Hmmm, I wonder what the 40,000 people who made that pilgrimage to Jena are gonna do now?
A teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy is back in jail after a judge sentenced him on charges that were pending before the attack that put him in the national spotlight, his attorney said.I wonder where Michael Baisden and his MingleCity crew are now. They probably don't even know who Mychal Bell is, considering how most of them were just there to "partaaaay!!!".
Mychal Bell, who along with five other black teenagers had been accused of beating a white classmate, went to juvenile court Thursday expecting another routine hearing, said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys.
Instead, after a six-hour hearing, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced him to 18 months on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.
He had been hit with those charges before the Dec. 4 attack on classmate Justin Barker.
Note to Black America: Choose your battles wisely. The Jena Six are not the Greensboro Four.
I sure hope all the folks who grandstanded in front of cameras last month will pour out a lil' liquor for young Mr. Bell, and contribute a lil' to his defense fund too while they're at it.
Me? Not so much. I'll just go back to tutoring, mentoring, and coaching kids so we don't have another Bell, or Jena Six for that matter, on our hands 5 years from now.
Key Figure In Jena 6 Case Back In Jail [CBS]
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"I'll just go back to tutoring, mentoring, and coaching kids"
No higher form of activism exists. I salute you.
Average Bro -
Is it me or are his attorneys very bad or ill-informed? Why didn't they see this coming? Or is the system that slanted?
Mychal Bell's sentencing on multiple counts of battery and destruction of property was delayed pending the outcome of his trial for aggravated battery in the Jena Six case. Now that his conviction for aggravated battery has been overturned because he was tried as an adult rather than as a juvenile, the sentencing on the unrelated cases has been carried out. His attorneys knew the sentencing was pending and took part in the sentencing hearing.
Bell's previous conviction predate both the noose-handing incident and the beating of the white student at Jena High. He will be retried as a juvenile for his part in the Jena Six beating. If convicted, he is likely to get more time.
I don't feel bad at all. It's very hard to defend another person without knowing all the facts-afterall how well does one know anyone these days? Especially someone in the next state! It kind of reminds me of LA/Rodney King who also caused a national 'uprose' and wasn't able @ that time to turn his life around. You can't beat it into people-they have to want to change and have the necessary discipline to do so!
Rodney King was my first thought, too, just like Cinco.
It's a double-edged sword in the sense that it's next to impossible to raise awareness about an issue (such as two-tiered justice) without a human face; yet human faces are attached to human beings, whose actions (before and/or after the fact) might come back to distract or detract from the issue they've come to embody.
It wasn't a coincidence that Rosa Parks became the face of the Montgomery Bus Boycot. There were other Blacks arrested for the same thing, yet NAACP leaders felt that she was the most sympathetic and best representative.
Unfortunately in the Internet and 24-hour cable TV age, there was not the luxery of vetting any of the Jenna 6 before they became a cause celebe.
What point are you trying to make? The Jena six issue is that he shouldn't have been tried with 2nd degree murder...period. NOT that he was a model citizen.
You don't have to be a saint to be wrongly prosecuted. Injustice is injustice. That's like saying a prostitute can't be raped. Somehow because she sells sex then it is impossible to violate her.
What happened in Jena was wrong and deserved attention even if the poster boy isn't a model citizen.
Chris N(elson?), very well stated. I couldn't have put it in better words myself, and obviously I didn't. I'm still waiting on your blog, bruh!
JJ, no real point, just food for thought. It beez like dat sometimes.
Thanks, AB, for the kind words. I've been thinking about entering the blogosphere on my own, and may some day actually put those thoughts into action.
In the meantime, there are plenty of great blogs already (present company included)to stir thought and generate respectful discussion.
The "N" doesn't stand for Nelson, but you're on the right track. Just drop the "e" and replace it with a few more letters to add a third syllable, and you'll have it.
Or, just start signing your name and I'll gladly do the same. (Although, with your sometimes "on the job" reports, your signiture likely carries considerably more risk than mine.)
Keep up the great blogging and cheers,
Chris N.
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