you must pay for your crime, in an appropriate manner.)

What is UP with the South???? When will the south get up to speed with the rest of the country - there is no more slavery, no more segregation - and when will the south just let black people live as equals among the rest of the country?????

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Posted by kslmbuggie

it really is a lot more than that, but everyone would need to read up on it to know whats going on.

P.S. not to offend anyone but this has been a really big story the past few weeks, on tv & in the paper, none of you heard of it??

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Posted by DomTriniBRL

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All I know is 6 black kids were arrested in Jena, LA for attacking a white kid. As for everything else, I'm reading it now.

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we discussed the whole situation in class on wednesday. its unbelievable

I did read more of the story on Wikipedia. It seems like that town has a history. A few months before the attacks, a couple of kids did a prank with nooses. Plus there are other things that happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six

All I gotta say is that it's really sad that racism still exist. I was a victim of that when I used to live in Florida when I was a kid. Being the only Latina in a mostly all white school and being called a *pic really did bothered me. Seriously, slavery died with the Civil War more than 200 years ago. Let it go, South!

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Posted by DomTriniBRL

I did read more of the story on Wikipedia. It seems like that town has a history. A few months before the attacks, a couple of kids did a prank with nooses. Plus there are other things that happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six

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that incident with the nooses led to more incidents and ultimately led up to the white kid getting assaulted.

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Posted by AmandaLynn04

Okay - FIRST - Don't wanna start drama!!!

I cannot believe that racism still exists. I really can't. Maybe it's because I am from a town on Long Island, that is pretty mixed, race-wise...... and everyone got along - black, white, hispanic, asian.... etc.

That is just SO crazy.

It ***** that a boy was hurt. It ***** that the 6 boys involved were charged with what they were charged with. (They SHOULD have been charged with assault - they shouldn't have been charged with attempted murder, but, you must pay for your crime, in an appropriate manner.)

What is UP with the South???? When will the south get up to speed with the rest of the country - there is no more slavery, no more segregation - and when will the south just let black people live as equals among the rest of the country?????

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nicely stated & i think that you are right- it seems to me that racism is not as prevalent in the north-east, but then again, i am an italian-american and its hard for me to really say. but either way- this is a horrible tragedy for those 6 kids and I hope everything works out for them- the media is certainly putting the spotlight on the governor so hopefully that will help.

i dont think it will happen anytime soon. My family is from SC & when i go down there 2 visit i am shocked to c how segregated some parts still are. the south just has a totally different mentality than the north this is why many black people left the south to come to the north so many years ago including my maternal & paternal grandparents.

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Posted by AmandaLynn04

What is UP with the South???? When will the south get up to speed with the rest of the country - there is no more slavery, no more segregation - and when will the south just let black people live as equals among the rest of the country?????

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Posted by jennandrolo

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Posted by DomTriniBRL

I did read more of the story on Wikipedia. It seems like that town has a history. A few months before the attacks, a couple of kids did a prank with nooses. Plus there are other things that happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six

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that incident with the nooses led to more incidents and ultimately led up to the white kid getting assaulted.

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Yeah I read that as well. It's just plain sad that this is still going on in 2007.