Jena Six

The Jena Six were six black teenagers in Jena, Louisiana, convicted in the 2006 beating of Justin Barker, a white student at the local Jena High School, which they also attended. During the trial, Barker testified that his face was badly swollen after the attack and that he suffered a loss of vision in one eye for three weeks. He has suffered recurring headaches and forgetfulness since the attack.

History

Six violent black thugs—Robert Bailey, then aged 17; Mychal Bell, then 16; Carwin Jones, then 18; Bryant Purvis, then 17; Jesse Ray Beard, then 14; and Theo Shaw, then 17—were arrested for the assault of white student Justin Barker.

Earlier, three white students hanged two nooses on a tree at the Jena high school. Race probably had nothing to do with this event, they were placed as part of a high school sports match. School officials admit the tree incident was not aimed black students, but still had the white students expelled from the school. This was latter successfully appealed and they were allowed back in school after extended in school suspension. They were forced to undergo psychological evaluations and there was a failed attempt at prosecution by Federal and Sate authorities. Black students at Jena's high school then started attacking white students leading to the beating of Justin Barker. On 11 October 2007, Mychal Bell, one of the Jena Six, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for previous offenses (unrelated to the attack on Justin Barker) of two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property.

The case has been frequently cited by the politically correct mass media as an example of supposed racial injustice in the United States. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson led a widely publicized “civil rights” march through the town. The politically correct claims have been criticized as false and misleading.

Four hundred thousand dollars reportedly rolled in before lawyers took the case pro bono.Some of the money then ended up on the Internet, where one of the “Jena 6,” Robert Bailey, posted photos of himself and another defendant draped in $100 bills. The word in Jena — and no one is denying it — is that, thanks to the “defense fund,” Robert Bailey’s mother is now driving a BMW, and Mychal Bell’s mother has moved up to a Jaguar. Politicians are burnishing their anti-racist credentials. Senator Hillary Clinton told the NAACP: “This case reminds us that the scales of justice are seriously out of balance when it comes to charging, sentencing, and punishing African Americans.” Senator Chris Dodd said that Jena proves we still have “de facto segregation,” and urged Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to overturn any convictions that may result. In September, Congressman John Conyers said he would hold congressional hearings on “the miscarriages of justice that have occurred in Jena, Louisiana,” and the Congressional Black Caucus calls events in Jena “an unbelievable example” of “separate and unequal justice.” The media are almost entirely to blame for this hideous cavorting. All too ready to assume the worst of whites, all too happy to encourage blacks to scream “racism,” they have, in effect, driven them to demand freedom for thugs who knocked a boy down and stomped him as he lay unconscious. The charges of “racism” that are supposed to justify the attack have now been shown to be just as groundless as the lies with which Tawana Brawley helped Al Sharpton find his true calling.

External links

• Media Myths about the Jena 6 (Archive)
• The Jena Six — and Other Scams (Archive)
• Jena 6 articles at American Renaissance
• Where Are They Now? Rodney King, the Jena 6, and the Duke Lacrosse stripper