Jena 6, US 0

This whole issue is just too stupid. Why are we as a country going through this exercise again? The rally and march in Jenna yesterday sure takes this boomer back 40 years or so to an similarly unhappy time. Just without fire hoses or attack German Shepherds this time. You think a pardon by W is in the works? No?

The more questions you ask about this whole mess, the worse it gets. Should six black kids beat up a single white kid, even given massive provocation? I don’t think Martin Luther King Jr. would say so. But: should that white kid have been allowed to get away with hanging nooses on a tree just because some black kids sat under it, and have the incident dismissed (by his parents, and the school authorities) as “just a prank”?? I don’t think so on that either.

And no black kids actually sat under the tree. One black kid asked whether they’d be allowed to sit under the tree, and was told yes. Next day, the nooses appeared. (Note: these details are from an AP summary of the case, published today in the San Francisco Chronicle.)

For that matter, how come the school allowed the existence of a tree which only white kids were allowed to sit under? If it had been a drinking fountain or a restroom that only white kids were allowed to use, the NAACP and the national press would have gone off like a rocket.

In any case, since the white kid who was beaten up was able to attend a school function later that night - with a “swollen and bloodied” face that must have made him the entire center of attention - I think the original charge of attempted murder, and trial as an adult for a kid who was 16 when the incident happened, was waaay out of line. The final charge was aggravated second-degree battery (whatever THAT is - in a murder case, I think “second degree” means intent but no premeditation), and the conviction was just thrown out by the appeals court on the grounds that defendant couldn’t be tried as an adult. Can there possibly be some intelligence there?? There can’t be too much, because yet another judge (presumably not on the appeals court) has just denied bail for this dangerous 17 year old felon.

I’ve read a couple of resentful quotes from residents of Jena who claim “we’re not really like that” and “we all get along.” If so, folks - how come nobody tried to defuse this whole mess by talking through the issues, back when the nooses were hung, before the fists started flying? Because you all thought it was “just a prank”??

Hedera, I wholeheartedly agree, and I’m not advocating or excusing violence. I can, however, sympathize with the level of emotion that would lead to striking out.

So, there are several different issues here — how the incident should have been handled from the get-go, how the black kids should have addressed it, what consequences there should have been for the noose incident, etc.

But, from a criminal law perspective, it’s long been the case that a person who incites someone to violence is guilty of an offense, just like the person who commits the act of violence. So, the kids involved in hanging the nooses are, in fact, criminally responsible for the outcome. That is to say, if anyone should have been charged with a crime in the first place. Maybe the best way to deal with all aspects of this — the noose incident and the resulting violence — would have been through the school disciplinary process, through community meetings and the like, without involving the criminal justice system.

The criminal justice system is a blunt instrument; it isn’t meant to solve deep-seated social problems. It’s primary function is to enforce the law and mete out penalties. This is a situation that requires hard work, not easy solutions; it requires finesse and patience and a long term plan to ease racial tensions and bring this community into the 21st century. The criminal justice system is uniquely ill-equipped to do that. It’s like the old adage, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

In the end, the grownups blew it in Jena. To charge any of these kids as adults because they acted like teenagers — that is, they acted stupidly, violently, immaturely, like teenagers are apt to do — is patently absurd. What the “authorities” did was take the easy way out: Call the cops, press charges, look for retribution.

None of which solves a damn thing.

Yeah, violence is stupid and wrong. But, the people involved were teenagers. I can only speak for myself, but “stupid and wrong” pretty much sums up my teenage years.

I have to confess that I have followed this story almost not at all. Where I come from a noose is often a callback to Wilford Brimley’s “I don’t wanna be in here anymore” scene from John Carpenter’s The Thing - Northeastern Pennsylvania never had much of a tradition of lynchings that I’m aware of. I have a feeling that many of the thousands (tens of thousands?) of protesters in this case are not much better-informed than I am.

I do wish that some of those busloads of protesters could have found their way to Georgia to demand the release of Genarlow Wilson who is currently imprisoned for 10 years for having received a blowjob from an underage girl while he was also underage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_v._State_of_Georgia

Ooooh, siobhan - The gauntlet has been thrown down.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/22/slate-v-takes-romney-campaign -ad-challenge-priceless/

Adam, if the “cut and run” line was yours, I’ll have to spend most of my remaining days bowing in your general direction - which should actually help my waistline, come to think of it.

A moment of silence for the great Marcel . . .

I, personally, do not think kittens are cute, but cats certainly are attracted to me. Or maybe it’s the food I put out for them. Anyways - http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/open-thread-591/

I think it’s punishment for dumping R.C. Slocum (I liked his name), waterfowler. My Gators almost got abused by Ole Miss, which has at least one linebacker who was an 18-wheeler in a previous life.

So where are you, siobhan? The sandhill cranes also want to know.

Four minutes well spent.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/24/mid-day-open-thread-12/

This week, in a rare and serendipitous meeting, Sparky gets down with Greenspan.

http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/09/booksigning_today_by_alan_gre e.html

I want to know what woke Bush up and made him notice Myanmar all of a sudden. This has been going on for twenty years, as near as dammit. Aung San Suu Kyi has been either in jail or under house arrest since she won the goddam election. And NOW he decides it’s an outrage??

My understanding is that Myanmar is the new name given by the military coup in 1988, but our state department (and the Burmese opposition) has never recognized that name.

As far why Bush woke up — well, hell, He’s not alone in his sleepiness. The rest of the world hadn’t really paid any attention, either, until the monks shamed us all.