A timeline leading up to the Jena 6
In the front yard at a high school in Jena, Louisiana, with a total population of 4,000, there sits a tree. This is "the white tree", where only white students sit during breaks.
In September of 2006, a black student asked 'permission' from the school administration, if he could sit under the tree. They said he could sit anywhere.
The very next day, three nooses, in the schools colors, hung from "the white tree".
Three white students were identified as being responsible and the principle recommended they be expelled from school. However, the white superintendent said, "Adolescents play pranks," the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune, "I don't think it was a threat against anybody," and gave them a three day suspension instead.
A few days later, the entire black student body protested the no-nothing 'punishment' and sat under "the white tree". That day the white District Attorney came to Jena High School for an impromptu assembly, with back-up law enforcement. It has been reported that the DA threatened the silent black students who were sitting under the tree, saying if the did not stop making a fuss about the "innocent prank...I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." The school was then put on lockdown for the remaining week.
Thursday night, November 30th, 2006, a fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School. This incident is still unresolved.
Friday night, December 1st, a black student was beaten by a group of white students at a "white party".
Saturday, December 2nd, at the Gotta Go convenience store, the black student who was beaten up the night before, along with his friends, ran into one of the white students who beat him. A confrontation broke out and the white student went to his vehicle to get his shotgun. The black students wrestled the shotgun away from him and brought it to the police department and told them of the incident. The black students were arrested for stealing the gun. The white student was not charged.
Monday, December 4th, 2006, a white student, Justin Barker, was attacked at school by a group of black students for taunting them with racial slurs and verbally supporting the nooses that were hung on "the white tree" and also supporting the white students who beat up the black student at the party. He was treated at a hospital and released the same day, attending a social function that evening.
Six black students were arrested for beating Barker, and charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. These charges hold a possible sentence of twenty to one hundred years in prison. They were all immediately expelled from school.
17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior -bail was set at $138,000 17-year-old Theo Shaw - bail was set at $130,000
18-year-old Carwin Jones - bail was set at $100,000
17-year-old Bryant Purvis - bail was set at $70,000
16 year old Mychal Bell - bail was set at $90,000 (a sophomore in high school, was charged as an adult)
There remains another unidentified minor
Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial because his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has also remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in jail for months until their families could raise the money for bond.
In the local paper, the 'incident' was reported as fact and the white DA Reed Walters published a statement saying, "When you are convicted, I will seek the maximum penalty allowed by law."
. . . .
On July 31st, 2007, Mychal Bell will be sentenced. He is facing up to twenty-two years in prison.
The remaining five students await their trial on charges of attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They face up to 100 years in prison."
The white student who was beaten at the convenience store was later arrested for bringing a hunting rifle loaded with 13 bullets onto a high school campus. He was released on $5000 bond. The white man who beat up the black youth at the off-campus party was arrested and charged with battery.
The white students who hung up the nooses in "the white tree" have never been charged.
Also here is a FAQ website about it.
I would like to go on record saying that I believe the DA should be strung up by his nut sack and slowly bled out.
Anyone care to comment on this?
That's my belief, please don't take it the wrong way, I still have respect for yours.
