I have been urging “AL”
from the Poynter Institute who has a listserv with news ideas to do something
about the
What do you all
think? Have I taken “Al” wrong? Feel free to email the guy ([log in to unmask]) about it
only send me a copy will you? Thanks
By Al Tompkins (http://www.poynter.org/profile/profile.asp?user=1557)
There is, of course, no
defense for hanging nooses from trees. There is no excuse for students who beat
one another out of hate. There is still much to be explained about why some
students are vigorously prosecuted while others are not. All this poses a
challenge for journalists, who have reported and repeated many popular myths in
what has come to be known as the "Jena Six" (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-jena_21met.ART0.State.Edition2.4294d21.html)
case.
Think about how many times
journalists have reported about the "white tree" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sally-kohn/blinded-by-the-white-oj-_b_65283.html)
or the "noose incident" directly connected to the December 2006
attack. It turns out that much of what you may know about this case is wrong.
The Associated Press ran
a piece (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_re_us/a_place_called_jena)
on some of the subtle complexities of the story:
-The so-called
"white tree" at Jena High, often reported to be the
domain of only white
students, was nothing of the sort, according to
teachers and school
administrators; students of all races, they say,
congregated under it at one
time or another.
-Two nooses -- not three
-- were found dangling from the tree.
Beyond being offensive to
blacks, the nooses were cut down because
black and white students
"were playing with them, pulling on them,
jump-swinging from them, and
putting their heads through them,"
according to a black teacher
who witnessed the scene.
-There was no (direct)
connection (http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/jena6.asp)
between the September noose incident and the December attack, according to
Donald Washington, an attorney for
the U.S. Justice Department
in western
claims that these events
might be race-related hate crimes.
-The three youths accused
of hanging the nooses were not
suspended for just three
days � they were isolated at an alternative
school for about a month,
and then given an in-school suspension for
two weeks.
-The six-member jury that
convicted
white. However, only one in
10 people in LaSalle Parish is African
American, and though black
residents were selected randomly by computer
and summoned for jury
selection, none showed up.
-In July, the first to be
tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted after two
hours of deliberations by an
all-white jury on reduced charges of
aggravated battery and
conspiracy to commit it. It was widely reported that
no prior criminal record.
Although he had a high grade-point average,
he was, in fact, on
probation for at least two counts of battery and a
count of criminal damage to
property. In any event, his conviction was
overturned because an
appeals court ruled he should not have been tried
as an adult.
This is the "Color of
Change" Web site (http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/)
, which asserts the "facts" of a white tree to be true. The site also
makes the case for why the local prosecutor acted unfairly when prosecuting the
black students but not criminally charging white students who were also
involved in fights.
What I do not understand
(maybe those of you who have covered this story can clarify), is why the feds
don't prosecute the noose incident and the fights (involving both sides) as
federal crimes. Even if the state prosecutor says he has no state law that
would make the hanging of a noose a crime, there is federal legislation that
says (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/civilrights/statutes.htm)
:
Title 18, U.S.C., Section
241
Conspiracy Against
Rights
This statute makes it
unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or
intimidate any person of any state, territory or district in the free exercise
or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution
or the laws of the United States, (or because of his/her having exercised the
same).
Those who put up the
nooses seem to have filled every criteria. There were more than two of them,
and they clearly were meant to threaten, injure and oppress others. The
oppression seemed to have to do with the black student's First Amendment right
to peaceably assemble.
Some have suggested the
noose incident would be a candidate for federal hate crimes, but as I read the
federal crime law, passed in 1994, I saw that it requires the hate crime to be
focused against an individual or an individual's property as opposed to a
generic spewing of hate against a group of people.
Public Law #103-322A, a
1994 federal law, defines a hate
crime as:
"a crime in which the
defendant intentionally selects a
victim, or in the case of a
property crime, the property that is the
object of the crime, because
of the actual or perceived race, color,
religion, national origin,
ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual
orientation of any
person."
Read more about what
federal hate crimes say (http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_hat3.htm)
.
Here is Yahoo.com's
constantly refreshed collection (http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Jena_Six_Case;_ylt=Ag22ZutVMQRHInYAwR6.p1sE1vAI)
of Jena Six stories.
Click here for the
Anti-Defamation League's interactive map (http://www.adl.org/learn/hate_crimes_laws/map_frameset.html)
, which links you to individual state anti-hate laws. Would the
Getting Local on the New
National Violent Crime Data
The FBI Violent Crime
Statistics (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/index.html)
are just out. Once again, violent crime is up nationally.
Here are some links to help
you get local:
National Data (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/standard_links/national_estimates.html)
Region (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/standard_links/regional_estimates.html)
State (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/standard_links/state.html)
County Agency (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/standard_links/county_agency.html)
City Agency (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/standard_links/city_agency.html)
Universities and Colleges (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/standard_links/universities_colleges.html)
Cities and Counties Grouped by Size (population group) (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/standard_links/population_group.html)
Metropolitian Statistical Areas (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_06.html)
What NOT to Do with the New
Crime Stats
Many of you, and maybe many
of your city officials, will try to use the data to compare the safety of your
town to others. But the FBI says you shouldn't. The comparisons, it says, won't
stand up (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/about/variables_affecting_crime.html)
:
Each year when Crime in
the
entities -- news media,
tourism agencies, and other groups with an
interest in crime in our
Nation -- use reported figures to compile
rankings of cities and
counties. These rankings, however, are merely a
quick choice made by the
data user; they provide no insight into the
many variables that mold the
crime in a particular town, city, county,
state, region, or other
jurisdiction. Consequently, these rankings lead
to simplistic and/or
incomplete analyses that often create misleading
perceptions adversely
affecting cities and counties, along with their
residents.
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