Pursuing Holiness

This will be my last substantive post on the Jena 6, and comments will be closed on older posts after this is published. I may note new developments on the case, but I’m not going to spend nearly as much time on it as I have in the past.

I was struck by this comment by From Jena, a person I have often disagreed with but have also come to respect because he’s honest and working hard to do what he believes is right:

The CORE issue of this whole thing is the potential injustice created by the DA charging these boys too harshly. I would LOVE for an investigative team (unbiased) to come in and compare all cases which Reed Walters has prosecuted in the past to see if racism does indeed factor into his judgment. If it DOES, then the black community has every right to be angry, and Reed Walters deserves to be punished in some way. If it DOESN’T, the black community will have little to say about the charges that were applied to these students being too harsh because of their color, in THIS particular instance.

I agree. That is the core issue. Although I disagree that if it can be proved that Reed Walters is not selectively prosecuting black people, it means that these charges are fair. The second degree attempted murder charges were patently ridiculous, and the 2nd degree battery charges are still a bit of a stretch.

In any event, reasonable people can and do disagree whether the Jena 6 have been charged too harshly, and if they have been, what the motivation for that might have been. My original Jena 6 post complained about the attempted second degree murder charges. If Walters had originally charged them with battery - any variation of battery - I honestly believe we would never have heard the phrase “Jena 6.” And in fact, Mychal Bell’s jury did ask for clarification on lesser charges, and were stymied by Reed Walters refusal to give the jury a written copy of the charges. I also didn’t assume, as many have, that an all-white jury automatically meant “racism.” In an 85% white town, it was practically inevitable. I was concerned about reports that literally half of the jury had ties to the prosecution; reports which may or may not have been true.

I was shocked and offended that a) anybody would hang a noose and b) others would excuse it. Anyone from the south who claims to not know the significance of the noose is either lying or a special kind of stupid. I just don’t know how else to put it. The original excuse, that the nooses were a “prank,” is to me, frankly unbelievable. The current story is that nooses are sometimes hung before football games in upstate Louisiana as a show of school spirit, and this was apparently just the first time it was done in Jena. Well, I’m from south Louisiana so I can’t speak with authority on what gets done upstate before football games. But IF that were what happened in Jena, I believe it would have been mentioned early on, and if it were true, Reed Walters certainly would not have wasted his time desperately seeking some way to charge the noose hangers, as he claimed in his NYT op-ed.

The high school I attended was pretty rough, and that certainly colored my perception of the Justin Barker beating. First of all, I have seen enough fights to know how quick and how chaotic they are. Second, a 6 on 1 brutal beating does not result in the victim spending a couple of hours in the ER and attending a social function that night. I’ve seen Justin Barker’s medical report, and I stand by my characterization of his injuries as not being serious. I knew that there was no way that six athletes beating an unconscious victim would have done so little damage. And I was right; it wasn’t a 6 on 1 beating. Here are the two most pertinent witness statements - by friends of Justin Barker who took part in the fight:

JH – Jena 6 Incident 05
“Justin and KR was walking out of the gym when I saw a black boy heard a black boy say something to Justin I turned my head and I saw somebody hit Justin. He fell in between the gym door and the concrete barrier. I saw Robert Bailey kneel down and punch Justin in the head. ES pushed Robert Bailey and he fell. Then Carwin Jones kicked him in the head. Eric pushed Carwin back. I ran over there and Theo Shaw tried to kick him and I pushed Theo Shaw down. I also saw Mychal Bell standing over him. Then somebody yelled teacher and they all ran away. The last person I saw was RB
(Bug) standing over him, but I’m not sure if he kicked him or not. Then I saw Coach Lewis kneel down on the ground beside Justin, but I never saw him during the fight.”

Okay, let’s review that -

1. Sombody hit Barker
2. Barker goes down
3. Robert Bailey gets down on the ground and begins to punch the unconscious Barker in the head
4. ES quickly joins the fray and knocks Bailey down
5. Carwin Jones joins and kicked Barker in the head
6. ES pushes Jones back
7. Our witness, JH, jumps in and stops Theo Shaw from kicking Barker

That statement from, I must emphasize again, A FRIEND OF BARKER’S WHO HAS NO REASON WHATSOEVER TO DEFEND THE JENA 6, describes a 5 on 2 brawl. And not just any witness from the crowd. A person who was close enough to see what happened and who participated.

Now, the other person who participated was ES.

ES – Jena 6 Incident 01
“Me and JH and Justin and KR were walking out of the gym. Me and JH were in front of them. It was a lot of black people standing in front of the gym and me and JH walked out by them. When I heard one of them black boys say that there’s that white mother f***er that was running his mouth. Then I turned around and I seen somebody hit him but I don’t know who hit him. Then he fell in between the concrete barrier by the gym door. And I seen Carwin Jones and Robert Bailey hitting him and kicking him. It was so many black boys standing around him I really couldn’t tell who else was hitting him. All I knew was that all of us …… before they hurt him worse. I know I got Carwin Jones and Robert off because I knocked them two off and I landed on them two. And when them two ran off, another black boy name RB stepped across him and stepped on his face and he smarted off something. And I pushed him away and then some boy grabbed me and then all the coaches were there. And we went to the office.”

Let’s review that statement:

1. Somebody hits Barker
2. Carwin Jones and Robert Bailey hit and kicked him.
3. ES got Jones and Bailey off of him.
4. Another boy, RB, who was not charged at all, “stepped on his face.”

Again, this is from a friend of Barker’s, who certainly would not take the side of the Jena 6 in any way. He was literally the first one to jump to Barker’s defense. These two statements are consistent both with each other and with Barker’s injuries. They describe a brawl. It was certainly not brutal beating people think of, nor was it 6 on 1. Reed Walters reported this complaint by a Jena 6 defender:

Their anger at me was summed up by a woman who said, “If you can figure out how to make a schoolyard fight into an attempted murder charge, I’m sure you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime.”

I partially agree - I think that Reed got pretty creative when he reviewed those two statements and came up with 2nd degree attempted murder for a charge. I don’t think that the noose-hangers should have been charged with a hate crime, and if they had, it would not have provided justice. Justice doesn’t mean charge everybody. It means punishment appropriate to the crime. I think hate crime laws should be abolished. However, taking the incident seriously from the beginning - an apology, allowing the black parents to speak at the School Board meeting, an assembly announcing that those kinds of things will not be tolerated - would almost certainly have defused the entire situation. Instead, tensions built for the rest of the semester, climaxing in a number of crimes.

Early on I took reports about the Jena 6 at face value, and there are areas where I was simply wrong to do so. Upon reading the police reports for the Gotta Go and Fair Barn incidents, I now contend that they were NOT AT ALL the mirror incidents of the Justin Barker beating that I originally believed they were. Go read them for yourselves. Fair minded people can disagree, but I think most people who read those will conclude that those incidents are not an apples-to-apples comparison of what happened at the school on the following Monday. And I’d specifically like to note that I’m forced to conclude from those witness statements that Mychal Bell and Justin Barker’s other attackers were in fact looking for a fight that day. It wasn’t just a blowup after a trash talking session, although I also believe that trash talking session definitely occurred.

The choices are not to either “free the Jena Six!” or to put them under the jail. And just because Jena suffers from racism - as even it’s defenders have admitted - doesn’t mean that criminals should be excused from punishment. I have no idea how it all will work out. I wanted to get at the truth, and I think that the documents I received from my source, that Joe Carter and I posted on 9/27/07, did more to accomplish that than anything else could have. And I also think it’s worth noting that both the media and leftist organizations like Democracy Now had access to those papers as well. It took my source the time to go to the courthouse and get them, and I’m reimbursing him for $75 worth of copying fees. Amy Goodman from Democracy Now was in Jena many times, as was Mary Foster with the AP. If they had these papers, they never wrote a word about them. If they didn’t get them, why didn’t they? While I do feel that they prove my assertions that Reed Walters was way out of line, they also clearly indicate that the Jena 6 are not the innocent choirboys they were originally made out to be, and they definitely add weight to the conspiracy charges. In other words, they dilute the preferred narrative.

I’m glad that Bell is being charged as a juvenile. I’m aware of his criminal record, having posted on it as soon as I learned about it, but I still believe we as a society are far too quick to treat juveniles as adults. If we need to expand or rework the juvenile system, then why don’t we? There needs to be some middle ground for teenagers who are more morally culpable than, say, a twelve year old, but are still not adults. One student was considered a juvenile since the beginning, and the rest were 17 and so could legally be charged as adults - something I’m still on the fence about, how someone can be a juvenile in other respects but not for a crime. We may not learn the results of the juvenile cases. We’ll doubtless be hearing more about the other four, though. I’m not going to spend a lot of time blogging about it. What would justice look like, at this point? If there is a way to charge them with some form of misdemeanor battery, with a couple of months in jail, a long probation, community service and compensation for Justin Barker’s medical expenses, I think that would be fair.

Finally, I regret a number of times in the comments of various posts where I got quite frustrated and screechy toward several people including From Jena. I know that “a soft answer turns away wrath” and furthermore I know that in the eternal scheme of things, none of this really matters. Nevertheless, I allowed my emotions to carry me away and I was occasionally rude. There was a lot going on in the background, but other people’s bad behavior doesn’t excuse my own. It is too easy, in an emotional case, to lose sight of the fact that I would never have taken such an intemperate and hasty tone with a person I was speaking to face to face. And it is too easy to get entrenched in a position and want to defend the position, rather than keep sight of larger issues, like the fact that what I wanted to do was get to the truth, not to beat down an opponent. I did both and I do sincerely apologize.

written by Laura

I  have one more post to do on the Jena 6 and I haven’t forgotten it.  I’m going to be going through and shutting down comments on certain older posts at the same time.  It’s going to take the better part of a day, and several things are preventing or slowing me from getting that done - a recent death in the family, some health issues, and some issues at work that are taking up a lot more time than expected.

I’m looking forward to putting an end to my participation in all this - not least because it’s very discouraging to have worked to get the facts out there and have it not even slow down the rumor-mongering and idiocy.  Yes, on both sides.  I’m completely disgusted.  Maybe if it had been sooner, before the memes were locked in stone… but who knows…

written by Laura

In several Jena 6 posts, I advised anonymous commenters claiming to be from Jena to “put up or shut up.” One reader from Jena did, and that person is my source for the documents now posted by Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost. (My reasons for getting help from Joe for this are here.) Please read the rest of this post, and examine all the documents before you comment here.

My source and I do not agree on every aspect of this case, although in some areas my source was correct and my opinion was changed by what I’ve read. In other areas, my opinions were affirmed. I’ll post more on that separately soon, but I’m going to keep my source’s post on top for at least a day or two. For now, since my source has so generously “put up” and worked to get these documents out there so the rest of us can have an informed opinion of the Jena 6 case, I’ll “shut up” and let you read my source’s post yourselves:
________________________________________________
I am from Jena, LA. Due to the sensitivities of this case, I have chosen to post this anonymously. Though I can’t say I don’t know anyone involved with this case (the town is only composed of 3500 people or so), I can say that I do not know anyone in this case well enough to distort my perspective about the situation.

Many of you reading this may live in a small town such as Jena. If not, you may live in a neighborhood or apartment complex that has tightly-knit neighbors. Like many small towns, Jena has its share of rumors and gossip. In fact, I’ve always thought it was very bad. When this case started to materialize, many rumors about the case were swirling around town. This case as a whole has so many instances and facets to it that rumors seemed to show up every day.

When I began my mission to defend my home town, I was confronted by several people (including this blog owner, Laura) who called on me to present proof of what I was saying. In this process, I began to understand that town gossip was not good enough for most people, as it shouldn’t be. I have pulled the eye witness statements and many related documents that Laura is now posting on this site. After carefully looking at all the incidents, I cannot say that I know everything; only God knows exactly what happened. But I feel I have a very firm understanding of both sides of the story.

As nearly everyone in Jena knows, the town has been unfairly characterized in the media. There are some racists in this community, like all communities in this area of the country. The town is mostly composed of good, hard-working citizens who judge based on the content of one’s character, not race. I myself felt Jena had a certain “backwoods” feel to it until this case surfaced. I have been forced to confront my own worries that I myself maybe racist, or that my town is racist. In my soul-searching, I have arrived with a new sense of pride for my hometown. People who most Americans would peg as racist rednecks have close friends who are black. Our town, along with the NATION, has made huge strides in the fight for equality. No, we are not there as a country yet, but we have made strides. To characterize Jena as a town stuck in the ‘60’s is very naïve to assume.

These eye witness statements are what were reported to the police. They were written down by people who actually witnessed several events that took place in Jena, mainly the Justin Barker beating. Once you read these statements, you will realize that the media has left things out (perhaps intentionally) to keep their story themed appropriately. I know specifically that CNN reporters have been in the courthouse several times and have read the eye witness statements, yet they fail to mention many key points mentioned in these eye witness statements. This is why I feel they are important to release. These statements were edited to exclude phone numbers, addresses, and names of individuals not mentioned yet. This is what I derived from reading these statements:

The Justin Barker Beating

1. According to multiple eye witnesses, the Jena 6 (and a few others) had threatened several other students before they targeted Barker.
2. Many eye witnesses allude to a list created by the Jena 6 of male white students they had planned on beating up.
3. According to multiple statements, one of the Jena 6 told another white student “You’re next!” after they beat Barker.
4. According to multiple statements, another black student who is not a Jena 6, walked over Barker’s head and, some say, stepped on it.
5. Only one eye witness statement points to Bryant Purvis (a Jena 6) as a perpetrator. Three students say he was with them when the fight broke out. One student says he was not near the fight. Based on the eye witness statements alone, it appears that Bryant Purvis was not an attacker. I’m unsure if other evidence exists of his possible guilt.
6. Mychal Bell is the only one who fills out a statement saying Justin Barker said the “n” word. Personally, I feel Bell’s honesty is in question. As you can see, he places himself at the scene within arm’s reach of Barker and claims he is trying to help him. He claims he sees several black guys kicking Barker repeatedly, yet reveals no names of the attackers. Also, if you’ll notice, an unidentified female black student was apparently very close to the events that happened that day. She says that Barker flipped Mychal Bell the middle finger, but she doesn’t mention anything about him saying a racial slur. As another black student, wouldn’t you think she would mention this in her detailed statement to the police if she heard Barker say the racial slur aimed at people of her own race?
7. Carwin Jones wrote in his statement “I didn’t hit him.”, yet 6 people directly state that he was kicking Justin Barker and was part of the attack. Several others report he was over or around Barker’s body at the time the crime was committed.
8. Eleven eye witness statements state that Robert Bailey either kicked or punched Justin Barker.
9. Multiple students implicate Bell as the initial attacker, “sucker” punching Barker in the back of the head after he walked past Bell. A coach who witnessed part of the fight from a distance claims he saw another black student (not one of the Jena 6) throw the initial sucker punch.

Justin Barker’s Medical Report

1. As you can see, his injuries may not have been life threatening or lifelong (as far as we know), but it is clear that he was injured rather severely. When he attended the ring ceremony that evening, he was helped up the stairs, took his ring, and went home. There was no partying. There are rumors that he is expecting to undergo surgery for one of his ears. There is another rumor saying his parents are filing a lawsuit against the hospital for the quick discharge. I have no verifiable proof of either, though.

The Gotta Go Incident

1. Though the statements filled out by Robert Bailey and Theo Shaw aren’t identical, they seem similar. Their story is what has been largely reported by the media and racial activists.
2. As you can see, two other eye witnesses clearly had a different perspective about the events that evening. Two say that Bailey, Shaw, and the other student were the aggressors and the white student pulled the gun to defend himself. I personally lean towards their side of the story. Bailey & Shaw’s story say the shotgun owner pulled up to the store and brandished his weapon. For someone to brandish their weapon, it wouldn’t be very intelligent to brandish it while the target is feet away from him. Bailey & Shaw would have HAD to be within reaching distance of the weapon to wrestle it away from the gun owner. So I feel that, since the gun owner and female witness say they were attacking him in close proximity, it is most likely what happened. My opinion is based on logic, not fact.

The Fair Barn Incident

1. According to the records at the courthouse, the only eye witness statement available for this incident is Robert Bailey’s. My theory is that, since the instigator of the fight plead guilty to assault, that statements were not given by the other parties because they were not necessary. I’m not familiar enough with police procedure to assume this, though. So Robert Bailey’s version of the story is the only one that is represented in these statements. Keep in mind that there are normally two sides to every story.
2. If you’ll notice, claims that Bailey was “beaten” just like Justin Barker seem farfetched. Bailey himself contends that he was attacked by one white adult, then another jumped in and the fight was broken up. Then several white guys jumped he and two of his friends. The label I would attach to this scenario is a “brawl”, not a “beating”.
3. It has been widely circulated by the media, including repeatedly by CNN, that Robert Bailey had a beer bottle cracked over his head during the Fair Barn incident, but notice that he mentions nothing about this in his eye witness statement. It appears very suspicious to me that he left such a crucial detail out of his statement. He was also never admitted to the hospital that night.

If you are looking for the truth about what happened in the Justin Barker beating, look no further than the eye witness statements (shown here) and the court transcripts. It is evident that some Jena 6 supporters are so keen on furthering their cause, they attempt to discredit anything that they disagree with. I agree there are valid racism issues in this country. I believe that punishment for crimes should always be equal. If these students are punished more severely for the color of their skin, an investigation should be conducted and corrective action will be necessary for the culprits responsible. To tell the world that the Jena 6 should be set free and all charges be dropped will not solve the problem, but only foment an ideology that violence in our school system is okay.

If you wish to fight for racial equality, take up the fight. I feel it is a valid issue worth addressing. But another serious issue looms in the wake of these events: Will we let this kind of violence go unpunished in our school system?

written by Laura

For nearly three months, this blog has been nearly all Jena 6, all the time. Not because I really wanted it to be - although it’s traffic bait, it’s not really worthwhile for a lot of reasons - but because from the first time I heard of this story, I was outraged at the injustice that was being reported. I finally have what I’ve wanted all along - the documentation from the case. What it primarily proves will not surprise anyone - that the media sucks. If for no other reason than that they’ve had access to this information for some time. Beyond that, there’s something for everyone - the people who are truly entrenched will cherry pick to “prove” their positions. The people who are reasonable may well change their minds - and I’m talking about people on both sides of this story. As for me, my opinion has been changed in some areas, and affirmed in others.

I’m going to go through, and close comments on all other Jena 6 posts, and direct readers to a new post - when it’s finished - with the links to the documents. I’m also sharing these documents with Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost. Joe has his own opinion of this story, and I don’t know how or whether the new information will change that. I do think that Joe is in a much better position than I am to get this new information out, so that people can form their own opinions.

How did I get these documents? A source in Jena who wishes to remain anonymous provided them. I’ve verified that this person is legit, and although we are not in total agreement, I believe my source has more than earned the right to speak - not just in comments, but in a blog post. So when the documents are posted, I’ll be posting what my source has written, verbatim. I’ll keep it on top for a while, then post my own thoughts on the matter. Right now we are going through and editing the originals to protect the privacy of minors who have not already had their names publicized. (We’ve actually been working on that since last week.)

So sit tight a bit longer, and you’ll finally get to see - among other things - what the people who witnessed the Justin Barker beating actually said about it, what the police reports say about the Gotta Go and Fair Barn incidents, and exactly what Justin Barker’s injuries were.  A lot of people are going to be very surprised.

written by Laura

Just on CNN - Mychal Bell’s bail was denied.

The big “Jena 6″ protest is over, Sharpton and Jackson got their glory, at the expense of people who did the work, including Mychal Bell’s lawyers. The media played it like a faith-based event, even using the word “pilgrimage” repeatedly. Mid-day, the news reported that Mychal Bell will have another bond-hearing. That had absolutely nothing to do with the protest, Al Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson. It was just fortuitous timing. Nobody paid attention to the dog that didn’t bark:

It had many of the signs of the early civil rights protests — militant slogans, upraised clenched fists and multitudes of police — but none of the hate and fear-drenched campaigns in Selma, Little Rock and Montgomery.

Could that possibly be, because in spite of the fact that there is still injustice, it’s no longer public policy and that takes the heat and the urgency out of it? Why yes, it could. A lot of change has taken place in the last 40 years. Not enough, as evidenced by the morons who put nooses on the back of their pickup truck and drove around the protesters trying to start trouble.

police in nearby Alexandria said they arrested two whites after officers noticed a pair of nooses dangling from the rear of the driver’s pickup truck.

The driver, identified as 18-year-old Jeremiah Munsen of Colfax, was charged with inciting a riot, driving while intoxicated and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, authorities said. A city attorney will decide whether charges against the 16-year-old passenger from Dry Prong are warranted, said Alexandria Police Sgt. Clifford Gatlin.

“I wish we had a charge in Louisiana for aggravated ignorance, because this is a classic case,” Gatlin said.

Lot of that going around… but less than there used to be, and I’m hopeful for the future. In this case, CNN reports that Munsen was arrested for inciting a riot.

I originally started blogging about the Jena 6 because I was outraged at the 2nd degree attempted murder charges. I thought then they should receive “at most” time served, although my opinion has changed since then. I think it’s wrong - and I think it was deliberate - they were kept in adult court, even after the charges were lowered. I’ve posted my concerns about the jury - not that it was composed of white people, but at their possible connections to the prosecution. I was unimpressed with Justin Barker’s testimony, and his injuries. I spent time studying other cases that were relevant. I’ve been infuriated by DOJ attorney Donald Washington (who lied again on CNN last night) and frustrated by those who invoke the Gospel of Washington. In short, I’ve spent far too much time on this case. And I’ll be spending even more, because I’m now in possession of documents and details that the media has chosen not to cover; more on that on Monday.

Over time my opinion of what punishment is appropriate for the Jena 6 has changed, and I’ve gone from “at most” time served in that original post to just wanting to see fair trials in the juvenile system and letting the chips fall where they may. But there are no easy answers in this case, and those who make a poster boy of Mychal Bell as the symbol of racial injustice should find another symbol. To put him on a pedestal is yet another type of aggravated ignorance. The point isn’t the person, the point is whether the original charges were appropriate and fair. Although I have a great deal of sympathy for Alan Bean, I think he’s dangerously naive to call the Jena 6 “fine young men.”

Part of the reason I’ve taken all this so personally is my own family’s racial history. And to follow up on that post, although we were able to get L into an experimental cancer treatment program at Duke University last spring, the treatment didn’t work for her and she died on Tuesday. I haven’t been able to write about it before now. I can barely think about it. Please keep her family - her blood relatives and my family, her adopted family - in your prayers.

written by Laura

It seemed from the news coverage that the whole world converged on Jena today. But this blog post really caught my attention. Alan Bean was, as far as I know, the first guy on this story. CNN gave him a photo credit for his photo of the “white tree” - and then promptly cut to Al Sharpton. Bean wrote -

When I showed up at Antioch Baptist church, I remembered the first organizing meeting when I was the only person from outside Jena in the room. This time, the church had been comandeered by VH1 and I was told I could not enter. Instead, Salt and Peppa (remember them) were inside interviewing the Jena 6 parents while fully uniformed members of the New Black Panther Party patrolled outside. It was a cartoon–something I didn’t particularly want to be associated with. I have no beef with these people–but why are they suddenly in charge? And why have the folks who stood by the families when no one else would listen been so rudely thrust aside. I know I’m not supposed to focus on these questions–but I have watched this movie before–in Tulia, Texas.

Whether or not you agree with Bean - and I don’t agree with him on every issue, not by a long shot - that’s just sad. I believe he is an honest and honorable man, devoting his life to what he sincerely thinks is right. And to be callously shut out of something that he has put so much time and energy into, and worked so hard to keep going, is wrong.

written by Laura