‘Jena 6’s’ Mychal Bell agrees to a plea deal…

The fact that this young man has been incarcerated for the past 11 months is outlandish and a complete violation of his civil rights. Jena definitely has inched up the ladder on the “Most Racist Towns” in America list. Anyway on to the news…

Mychal Bell, the 17-year-old black teenager whose arrest and detention led to the “Jena 6” protests, has agreed to a plea deal that could lead to his release by June, his lawyer said Monday.

Bell was originally charged as an adult with attempted murder in an assault on a white fellow student, Justin Barker, at Jena High School in 2006.

He was convicted of second-degree battery, but the verdict was tossed out in September when an appeals court ruled that Bell, who was 16 at the time of the attack, should not have been tried as an adult. He still faced charges in the juvenile system.

Under the deal announced Monday, the LaSalle Parish District Attorney’s Office agreed to drop charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery.

Bell agreed to plead guilty to second-degree battery.

He had to agree that he “hit Justin Barker, knocking him unconscious,” a Bell attorney said.

Bell would be sentenced to 18 months of custody in an unsupervised setting, such as a group home or a halfway house.

In addition, Bell would be required to pay $935 to Barker’s family and court costs, his lawyer said. (Are you serious??? SMH)

Barker’s family has said his medical bills reached $12,000, but prosecutors apparently plan to seek money from five other black students also implicated in the beating.

Bell would have to testify in those cases as part of any plea deal.

Bell and the other five students, dubbed the “Jena 6,” were originally charged in adult court with attempted murder and conspiracy.

The charges were later reduced to battery and conspiracy, and Bell is the only one of the youths to remain in jail.

Bell was convicted of the charges against him in July. But judges overturned both convictions, finding that the cases should have been brought in juvenile court.

Although he was released in September after his adult conviction was overturned, Bell was ordered two weeks later to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility for a probation violation relating to an earlier juvenile conviction.

A lawyer for Bell said his client wants to go back to high school, where he was a football star, but “probably not in Jena.”

The fight came after months of racial tension in the town, fueled by white teens who hung nooses from an oak tree on the town’s high school grounds. But prosecutors have said there was no “direct linkage” between the hanging of the nooses and the schoolyard attack that left Barker with injuries to both eyes and ears, as well as cuts.

An estimated 15,000-plus demonstrators marched through Jena, about 200 miles northwest of New Orleans, in September to protest local authorities’ handling of the case.

Tina Corwin, mother of Bryant Purvis, another of the Jena 6, said she was shocked by the plea deal and said her son will not plead guilty to anything.

Source

Mychal Bell of Jena 6 sentenced to 18 months in juvenile…

Mychal Bell of the now historical “Jena 6” case was ordered Thursday to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility, after a judge ruled he had violated his probation for earlier juvenile convictions, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings said.

The decision came at the end of a two-day juvenile court hearing that was closed to the media and public.

Carol Powell-Lexing, one of Bell’s attorneys, said the judge’s decision would be appealed.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who has championed Bell’s case, denounced Thursday’s decision as “revenge” by the judge and called on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.

Full article 

Jena 6 Mom Speaks!!!

Mychal Bell’s Mother Melissa Bell photographed with Rev. Al Sharpton.

Mychal Bell last Thursday when he was finally released from jail.

In an excellent interview with Essence Melissa Bell (Mychal Bell’s Mother) spoke on the serious situation down in Jena and how she feels since the release of her son. Here are some excerpts….
Essence.com: For months you had been fighting for your son’s freedom without success. What was your reaction when you learned that he would finally be released?

Melissa Bell: I didn’t want to get too excited until I saw that he was out. When we actually signed the papers to let him out that’s when I really got excited. We’re not fully celebrating because we still have a long way to go, but we were happy to go in there, put some clothes on him and walk him out.

Essence.com: How is Mychal doing?

M.B.: He’s doing well. They have him under house arrest and he can’t go any farther than home, but all his friends have been visiting him. His first night home he watched TV all night with his friends and slept in the living room. He’s nervous, of course, because he has his juvenile court date on October 11, but he’s trying to enjoy his friends and not think about it. That’s what I told him, “Don’t think about it right now; let the lawyers do the thinking.”

Essence.com: Are you surprised by the support you’ve received from around the country?

M.B.: I feel very good about it. It’s encouraging to know that so many people are standing behind you and still believe in helping each other. It’s great to see all the civil rights leaders, people in high places and all the thousands of people who came to the march. You sometimes forget that people still love each other like that. We need more of that in the world.

Essence.com: How has this experience changed you?

M.B.: It opened my eyes to see that you can’t trust everybody because everybody’s not your friend. Things can happen to you in the blink of an eye. Your life can change in one day. It made me think about life more and getting my kids together and getting them right with God. We’re with God, but getting them straighter with God. And I realize that your kids can be taken from you with a stroke of a pen.

Essence.com: And what about Mychal? Does he seem different?

M.B.: Yes, but not a lot different. He still likes having fun, talking and laughing with his friends, but being locked up for nine months made him grow up a lot quicker and become a man, a better person. He just knows how to handle life better.

Essence.com: Have you talked to Mychal about staying out of trouble?

M.B.: Oh yes, we’ve been having those conversations for the last ten months. He knows not to get in trouble because he doesn’t want to go back to jail and he knows that people will be quick to get him back in there. He knows it won’t take much for him to end up in jail again.

Essence.com: There are reports of White supremacist Web sites posting the addresses of the families of the Jena Six. Have you received any threats?

M.B.: I got a hateful letter addressed to Mychal. It didn’t have a (sender’s) name written on it, but it was from Virginia. Other than that, nobody’s bothering me. One of the parents, Bryant Purvis’s mother, got a phone call from some guy who left a message (threatening) her son.

Essence.com: Are you concerned about anything happening to your family?

M.B: Not really. We have around-the-clock protection since Mychal’s been out. We have undercover state police around the area.

Essence.com: This month, Mychal’s case will be tried in juvenile court. Do you think this trial will be different from the previous one?

M.B: Oh yes, I know it’s going to be different. I know that for a fact. I have an attorney that’s going to fight for Mychal. It isn’t like it was last summer.

Essence.com: How was it last summer?

M.B.: It was an all-White trial. There weren’t but two Black faces throughout the trial and that was Mychal and the lawyer. The witnesses, the jurors, everybody was White. That was the first problem. The lawyer he had then was appointed to him and didn’t call any witnesses. I know the lawyers we have now are ready to take care of business and they will.

Essence.com: What can people do to help?

M.B.: We’re still trying to get financial help. We will need to pay our legal team. Right now we have a bank account open for the Mychal Bell Defense Fund.

If you’re interested in contributing to the Mychal Bell Defense Fund, please send checks to P.O. Box 2856, Jena, LA 71342

Essence 

Mychal Bell finally let out of jail on bail!!!

Finally a little bit of justice is starting to be wrought down in Jena Louisiana!!! Mychal Bell the last of the Jena 6 was finally released out on $45,000 bail today after sitting in jail since he was arrested for the school fight back in December.

Thanks Rev. Al Sharpton,  Jesse Jackson, and the millions of supporters, and thousands of marchers!!!! This is a great step toward real justice. I know Bell’s family is overwhelmed with joy.

“We still have mountains to climb, but at least this is closer to an even playing field,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize last week’s protest.

“He goes home because a lot of people left their home and stood up for him,” Sharpton said.

An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 protesters marched in Jena last week in a scene that evoked the early years of the civil-rights movement.

Source  

Bill O’Reilly says comments are not racist…

It’s difficult to keep up with this guy’s racist remarks that he makes on a daily basis. He and Imus must be related. I personally think O’Reilly is in competition with his own self to see if he can outdo himself. Like Chris Rock said “What does a person have to do to be racist these days??? Kill Medgar Evans???” Michael Richards you remember him Kramer from Seinfeld the comedian who had the “Look it’s a n*gger tirade” on stage. Of course we do.

From the looks of it every public official in Jena Louisiana is a racist, especially the D.A. Well anyway Bill O’Reilly has made more ridiculous racist comments. Here are some of them…. you be the judge….

On his September 19 radio show, O’Reilly said he took civil rights leader Al Sharpton to the Lenox Avenue fixture and “couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s Restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City.”

“I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship,” he told listeners. “It was the same, and that’s really what this society’s all about now here in the U.S.A. There’s no difference.”

And later, speaking with National Public Radio correspondent and Fox analyst Juan Williams, O’Reilly said there “wasn’t any kind of craziness at all” during his dinner with Sharpton: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.’ “

“It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense that people were sitting there and they were ordering and just having fun,” he continued

“Anybody who listened to it … would, I think, have appreciated the discussion for being an exposition of why people are afraid not only of blacks but of everybody they don’t know,” he said.

Elsewhere in the September 19 program, O’Reilly said he was trying to reassure whites — such as his grandmother, whom he said had an “irrational fear” of blacks — that rap-star stereotypes of African-Americans “are not true.”

“This is what white America doesn’t know, particularly people who don’t have a lot of interaction with black Americans,” he said. “They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg.”

Williams defended O’Reilly during O’Reilly’s Tuesday night show. He said portraying O’Reilly’s comments as racist was “rank dishonesty.”

“It’s outrageous, because the discussion we had was about how too often the images on TV are these rappers glorifying drugs, glorifying violence, degrading women,” Williams said.

But Suzan Johnson Cook, a former Clinton administration official, said O’Reilly sounded surprised that a black crowd was so civil.

“Was he expecting people to be jumping all over the place?” she said on CNN’s “Out in the Open” on Tuesday. “It’s very sad that, in 2007, a man who influences so many people, number one, has that kind of ignorance, who has not been exposed to our culture.”

In a written statement, Bill Shine, Fox’s vice president for programming, added, “This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings. It’s sad.”

Yea sure pal…Bill Shine you get paid to say that… you probably have a few white sheets and white hoods in your closet too don’t ya??? Nathan Bedford (the man who founded the KKK) would be so proud of you guys…especially the District Attorney in Jena Louisiana, Reed Walters.

Certain stuff is so outrageous to the point that it could almost be comical. Bill O’Reilly has a personal crusade against Rap (which in his mind is the cause for everything bad in society) but in turn is a complete racist…

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/26/oreilly.race/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Governor Blanco steps in for Jena 6…

We don’t care what others say about Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson being substitute leaders in the shadows of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. They step up and stand-up against injustice. They are true leaders and definitely deserve the respect of the people.

Ok now that that speech is over the Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco has finally stepped in and taken a step towards helping Mychal Bell.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters had earlier said he would appeal the state appeals court’s decision that 17-year-old Mychal Bell’s second-degree battery conviction be set aside. The court ruled that Bell could not be tried as an adult.

Blanco said she had spoken with Walters and asked him to reconsider pushing to keep the case in the adult courts system. She said Walters contacted her Wednesday to say he had decided not to appeal the ruling.

“I want to thank him for this decision he has made,” Blanco said.

Blanco made her announcement at a news conference with activists Martin Luther King III and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Sharpton said he hopes a bond will be set low enough to allow for Bell’s release, and he thanked Blanco for getting involved in the matter.

“I want to congratulate her for showing leadership,” Sharpton said. “And I want to congratulate the district attorney for good judgment.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070927/ap_on_re_us/jena_six

Al Sharpton Calls For Investigation Of Prosecutor of Jena 6 Case!

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/10/america/NA-GEN-US-Sharpton-School-Fight.php

Racism In Jena Louisiana Against 6 Young Black Men!!!