About Me
we all need pay attention to what is happening... big media does not seem to be to interested in broadcasting this.
© Michael David Murphy, 2007
This video was made with audio, video, photographs, and scans of court documents on June 25, 2007, in Jena, Louisiana.
In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree.
The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."
Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles.
Yesterday, I was in Jena for the first day of the trial for Mychal Bell, one of the Jena Six. The D.A., perhaps in response to public pressure, tried to get Bell to cop a plea. Bell refused, and today, jury selection began. After today, we'll know whether or not the case will be tried in front of an all-white jury. Jena's 85-percent white, and it remains to be seen whether or not the six can get a fair trial.
Both off-the-record and on, Jena residents told me racism is alive and well in Louisiana, and this is a case where it rose above the levee, so to speak.
Update: Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena Six to face trial, was found guilty of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same on June 28th. A comprehensive look at the case, the trial and the verdict was published on July 2nd at friendsofjustice.
This is the "Gotta Go" in Jena, Louisiana. On December 2nd, 2006, one of the fights that followed the noose incident (and the burning of Jena High School) was here. Three black teens were in the store, including two of the Jena Six, and when they left, they were confronted by a white man with a loaded shotgun. The teens wrestled the gun from him and fled. The gun was later found in a car in the backyard of one of the Jena Six.
In court documents, I found this statement, from the gun owner, who tells a very different story:
"I drove up to the Gotta Go and started to walk in the store and saw three black males and one hollered 'we've got action'. I saw them running after me so I turned and sprinted to my truck and then got my gun out. RB, RS, and TS were wrestling for the gun. After wrestling the gun away, hitting me in the face, they ran behind the store. AC & the Gotta Go owners saw."
The gun was a 12-guage Riot shotgun with a black laser sight on the side.
Theodore Shaw's son has been in prison for the last six months awaiting trial because the District Attorney charged him with attempted murder for a schoolyard fight, and set bail so high that his father can't get him out. Theodore's son (Theo) will probably be the second member of the Jena Six to go on trial later this summer, unless some kind of deal is reached.
It's unclear whether or not the DA will lessen Theo's charges, as he did with Mychal Bell who was found guilty last week of 2nd degree aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit same. All told, Theo will most likely be facing 20-80 years in prison.
fuck iraq and fuck big media... how about equality?
