nin137

Nick's Journal
2007-09-27 17:48:34 (UTC)

Jena6 and my idiot law companions

i'm pretty sure meredith had planned to have me dead. last
week while i was still all dressed up in my suit after my
latest interview she promptly cornered me on the second
floor and said with the utmost intensity,
"there's a rally to free the jena6 at the community college
you're coming with me."
"i am?"
"well i'm not going alone looking like this," she was also
dressed up, "look, i'll buy you lunch."
with that i was promptly enticed and the two of us went over
to the community college. now if you could compare the
community college to our law school it would be like living
the emerald city in the wizard of oz only to arrive at
auschwitz-birkenau with angry germans yelling at you while
german sheperds nipped at your feet as smokestacks billowed
human remains into the sky.
i sat down in a creaky neon colored chair that i vaguely
remember sitting in during elementary school. meredith and
i were two of maybe 10 white people in a group of about 100.
sitting there in my suit i listened to the hysteria as it
built into a crescendo ringing off of the mildewy walls of
what apparently was their auditorium/cafeteria.
"this is an outrage!"
"no justice no peace!"
i'm assuming you're familiar with what has happened in jena,
louisiana. essentially some white kids put up 3 nooses
under a tree where black kids sat which was normally sat
under by white students. three months later the jena6 (a
"gang") which consisted of 6 black guys jumped a white guy.
allegedly the guy called them niggers. the white guy went
to a party that night. let's see what else?
the prosecuting attorney charged these 6 off the wall; with
attempted murder and the like, straight through the adult
trial system (rather than juvenile which is where they
normally would be). all but 1 were released on bail.
okay. phew.
so after hearing the hysterics i cashed in on my lunch.
that was where i found out that meredith and i weren't on
teh same page.
"that was some bullshit wasn't it?"
meredith stopped midway so that a leaf of her chicken ceaser
salad was dangling from her mouth,
"what?" she stared at me with such disbelief it's like i had
just admitted to a murder.
"well that whole thing wasd nothing but ridiculous propoganda."
oh and then it started. rather than write verbatim our
"discussion" i'll just put up my points and hers.
first and foremost i thought it unbelievable that people
could miss the central issue here. 6 guys jumped 1 guy and
beat the shit out of him. the fact that he was able to make
it to a party that same night is completely irrelevant. the
fact remains...a crime was committed.
counter-argument: taht may be but a crime was also committed
by hanging the nooses on a tree and it seems reasonable that
the 6 could feel threatened by that act, and if the boy
called them niggers, that could have sparked it.
now first of all that's ridiculous. 1) the court found the
nooses did not meet the definition of a "hate crime" (get
the fuck serious) 2) the court foudn that there were 3
MONTHS!!! in between the nooses and the beating...to me that
seems like these guys lost it on the white kid...jumped him,
and then afterwards used the nooses as an excuse.
and even given that 1) the nooses were a hate crime and 2)
the SIX GUYS FELT THREATENED BY THE ONE GUY (which is
patently absurd...unless the white guy had a gun which he
didn't) that STILL doesn't make their action justifiable.
if you call me a nazi am i allowed to beat the shit out of
you, because i infer hatred from your derogatory statemetn?
no of course not!
our limits on self-defense are VERY stringent. you have to
be in IMMEDIATE danger...you can't use something that
happened 3 months ago and you look ridiculous if you're with
5 other guys and claiming you somehow felt threatened.
granted the dumbass shouldn't have yelled niggers (if he
even did) but even THAT gives them no defense.
counter-argument: well even with all that there is no equity
in law here. the white kids got off scott-free (for the
nooses) while the prosecuting attorney laid down the hammer
on these black kids (sheperding them through the adult trial
with the attempted murder charge)
wait what was that? a prosecuting attorney losing his shit?
duke lacrosse players? look, in our judicial system there
are two balancing acts. 1) when you are in court charged
with something you get the benefit of a doubt 2) the
prosecuting attorney in turn has probably the MOST POWER of
any officer when you are in his jurisdiction.
the p.a. can charge you with whatever to make a statement
(both political like in the duke lacrosse or for any other
reason). if the p.a. felt that charging them with attempted
murder instead of simple assault and battery was necessary
then OUR LEGAL SYSTEM GIVES HIM THE RIGHT TO DO THAT. shit
a p.a. abused his power 1,000 times more in the duke
lacrosse case, but that was because NO CRIME EVEN EXISTED!!!
looko, there seems to be no dispute that the crime occurred.
and granted that the charges are exceedingly harsh, but
nothing about that a priori is wrong.
now i have littel doubt that the p.a. was motivated by angry
white families. but even given that it doesn't necessarily
make it wrong so long as there is a valid legal basis for
the charges proposed.
so now we had the demonstrations and to be perfectly honest
with you i am astounded that the charges weren't dropped.
maybe its because it seems like EVERYONE (and i've talked to
everyone from Juliann to about 20 other law students) seems
on the side of the jena6 and fails (or doesn't want to) see
the veyr simple and logical evolution of this case.
one last point.
the reason why this one kid is still in jail is because he
is a REPEAT OFFENDER. this kid is by no means the saint or
rather the victim he is supposedbly played out to be. there
is a reason for his bond and a reason for his incarceration.

i guess where all thsi leaves me is a sadness. i'm not mad
about the racial tension about it (in fact i am thrilled by
the way the protests worked out...other than the fact that i
had to see sharpton and jackson mugging for the camera); i
am mad that people that are studying law can throw it aside
just through indoctrination. i'm mad at my fellow law
students who should know better.

i'm saddened because i'm reading more and more about these
racial problems. back in february a story that got next to
NO publicity; a white couple in tennessee was abducted
during a car-jacking by 5 blacks. they raped and tortured
them to
death.
then this past month a couple of whites did it to a black
woman (although i don't think they killed her). the lately
some whites beat a black nearly to death in florida.
jesus christ people. what the fuck? i guess in a way i
like to shield myself and think that there is no racial
problem, but that's clearly a farce. i just wish that this
stuff wouldn't be an issue in the first place but then again
i'm realizing im just being hopelessly naive.




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