Jena 6

[Sombeech]

OK, here's what I know. Basically, 6 blacks beat up a white.

And now there's a huge black rally asking for justice.

Can somebody fill me in? Whom are they asking justice for? The 6 blacks or the white kid?

[TreeHugger]

From what I understand, the issue is with the inequity and severity of the punishments.

[Sombeech]

What are the punishments?

[TreeHugger]

They were charged with attempted murder, considered too severe,(reduced for all but one later) for a "school yard brawl" that was retaliation for a white kid putting hangman nooses up (they got 3 days suspension for that, is what I've heard). That's the general
idea, you'll have to read more about it for details.

[sparker1]

Before the guy got beaten, someone hung several nooses from a tree in the town square. No one was punished. Six thugs decided to mete out "justice" by beating up the guy, who may or may not have had anything to do with the nooses. One of the kids doing the beating was tried as an adult, but the conviction was overturned because he should not have been tried as an adult. One of the charges was attempted murder, thought by the black community to be too harsh. That's what I've read, may be missing some of it.

[Sombeech]

Oh, ok. I thought the nooses were hung during the rally. I didn't know they started the whole thing.

So did the white kid hang the noose?

[goofball]

kinda glad to have seen this thread. i too was wondering what this case was about. protesting on behalf of 6 kids stomping on 1 ?!? something had to be missing from the bytes the newscasts were meting out. if this white kid was involved w/ the noose's i say he got what he deserved and those black kids should suffer few consequences and mild ones. was the white boy considered guilty by association maybe ? if so, he best reconsider the company he keeps.

[scoutabout]

Reminds of the game where you pass a message around in a circle to see how it changes. Pretty good summary on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six