"Jena 6"

To start off with, I am not a racist, I do not believe that white people are better than black people, hispanic people, purple people eaters or that any race is in any way better than any other...though I have to admitt I have a thing for Italian men and women, but I digress. 

"The Jena 6"  I am sure most of you have heard about this issue.  6 teenagers gang up and beat a single teenager.  Pretty basic charges to me, they at least deserve to be charged with assault and battery...if not attempted murder.  Let's think about this, did the 6 teenagers beating up on the single teenager think that they were going to leave butterflies and roses all over him?   Or do you think they intended upon hurting the kid....quite severly I would think since they had it 6 to 1.  Pretty logical to reason that they were trying to hurt him.  Legally, it doesn't matter if the kid was able to get up and go to a party the next night, just because you attmept to do something and don't succeed, doesn't mean you didn't try. 

Now that we have that settled, lets move on to the big 'race' issue.  If it had been 6 WHITE kids beating up a BLACK kid, they would have been convicted of attempted murder already and most deffinetly it would have the term 'hate crime' associated with it,  Deffinition of hate crime so no one gets confused.  "Hate crimes differ from conventional crime because they are not directed simply at an individual, but are meant to cause fear and intimidation in an entire group or class of people."  A few monthsbefore the Jena 6 incident, three white kids hung three nooses in what was called the "white tree" after some black kids sat under it and people got justifiably upset over the nooses.   No one ended up being charged with anything, though they very well could have been charged with some sort of federal hate crime, seeing as a noose isn't all that black friendly and generally  will piss people off.  The three kids who hung the nooses up recieved 3 days of ISS each, and the tree was cut down for fire wood.  Granted, not that harsh of a peanalty but that is what they got, they did their punishment and moved on.  Now, the kid who was beat up had nothing to do with the nooses, he wasn't one of the three.  The six kids who beat up the kid weren't the ones sitting under the tree, so people can, in my opinion, take that whole incident off the table...but if they don't, the way I figure it just gives a bigger reason for the six black kids to be charged with a hate crime.  When six black kids beat up a single white kid, you can pretty much take it to mean that they are trying to "cause fear and intimidation in an entire group or class of people"....in this case the white kids they went to school with. 

Now we have thousands of black people decending on a little town, trying to make sure that these six black kids don't go away  for a crime that they all admitt they committed, someone please tell me how this makes any sense?  If I committ a crime, am I not held responsible for it?  According to our nations laws it doesn't matter if someone made me mad a couple months ago; if I decide to get a group of people together and beat up someone who is kind of like the person who made me mad, well then I would rightfully be charged with a crime, be convicted, and would then have to serve my sentance.  I don't think I would have a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton in my corner saying that the person who originally pissed me off should be to blame for my actions MONTHS later. 

Not trying to make anyone mad, but it's just how I feel.  I welcome your comments, your thumbs up or down, just make sure you keep it civil.

~Durty