Michael Baisden Provides National Support for the Jena 6
Jim Crow Laws Still Enforced in Louisiana Town
Community leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Shaprton and the NAACP are calling for all Americans to wake up and take notice of the blatant racism that remains to be a problem in our country.
Back Ground Information on the Jena 6:
Last fall in the small segregated rural community of Jena Louisiana, a black student asked school administrators for permission to sit in the shade under a tree which was reserved for the enjoyment of white students. The school officials gave the students permission to sit under the tree but the next day three nooses, in the school colors were hung from the tree. The principle of the school recommended suspension for three white students who pulled that racist prank. The school superintendent over ruled the principles decision and gave the three young men a mere three day suspension.
Months following the incident, racial tension ran high at the school. In December of 2006, a white student was allegedly beaten by black students. He was taken to the hospital and released in that same evening; he also attended a social function that night after he was released from the emergency room.
This resulted in six black students charged with attempted second degree murder. All six students were expelled from school. The charges were eventually dropped to second degree aggravated assault and conspiracy. The prosecutor was allowed to present the argument to an all white jury that the sneakers worn by one of the accused could be considered a dangerous weapon. That student Mychal Bell was found guilty on the maximum charges on aggravated second degree assault and conspiracy. Another outrage regarding the trial is the public defender not calling any witnesses to the stand in Bell's defense. Bell faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison. He will be sentenced September 20th. He now has new lawyers who will request a new trial on the grounds that he should have not been tried as an adult and the trial should have been held in a different parish.
Similar trials are in store for the other five black students. The next to go on trial will be Theodore Shaw; he faces 20- 80 years behind bars.
Ways You Can Show Your Support for the Jena 6:
Sign the Jena 6 Petition Online:
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/main.html
Show Up In Person:
DATE: Thursday September 20, 2007
TIME: PEACE & Protest Rally at 8:00am
SENTENCING: 9:00am for student Mychal Bell
LOCATION:
LaSalle Parish Courthouse
1050 Courthouse St
Jena, LA 71342
(25 minutes from Alexandria)
SOURCES:
NAACP Supports The People of Jena : http://www.naacp.org/get-involved/activism/alerts/110aa-2007-7-20/index.htm
Justice For The Jena 6: http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/message.html
Michael Baisden Tour Dates: http://www.minglecity.com/minglecityNew/event_listing.php?eventID=7&eventDate=2007-09-20
Published by Lorraine Hayden
I'm a freelance writer, wife and mother. View profile
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110 Comments
Post a CommentThen there is no trial and then you find out later after looking into why you have to pay fines that you were convicted. Your cousins husband is on the take, because of being bought after shady things were found out about him. The man who assaults you is voted in as the knew Sheriff. To add insult to injury they even accuse me of assaulting another police officer, the chief of police so as to make it look good. If I was not strong I would not be able to hold up. When I told one peson my story he was like this is unreal, I said yea who would believe this story, you only hear about it. I have no faith in people, yet i love people, but people can do some messed up things to others'. These people need to really see what is going on in America, not do things that will get them publicity. It is not only black men. I could have been a lot of things, yet i am humble and live a quiet life of service.
I feel just about everyone is a sell out in America. These people do what can get them publicity. The real truth is anything can be done to you if you have no money. I have done work with a counselor and one of the things he told the people I was observing him work with is that be aware that a person can get a charge and be innocent and he has to prove his innocence. I really thought he knew my story, but I was afraid to ask. I had not heard of such a thing. I thought that it was always something questionable in the persons character that lead him to be falsely accused. Drugs are running rampant in this town. People are doing some messed up stuff. How does a person correct an era. You get labeled and you are abused and mistreated because they say no one will beleive you because your said to be crazy. A police officer assaults you when you are accused of a crime you did not commit. They fix the court room setting. Say you pleaded guilty, yet you were not allowed to even submit a plea.
All is well and good with celebrities helping people, but the reality is that too many innocent people who do nothing but are in some ways like the people that become celebrities. I have always been an extremely attractive even now at 50 it is hard for people to believe. i left a job after severe treatment because I accomplished things that were not ordinarily done. Even though this organization blatantly has always claimed to people equal in justice. But what does history really say, and what do the people say who comprimise themselves to get a retirement check really say. I because of never divulging abuses in my family, and then finally getting tired after my protector died, and they stepped up their hostilities have managed to get 3 degrees and working on a forth have thoroughly had my rights violated in a small town. Over the years when it gets to me I call hotlines and you know they believe my story, but nothing is done. My only hope is to get this last degree and hire a lawyer:
In September, I was listening to the show you were talking about men being in prison for an exurbent amount of time. My son is one of those people, he killed a man, that is hard for me to say. The man beat him and later that night he pistol-whipped him and told him if he said anything he would kill him and me, his mother. When my son saw him on the street, after he pressed charges, he called the police, he did this three times. Well their next encounter my son shot him, in the leg unfortuately he died. The trial was a travisty they gave my son FIFTY-FIVE YEARS. Yes I said FIFTY-FIVE years. I later found out that this man was a bully, he had been bulling my son since he was a teenager. At the time of the incident my son was 29 that was in 2003. I can not afford an attorney, the lawyer he had I paid him $5000.00, he has a lot to appeal, my prayer is that nothing happens to me, while he is waiting for his appeal. Thank you for listening.
'YES' THE ONE AND ONLY. A fight is one on one not 6 on one and beat unconscious.NO one should have any kind of weapens used on them unless self defence .Its hard to believe someone did that to another person then keep the scewdriver.this what im saying we have to clean house with congress and senate. they r old and we need new ideals and young minds. These guys r selling this country out. We need to set a term for them just like the presedent has.WE not getting any were with the old system.I see it as a human instead of being a white and black problem.Its people that makes the discion on there action.
Now call me a conspiracy theorists all you want anti-Jena 6 folks, but isn't it ironic that a cop can stick a screwdriver into a man's rectum in an alley and his punishment is monetary but somehow a fight between some guys (when Justin Barker had done the EXACT same thing to Robert Bailey Jr. only a few weeks before--jumped him and Justin Sloan hit him with a bottle), and he's in juvi for 18 months and in a man's adult prison for 10 months. It's amazing how the system works--amazingly idiotic.
In the November 5, 2007 issue of JET magazine, a young man (23 years old) named Coprez Coffie was awarded $4 million after Chicago police officers assaulted him with a screwdriver during a drug arrest three years ago. Coffie's lead attorney, Jonathan Loevy, said that Coffee had internal cuts from the screwdriver that was later found in the glove compartment of a squad car. This incident happened in a city alley from one cop while the other cop did nothing to stop the first one. Even with $4 million, monetary damages is not enough. That cop should be put in jail for assault and rape. And then people ask me why I look at cops side-eyed.
YES its me again, lets talk about the punishment these guys should get. let's see' "does it realy take "6"young men to beat one MAN".SORRY no it does not; and beat him unconscious.I never had it in my haert to hurt some one like that. That tells me they didnt care if he lived or died.
This all started over a tree. Because the whites claimed it was theirs and the blacks wanted to set under it you have to be kidding me.So the whites hung nooses on the tree.And they cut down the tree "THAT WILL SHOW THOSE TREES WE HAVE THINGS UNDER CONTROL".We always have to blame someone or something. Lets face it were getting worse with racism because every one keeps it alive.Storys were told to us when we were kids and some was true and some wasnt.I have both race in my family and all I see is to races that will be killing one another for life.WERE TO STUPID TO LET IT GO IT HAPPEN OVER A 110 YEARS AGO. WERE HERE TO STAY GET IT THREW BOTH OF YOUR HEADS.
Im back,to talk about jena"6" let the sex young men go just like" Oj, Robert BLAKE , THE SIX WHITE PEOPLE THAT BEAT AND torchered THE BLACK WOMEN IN WEST VIRGINA".Thats what this country is comeing to. Were is the "JUSTICE"for those people that suffered because of there actions.
i listen to your show ever day , it makes me laugh and i love the music. some of the topics i love and some i dont ,I just like to say our kids or getting out of control,I here every one talking about what we need to do, but nothing is being done .Parents use the words like ," i cant touch my kids i go to jail" WRONG. Wy should i have to listen to your child that has no disipline.It's all kids i see it in all cultures, it is realy getting sickening watching kids do what they want. We didn't so wy should they we have to get "CONTROL".