HBCU Students Push National Petition To Oust Jena Prosecutor
A group of Atlanta University Center students are enlisting college students from across the country to help push for the ouster of the district attorney in Jena, La.
6 Responses to “HBCU Students Push National Petition To Oust Jena Prosecutor”
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October 23rd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
The existence of a “white tree” at Jena High School has been throughly debunked. Jena High School administrators, teachers and students say students of both races congregated beneath the tree from time to time. The mainstream press has acknowledge this by describing the tree as, for example, a place “where a group of white students tended to hang out.”
The three students hung two nooses, not three. This is important because three nooses are said to be a KKK symbol. You should at least correct the factual error.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Why Not? If rich white boys can have a district attorney disbarred, jailed and destroyed (financially and emotionally), why shouldn’t the same happen when we “ordinary” folks are falsely or unfairly prosecuted?
A. Graham
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Your statement that “Black residents in Jena believe Black students were unfairly and harshly punished while White students were not punished or charged in other fights surrounding the issue, including one who threatened a Black student with a shotgun” is factually incorrect. The shotgun incident involved three black students and a 21-year-old white male who was not a student. Witnesses say the black students confronted the white male as he was about to enter a convenience store and chased him to his truck in the parking lot. The white male told police he drew an unloaded shotgun from the back seat to defend himself. The three white teens beat him up and took the shotgun. The black teenagers fled with the shotgun while the white male waited for ppolice to arrive. Based on wittness statements, inclucing the store employees, who called police, and a customer who was filling his car with gasoline, the police arrested the three black teenagers. They have been charged with aggravated robbery and theft of a firearm. (In Lousiana, robbery becomes aggravated robbery when more than on person commits the robbery.)
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
The U.S. Justice Department disagrees with your allegation that “The situation in Jena stemmed from a Black Jena High School student’s request to sit under a tree that has traditionally only been used by White students.” Following the Jena High School beating incidence, the Justice Department reopened its investigation into the noose-hanging incident and found no link to the Jena Six assault on Justin Barker or other confrontations between black and white students. Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, told CNN that “A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection.” He added that “We could not prove that, because the statements of the students themselves do not make any mention of nooses, of trees, of the ‘N’ word or any other word of racial hate.” Washington also told CNN that Bell had “several previous assault charges on his record. ” The CNN story is online at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/19/jena.six.link/index.html?iref=newssearch
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:57 pm
“Why Not? If rich white boys can have a district attorney disbarred, jailed and destroyed (financially and emotionally), why shouldn’t the same happen when we “ordinary” folks are falsely or unfairly prosecuted?”
The difference is that the Duke Lacrosse Team was innocent and the prosecutor made libelous and false remarks in public while withholding crucial evidence. The Jena DA did his job in bringing the maximum number and severity of charges allowed under state law. The Duke DA did everything wrong, the Jena DA did everything by the book. The handling of the two cases by the DA’s couldn’t be any different.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:19 am
REMEMBER THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT THAT MANY OF YOU SO PROUDLY QUOTE UPHELD SLAVERY AND ENFORCED JIM CROW LAWS !!! HOW EASILY MANY OF MY WHITE COLLEAGUES SO QUICKLY FORGET !! WHITE HYPOCRISY AND RATIONALIZATION NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME, BUT AGAIN I MUST REALIZE THAT THIS IS AMERIKA !! REST WELL EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE IN OZ !!