Jena 6

By now, all of you have probably heard about Jena 6. It involves a group of African-American students in Jena, La. who were charged with attempted murder for the beating of Justin Barker, a white student. This was after a group of white students hung three nooses from a tree at the Jena High School. Many people believe that the charges that were given to the African-American student were excessive and this has caused a national outrage. Mychal Bell, the student who is believed to have initiated the attack and the only member of Jena 6 to be tried, could have faced up to 22 years in prison! He has been incarcerated since December of last year. I think the way this was handled completely wrong. I do believe there was racism involved because Virtualy nothing happened to the kids who hung the nooses from the tree. Also, Bell was tried as an adult when he was 16 at the time of the incident. The age to be tried as an adult in Louisiana is 17. Bell’s charges were later reduced to aggravated battery and conspiracy. I think more should have been done to the students who hung the nooses. According to U.S. Attorney Donald Washington, the FBI agents who did the investigations of the noose hangings said that it “had all the markings of a hate crime” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201404.html). Even with this, no charges were filed because they were juveniles. As much as we like to believe that racism no longer exists in today’s society, it does and this is a perfect example. This is just wrong people.