Was it a Waste?

We all recall the turn of events that shaped national headlines for weeks in late 2007. We all recall the busses converging on rural Louisiana to protest the treatment of 6 young men labeled the ‘Jena 6’. These young men [Bryant Purvis, Corwin Jones, Mychal Bell, Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey, and Theo Shaw] were charged with attempted murder for assaulting a lone white school mate [Justin Barker] in response to the hanging of a noose on a tree in the schoolyard. Many of us have read the stories and know the background of the situation. However, I was looked upon as deranged when I asked a question about this situation. While everyone was rallying, organizing to go to Jena, and protesting the injustices, I was asking questions. I wanted to know a bit more about these young men and their histories. I wanted to find out a bit more about Justin Barker as well.


Historically, we have been a people who reacted on emotion rather than information. Case and point, the Tawana Brawley case that propelled Sharpton into the national spotlight. This turned out to be a lie. The stripper and the Duke Lacrosse team…no comment. You see, we have too many folks who cry wolf and we keep jumping to their aide before we find out the whole story. The actions of these young men since the whole rally, protests, etc. has shown me that I was right in the first place. My personal opinion was that they were properly charged with attempted murder. I don’t care what they hung from a tree, to have 6 people jump on one, you have the propensity to kill them (regardless of the race of the individuals involved) therefore, even without the presence of weapons, the charge was adequate in my opinion. However, somebody thought it wasn’t right so they protested.


Then, after the charges were reduced and everything was resolved they were paraded around the country as heroes. They went to the BET image awards, several talk shows, etc, it was one big party. It was almost as if their actions were being lauded as proper. The result of which is one of the young men moving to Dallas to live with a relative, who played for the Cowboys, and trying to run over a white boy at his new high school with a car, because he made him mad. They gave him probation and community service. Another one was later charged with assault for another fight he was involved in. Oh, by the way he had also been charged with trespassing for another incident he was involved in. Another one was charged with simple battery, simple criminal damage to property less than $500 and simple assault. He was given a suspended sentence and house arrest. He also had 13 disciplinary actions against him at school (recommended for expulsion). They later suspended his probation and allowed him to move to Connecticut to use Jena 6 defense funds to pay his tuition at a private school. Then you have the moron of the year who was arrested for leaving the jurisdiction while on bail and speeding in an uninsured vehicle. Later, there was the shoplifting, resisting arrest, and simple assault charges that were levied on Christmas Eve.


Some will argue that these young men got into this trouble because of the attitude toward them in the Jena community. This can be refuted by the fact that several of these young men’s troubles continued when they let the small Louisiana town. Others will say that the pressure of this whole situation was too much for them to handle. To this I say, as I often do, that we all have to deal with the decisions we make in life. They decided to work as a group (of six) to fight, and possibly maim or kill, one classmate and therefore need to deal with what goes with that. Then, to further exhibit the intelligence, or lack thereof of this group of miscreants, Mychal Bell uses a .22 caliber gun to try and kill himself. When I heard this I said, “What?!?!?! Why didn’t he just hit himself with rocks?” How stupid can you be to use such a small gun to do the deed? Being from the country he had to know that he wouldn’t be successful. To further exhibit his stupidity, he shot himself in the chest. What?!?!?!? He didn’t want death, he wanted attention. Nothing more! All reports state that it was a non life threatening injury. He’s shown himself to be an ignorant coward who misses the spotlight so much so that he’ll do anything to get back into it.
By the way, I’m also sick of black folk using the excuse, “If it had been a white boy…” How about this…how about we don’t commit crimes or put ourselves in a position to be maliciously prosecuted? How about that? It’s time out for us to justify our actions, or errors in judgment, by the fact that others are getting away with it. That’s crap and we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that. We can do right, we can walk the path, and we can be role models for your own kids and clean up our own communities.


What took place with these young men in Jena was a travesty on many levels. These young men weren’t treated fairly by the legal system, but no in the way that you’re thinking. We live in a society that levies penalties on its citizens for their actions, or infractions of the laws that are in place. What we have effectively told these guys is they were right to beat their classmate to a pulp with a 6 to 1 ratio. What we have told them is that they are above the law, and many of them are living like they are. What we told them is that if we protest, make noise and scare some folk we can get out of trouble, even if we are wrong. I don’t care if some Asian kid, white kid, Hispanic kid, or any other ethnicity got away with it. I was raised with the mindset, don’t put yourself in a situation you aren’t willing to suffer the consequences for. Yes, they should have been upset about the noose in the tree. Yes they should have been upset about the other events that took place in their community. However, none of that justifies one student being assaulted by 6 at the same time. They chose this path and should have suffered some consequences for their actions.


However, our community lauded their actions and treated them as heroes. Now we see the result. Had I been one of the ‘Jena 6’ my mother would not have allowed the parading across the country from show to show, event to event these young men did. They were wrong for what they did and should have suffered the consequences for their actions. Since they didn’t, and haven’t for consequent actions, they will continue to act in a manner that is above the law and outside of the parameters of our society. We created this monster, now we’ll have to wait to see how it looks as it grows up. Don’t get me wrong, they can change, should they choose to make different decisions, but based on present actions and immediate past decisions, I don’t see it.


It’s just my opinion, I Pray I’m Wrong.