Sure...there was some, but is putting nooses in trees on one occassion harrassment? Is it a hate crime? It is horrible, but its a free speech issue. To charge someone for it is absurd. The school should've suspended them, no doubt, but criminal charges?
Are you ****ing kidding me?
No, seriously-- are you ****ing kidding me?
The noose, erected by
white students to scare off
black students because they were hanging out under a tree on school property which the white kids declared their own, was not harassment? It was not a hate crime?
So, let me guess, when people put Swastikas up on the doors of Jewish professors, that's just freedom of speech? No hate there?
When members of the KKK burn crosses in the lawns of African Americans, that's just freedom of speech? No hate there at all?
Incidents like these have resulted in hate crime charges and harassment charges nationwide. For some strange reason, these modern laws didn't resonate in Jena, Louisiana. These nooses were not hung because they were pretty decorations; they were hung to frighten African Americans, because sixty years ago in places like Jena, LA, African Americans were taken by white supremacists, brutally beaten and hanged. Their bodies were left in trees for days, if not weeks, and no one did anything about it.
Tell me this didn't have some sort of racist overtone. Tell me this wasn't harassment, when it was documented that these white teenagers had shown annoyance towards allowing these black students a chance to hang out under a tree on school property.
As for the attempted murder, yet, I'd agree there are some racial over tones, but again, look at how any district attorney works, presenting trumped up charges such as attempted murder in order to get the suspect to plea down to assault is not uncommon, however, if the suspect will not plea down, it is also not uncommon for the DA to leave attempted murder on the table, just to let the jury shoot it down in order to save face and say "I'm tough on crime!"
I disagree with this, wholeheartedly. I've watched the slimeball DA from Jena speak on this topic, it is quite obvious that he was not acting within the context of the crime to charge these kids with attempted murder. There was no plan to kill these kids, the extent of the injuries did not go anywhere near murder-- the worst these kids should have been charged with was aggravated assault. And there was a good reason why it was aggravated assault: These white kids harassed these black kids by hanging nooses in a tree.
This DA has very little knowledge of the law, and his adamant defense of charging these kids with attempted murder shows that he truly believes the charges should stand.
I understand how you think that some people blow the race argument out of proportion, but seriously Matt, this goes way too far. If this incident took place in New Hampshire, these white kids would be charged with harassment and the African Americans would be charged with assault. Both groups of kids would have been suspended from school, and it would have been over within a week. An African American student would not be sitting in prison, waiting to be charged for attempted murder as an adult when there was no intent to murder those white kids.