I say fuk em.... It's 10, 20, Life... You're done son (D.Chap...)
If 5 white dudes did this too 1 black dude in this small hick town you can gurantee the Million man march would be out against the 5 white kids to get the full penalty... Shoot just look at the Duke lacross mess, this just all a joke now //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/20/jena.six/index.html
Town braces for massive rally in support of 'Jena 6'
CNN) -- For weeks, Mychal Bell expected to find out his punishment Thursday for his alleged role in a school beating that has thrust racial tensions in a tiny Southern town into the national spotlight -- and onto the political stage.
Charles Steele Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, speaks in Jena, Louisiana.
1 of 3 Instead, he and five other black teens will be the focus of a rally that promises to bring enough protesters to Jena, Louisiana, to outnumber its 3,000 residents many times over.
"This is a march for justice. This is not a march against whites or against Jena," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and one of the protest organizers.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King III, and hip-hop artist Mos Def also are expected to attend.
Barricades have gone up around the local courthouse and Louisiana state troopers said they will be out in force to keep the peace, as the demonstrators protest what they feel are excessive criminal charges and bond amounts for the teens, dubbed the "Jena 6."
Bell, 17, has been in prison since his arrest in December.
"It breaks our heart to see him handcuffed and in leg shackles," Sharpton said. "But his spirit is high. He has said that he is very encouraged to know that thousands are coming to this town to stand up for him and his five friends."
The teens were initially charged with attempted murder after they allegedly knocked out Justin Barker -- a white classmate -- while stomping and kicking him during a school fight on December 4, 2006.
Barker was taken to a hospital with injuries to both eyes and ears, as well as cuts. His right eye had blood clots, said his mother, Kelli Barker.
"The injury done to him and threats to his survival have become less than a footnote," Reed said Wednesday.
"This case has not, never has been about race. It's about finding justice for an innocent victim, holding people accountable for their actions. That is what it's about," he said.
Five of the black teens were charged as adults. Bell was the first to face felony charges.
Advocates of the Jena 6 said the story actually began three months earlier, when three white students hung nooses from a tree on campus. The white students were suspended from school but didn't face criminal charges. The protesters argue they should have been charged with a hate crime.
Charges against Bell were reduced, as were charges against Carwin Jones and Theodore Shaw, who have not yet come to trial.
Bell, who was 16 at the time of the fight, was to have been sentenced on battery and conspiracy convictions Thursday. But a district judge earlier this month tossed out his conviction for conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, saying the matter should have been handled in the juvenile court.
Last week, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Lake Charles, Louisiana, did the same with Bell's battery conviction.
But a Louisiana appeals court ruled Tuesday it was too early to consider a motion to free Bell from prison.
Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney who reviewed investigations into the nooses and the beating said he believes the incidents -- though likely symptoms of racial tension -- were not related.
"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," said Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana.
"There were three months of high school football in which they all played football together and got along fine, in which there was a homecoming court, in which there was the drill team, in which there were parades," Washington added.
The controversy has even become an issue in the presidential race.
Jackson criticized Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday over his reaction to the arrests, accusing the Illinois senator of "acting like he's white," according to a South Carolina newspaper.
The comments reportedly came during a speech at Benedict College, a historically black college in Columbia, South Carolina.
"If I were a candidate, I'd be all over Jena," the prominent civil rights activist said, according to the The State newspaper. "Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment."
The newspaper reported Jackson later said he did not recall saying Obama is "acting like he's white," but continued to condemn the Illinois Democrat as well as the other presidential candidates for not bringing more attention to this issue.
Obama formally released a statement on the case Friday evening after one of Bell's charges was thrown out, saying, "I am pleased that the Louisiana state appeals court recognized that the aggravated battery charge brought in this case was inappropriate."
"I hope that today's decision will lead the prosecutor to reconsider the excessive charges brought against all the teenagers in this case," he added. "And I hope that the judicial process will move deliberately to ensure that all of the defendants will receive a fair trial and equal justice under the law."
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Obama said his previous statements about the Jena 6 case "were carefully thought out" with input from his national campaign chairman and Jackson's son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Illinois.
"Outrage over an injustice like the Jena 6 isn't a matter of black and white. It's a matter of right and wrong," he said.
In a statement released Wednesday, the elder Jackson reaffirmed his support for Obama.
"He has remarkably transcended race, however the impact of Katrina and Jena makes America's unresolved moral dilemma of race unavoidable," he said.