What are the objectives of the Jena 6 protests?

Question

I'm a little confused about this thing. The original attempted murder charges were ridiculous. As such, they've been dropped, which is good. But what is the protest trying to achieve? Shouldn't the six kids who attacked the single kid, giving him a concussion and multiple severe lacerations be punished in accordance with their actions? I would certainly hope so.

I'm not even going to try to say there aren't many racist overtones in this whole thing, but when it comes down to brass tacks, six black men ganged up and assaulted one white man. That is a significant crime and should be treated as such. I hope that the protest about the other facets of this case don't overshadow that.

Answer 1

I agree, why isn't this called a "hate crime" too?  I despise that phrase, never heard of "love crime"

Answer 2

Yes, this rally seems a little silly to me, the chants lead by Al Sharkton are "Free the Jena 6" .. Wait a minute now, Isnt this the same man who demanded Justice to Imus.. saying that he damaged those girls?.. Mulitiple kicks to a person who is already unconcious is  still a crime right?

Answer 3

this is the scottsboro boys all over except they are not innocent of commiting crimes. i guess it was the way they were charged. it certainly wasnt uncontroversial, but i think not unethical....

Answer 4

A chance for that fat pig sharpton to rant and rave for the tv crews.

Answer 5

Honestly, I'm not sure.  

I had a similar thing happen in my hometown once, where a black man was shot who broke into a white man's house, and the white man was released on $200,000 bail.

The second incident was a white man that was killed by a gang-banger in a drive by shooting.  The gang banger was held without bail.  

So a similar protest was held because the white man who shot someone in self defense was released on bail and a black gang-banger intentionally killing someone was not released on bail.  The incidents were completely different circumstances, but a big protest was held and there were drive-by shooting threats so our high school graduation got canceled and moved indoors.  It also brought a KKK counter-protest to the town, that was un-welcomed by the town.

I could understand if it was the same crime with different charges, but it wasn't.

It makes no sense to me either.

Answer 6

For me the entire thing isn't about race, but about the fact that six kids beat up another.  In order to regain our streets from gangs and violence we as a nation need to punish such individuals who commit such acts of violence.  what would the 'great' Al Sharpton say if six white boys beat up a black boy.  He'd be down there preaching how the blacks were being kept down and how those boys would need to be tried for murder, not asking for their freedom.  the whole thing is idiotic to me.

Answer 7

It wasn't just a single kid.  It was a group of kids (Black & White)... He just got the worst of it all!  The protest is due to the fact that only Black kids were arrested & punished.  Nothing at all was done to the White kids who were also fighting.  It makes you wonder if a Black kid got the worst of it, would the town have charged the White kids with attempted murder?  I doubt it very seriously.  Here... Read for yourself... The "whole" story...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six