NPR Has Been Terrible, Too (0.00 / 0)

I never listen to NPR at home, and mostly I work at home.  So I don't tune in very often.  But I caught a couple of different reports on Jena the last day or two, and the coverage was abysmal, with the DA, of all people, effectively presented as an impartial authority, and with no mention at all of the significant events between the the hanging of the nooses and the fight that the Jena 6 were imprisoned for.

It was a despicable example of the "balance" meme run amok, which is why I almost never listen to NPR in the first place.

In contrast, Pacifica's Democracy Now! has been excellent, not just with presenting members of Jena's black community, but also a rather chilling look into the white community there as well.

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 13:41:45 PM CDT

Appearing on Fox News this Sunday (0.00 / 0)

Why is Hillary appearing on Fox news this Sunday?

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by: BDM @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 13:53:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Off Topic, Much??? (0.00 / 0)

Not to mention why the fuck are you asking me?

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 15:15:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Jena lesson is about lynch-mob nooses, not about calling a black eye attempted murder (0.00 / 0)

I confess that I had only a passing acquaintance with the issues in the Jena 6 until the coverage of the demonstration yesterday. I only knew that the universal message of the media reporting had been that this was as another example of a prosecutor being tougher on black defendants than on white defendants.

When I studied the details of the story in the NYT and other sources, though, I became convinced that this story could be more effectively framed as several months of resistance by black students to an attempt by some white students to take the tone of the school back to the 1950s, or even back to the days of the lynch mob. In their project to roll back the clock, the white students had with the support of some parts of the white community, including the prosecutor.

The message implicit in exhibiting nooses is simple: White folks have the power in this town, we can whatever we want to you black folks, and there's nothing that you can do about it. Or, to put it in the context of The Dred Scott decision: Black folks have no rights that white folks are legally bound to respect. The principal of the high school knew that nooses carried a powerfully noxious message and tried to expel the students responsible. On the other hand, the school superintendent (who reduced the expulsions to a short suspension) and the local prosecutor appear to have been trying to reinforce the white students' message. A slap on the wrist for an act of intimidation is equivalent to approving the intimidation - just with a wink and a nod.

Discriminatorily harsh punishment for oppressed groups in the community is old news. The use of the criminal justice system as a major tool to "keep those folks in their place" is also old news. The fact that the criminal justice system systematically metes out harsher punishments to African-Americans and Latinos is also well documented, although whether this characteristic is discriminatory or just the consequence of more serious criminal behavior in minority communities continues to be debated.

But the claim that a prosecutor today, in the 21st century, brings some prosectutions for the intended purpose of "keeping black folks in their place" is greeted by most white folks with disbelief. In the Jena 6 case, though, we appear to have a contemporary documented example. Reports state that when black students were only protesting at the "white tree," the prosecutor paid a visit to the school and warned the black students that "I can ruin your life (or was in make you disappear?) with a stroke of my pen."

True to his word, when the Jena 6 finally had all they could take of humiliating and demeaning remarks from some of the white students, and ganged up on one tormentor to give him a black eye (and perhaps other minor injuries), this prosecutor charged five of the six with attempted murder.

The combination of trying to intimidate the students with threats when they were protesting peacefully and then filing ridiculously excessive charges against six of the students on an assault case should satisfy most people that the prosecutor has an extra-judicial agenda. But it's important to emphasize that it's not just "I'm going to punish blacks more harshly." The agenda is to intimidate the entire black community.

I suggest that the disproportionate percentages of African American males prosecuted in the criminal justice system and the harsher sentences they receive almost everywhere is not just a result of poverty in minority communities. It's also a result of the residual bias in a system that started out with the explicit mission of "keeping them in their place." In some communities the remaining bias is mostly unintentional. In other communities, prosecutors like the one in Jena exhibit pretty openly their agenda to use the criminal justice system to remind the black community every day that black folks are subject to the arbitrary whims of the white leaders of the community.

Incidentally, professional disciplinary charges should be filed against the Jena prosecutor when his role in the Jena 6 prosecutions ends. Even if he has not engaged in deceitful conduct like the prosecutor of the Duke lacrosse team members, the Jena prosecutor has pretty clearly abused the power of his office at least as badly as the Bush-appointed U.S. Attorneys who pursued Dan Sigelman and other Democratic office holders because they were Democrats.

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by: hardheaded liberal @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 16:25:32 PM CDT

you may want to listen to Michael Baisden tomorrow (0.00 / 0)

He really has been taking about -- and organizing -- on this for the last few weeks.  What you say here is exactly what he and his callers have been discussing.  Today, they noted that every black man is going to have an encounter (even arrest) with the police.  There is even an industry that profits off this. 

New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.

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by: Hopeful in NJ @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 20:40:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Excellent comment, hardheaded liberal (0.00 / 0)

The disparate experiences of blacks and whites, regardless of class or ideology, have yielded vastly differing perceptions (and realities) of life, opportunity and justice in America, as well as reactions to the Jena 6 case.

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by: fafnir @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 09:07:25 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Matt a good assessment. (0.00 / 0)

It was black radio/media that pushed this story.  WE have been talking about this in our community for MONTHS, MONTHS.  And the CBC.  They are are a bunch of POS's, for real.  They have become DC'ized, and forgot what is going on out here.  But, what I am most proud about is the young folk, all across the board in ethnicity and race that went down to Jena, LA.  See what is happening affects us all, not just one race, all.  Once those in authority think they can do "whatever", then they become enpowered.  Next, you, yes you, can tell them get the "F" out my face, and then you, yes you, will be seeing some jail time on some bogus charges.  It only takes one incident, unchecked, to open the whole can of worms.

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by: icebergslim @ Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 22:22:37 PM CDT