<p>I believe unsoccer-mom refers to unjust incarcerations edvest. By that I mean black men who are tried, convicted and incarcerated under a DIFFERENT set of standards than white men. </p>
<p>No one is suggesting ANYone, black or white, go unpunished for the crimes you describe. But the burden of proof should be the same regardless of race, the quality of legal advice should be the same regardless of race, juries and judges should apply laws without regard to race, and charges and sentences should be levied regardless of race. </p>
<p>But once again, the real issue is set aside for narrow and selective indignation.</p>
<p>Btw…I’m not sure who you refer with your hyperbole about liberals, but personally, I’ve yet to vote for a Democratic candidate. (This year may be my ‘first’. ;)) It’s insulting to be told if you are conservative or ‘middle of the road’, you couldn’t, or shouldn’t, understand the injustice that occurred in Jena, Louisiana. I would hope this issue transcends politics.</p>
<p>From the Chicago Tribune - this article supports most of the posters in this thread in saying that blacks are unfairly discriminated in our school systems:</p>
<p>Edvest1, perhaps, you should have bothered to look at the link I posted before accusing me of wanting to have people go free when they commit violent crimes. Let, me make it perfectly clear. It appears from the facts that Mychal Bell assaulted another young man. He should have been charged with assault and received an appropriate sentence. What I am saying with respect to the link I posted, is that we as a society have put most of our efforts into incarceration over the past couple of decades effectively disenfranchising millions of people of color as opposed to addressing the underlying causes such as poverty, unequal access to education, absent fathers (many in prison), and drug addiction. And if you bothered to read the link, you might have known that most of increase in incarceration is due to the war on drugs. I would venture to say that if the college-aged students represented on this board were being arrested, convicted for possession, and sentenced to prison in the numbers that young man of color are that we would all be appalled.</p>
<p>A few more factual points: the charges against Bell were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery on the first day of his trial in June. He hasn’t been sentenced.
According to the U.S. Attorney, the party incident did not involve a group of white men beating a single black student. There were five black students who sought to enter the party and were turned away–they were confronted by a white man (who was also kicked out of the party), and then there was a fight between the five students and several white men. One white man pleaded guilty to battery after this incident. (The NPR story says that one of students was “attacked and beaten” after he “got inside” the party, but that doesn’t seem to be what happened.)
The noose incident wasn’t reported to the police at all–it was handled entirely by the school system (very poorly).
If you are basing your opinions on the NPR story, it states the facts in a way that suggests things that are not exactly the case. For example, it states that Bell was convicted by an all-white jury. This is true, but 150 notices were sent out to both black and white citizens, and only 50 people–all white–showed up to serve. What this means is hard to say, but there are certainly several possible explanations.
My point in all this is that situations like this are complicated, and one shouldn’t uncritically accept one version of the facts, even if it fits with your expectations better. I would also caution against assuming that the state of race relations in a small, isolated town of 3,000 people in Louisiana is a good proxy for the overall state of race relations in the United States.</p>
<p>“I would also caution against assuming that the state of race relations in a small, isolated town of 3,000 people in Louisiana is a good proxy for the overall state of race relations in the United States.”</p>
<p>I would have to agree with you there. I think that the health of race relations varies a great deal from locality to locality, even with very close geographical areas. When I lived in Memphis, TN (actually a suburb just outside), my white husband and I were warned numerous times, by an amazing number of different people (a fact which we found interesting…) NOT to ever venture into “T” County" (Tipton Country), which is a neighboring county . It was acknowledged to be a very racially intolerant place, known to have a sizable and active KKK membership. This was in 1984. We took that advice;).</p>
<p>hunt - given that 85% of Jena is white, I think it’s safe to say the majority of the ‘no-shows’ were white and the odds of getting 1 or 2 blacks on the jury was pretty slim. Not sure what steps were taken to roundup the 100 wayward would-be jurists. In my small home town, if you didn’t show up for jury duty, the judge sent the sheriff for you. At least that due diligence to pull an impartial jury of peers should have been made.</p>
<p>Also, the white man who hit the black youth with a beer bottle pleaded out to misdemeanor battery and received probation. I certainly think adults perpetrating an assault on a minor should have been charged with something a little stronger. Again, it just begs the comparison…white adult assaults black minor = misdemeanor, black minor assaults black minor = misdemeanor, black minor assaults white minor = felony attempted murder?</p>
<p>I certainly hope Jena is an anomaly to the overall state of race relations in our country. But the only way to keep these type incidences anomalies is intense scrutiny and zero tolerance.</p>
<p>you made it sound like the police routinely round off men of color and throw them in prison. That picture doesn’t exist. We are not living in such a state.
Do you hate your gov’t so much to think that? Back to evil gov’t again ?Someone would have had been involved in criminal activities, arrested, tried, then sent to prison. You might tell me horror stories about some poor guy in the hood who doesn’t belong in prison. But I would bet most of the imprisoned are there because they committed a crime. </p>
<p>So don’t paint a distored picture about how the government
No one in a dusty-light senate caucaus say “let’s round them up”. </p>
<p>As for abject poverty, people’s got to pull themselves up too. I see many minority immigrants, not speaking English when they came to the States, in the middle age of their years, force to learn new trade, adapt to new environment, and no, not all came with gold stashed away. They became successful as well as their second generation. The native minority has all the advantages but many take on the attitude they were held back by others, but in fact they held themselves back, not making most of opportunities, waiting for things to be handed to them. There are many successful blacks who saw through that and break out, and general society welcome them with open hands. OJ, curiously was such a success figure until he self destructed in a most horrified way.</p>
<p>I don’t think unsoccermom painted that picture at all edvest. She acknowledged what is true…in our country, we still have work to do in making sure our laws are applied fairly without consideration of race. </p>
<p>If you don’t think this is true… well where ya been my friend?</p>
<p>It is true “in our country, we still have work to do in making sure our laws are applied fairly without consideration of race.”</p>
<p>What about when white folks were denied justice ? I am talking about one of most recent case where no one voiced any concerns against the black dancer in the Duke case? She filed a false report, made false accusation of a serious crime, put lives on hold for 3 young men and put them and their families in hell with a $1M lawyer bill each. No it was hush hush. She deserved our sympathy. She needs our help not condemnation, Right ? People were afraid of looking like a racists if they dare say anything. White people are factually appeasing blacks. If a white woman made false rape changes against blacks, do you think the outcome will be same ? How come no one looks at the other side - where justice was shut out to those victims happened not to be black: Nicole Simpon, Ron Goldman, the Duke boys? Only when blacks are accused do people rush to defend them.</p>
<p>I am not fanning flame against any ethnic groups and Im not racist. I tip my hat off to see minority making the American dream. I am saying you can’t just scale to one side, rush to defend another group, but also rush to squash one’s own race (if you are white) in favor of appeasement.</p>
<p>Rita Crosby of MSNBC asked, softly, she knew it could be a question that could cost her her job, “What happens to the plaintiff, will she be charged” ? Met with silence or pooh pooh sound from her cohorts. She quickly moved on.</p>
<p>The same attitude from all news anchor maybe except maybe Bill O’Reilly. I see only vengeance against Nifong ( yes he deserved it ).</p>
<p>LOL! Well, it certainly wasn’t “hush-hush” on College Confidential where it was the longest thread ever!</p>
<p>And there was plenty of condemnation to go around…
However, many felt, (including the defendants themselves) that this woman needs serious pyschological and social service intervention, not legal charges.</p>
<p>Edvest1, there is a disturbing tendency in your posts to respond with hyperbole. At no point did I suggest that the government was rounding up innocent people and throwing them in jail. Your counter arguments are over-simplifications intended to obfuscate the point and it is futile for me to respond.</p>
<p>Evest, you apparently live in some sort of alternate universe, if you think the Duke Lacrosse case was “hush-hush”. I mean—what the heck are you talking about?! The Duke case made national headlines for well over a year and a half. </p>
<p>I don’t think there are many people on this forum who wouldn’t say unequivocally, that the boys in that case were terribly wronged by all concerned: The accuser, the DA, the Durham police dept., many within the Duke University community who rushed to judgment, as well as many in the City of Durham, the local and national news media, and many within the black community, such as Al Sharpton (whom you’d think would have learned a thing or two in the years since the Tawana Brawley incident) and Jesse Jackson, who have yet to apologize for their actions concerning the Duke case. However, I simply fail to see how you can think the injustices suffered by the Duke Lacrosse team boys negates the injustices suffered by the black students at Jena High School. Injustice based on a person’s race is injustice nonetheless. The reason why the Duke case engendered so much national outrage, is because whites are rarely on the receiving end of this kind of injustice to the degree in which the Duke boys were. Such bald-faced injustice directed against affluent white defendants is rare indeed. There was nothing “hush-hush” about it. But if it will make you feel better to believe that it was, go right ahead. You’re really good at skewing reality.</p>
<p>Edvest1, the fact three young white men were wrongly charged does more to support my argument than yours. What it says is that prosecutors sometime rush to decisions when there is community pressure to “solve” a case. Sometimes there is a racial element involved, and other times there isn’t. Do you really hate the government so much that you think they’re out to round up all white college Lacrosse players?</p>
At least that due diligence to pull an impartial jury of peers should have been made.</p>