I have been urging “AL” from the Poynter Institute who has a listserv with news ideas to do something about the Jena 6.  It seems he is relying on White racists/supporters for his “facts” in some cases.  I am sorry I asked him to do anything on the Jena 6 because this bloody message is the one that went out across the country to journalists and I think it belittles the racism these kids have to deal with.  From this message Al seems to me to write like a racist in “objective journalist’s” sheep’s clothing.
 
      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 Louisiana, who investigated
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 ï¿∏ 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 Bell was, indeed, all
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 Bell, now 17, was an honor student with
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 Jena noose incident have been considered a hate crime in your state?
 
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 United States  is published, many
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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