nick said... Blah, blah, blah!!! I am a resident of Jena and i have been a resident here all my life. It is really unfortunate that the news only publishes stories that make these young men, the "Jena 6", seem like victims. I happen to know 3 of them and i assure you they are anything but. For instance, i personally witnessed at least three of them jump another black man at a party for no apparnt reason. They succeeded in winning this particular fight, obviously! Later on that same night they sat down the road from where this man lived bragging and taunted him some more on how they really "F*****" him up and did he want some more!! I was there, i witnessed these facts! They are known in their community for stealing out of people's cars and homes...THE BLACK COMMUNITY!!! We had to start locking our cars just to run into the convenience store and pay for gas. The "Jena 6" as they are now known are in fact a group of young hoodlums! They wanted to be known as a gang. They thrived on walking around together intimidating others, blacks and whites alike! Did anyone bother to ask "why" they had a gun pulled on them at the convenience store? First off, they were stealing and YES they were armed. Look im not defending the nooses being hung in the tree at the school, prank or no prank i believe that those 3 white boys should have been expelled. I also believe that the white boy that the "Jena 6" beat up should be expelled for later on bringing a gun to school. I and many others in Jena just want all this to be handled fairly and as peaceful as possible. The whole thing has been blown up so big its really hard to recall what started it. They "all 6" beat up another student until he lay unconscious and continued to beat him! Does it really matter what color they are or this student they beat? Its so funny how all these big city hot shots come here and try to make all this a racial thing when really its not! These same hot shots are saying "We won't leave until we see justice done, we'll keep coming back" and then they ask their supporters to pay them back for gas and lodging. HA! How ridiculous, if they really believed in their cause they would be here reguardless if they were getting paid back are not! Maybe they're just using all this for their own political gain. Whatever the reason i think its sad. The people in Jena are no fools though, there are a few of these phonies that have been told by local blacks not to come back! Good for them! I don't believe anyone wants to see young people go to prison wrongfully accused however, if you do the crime you do the time! Thats the Jena way! June 02, 2007 3:45 AM nick said... elle, obviously your missing my point entirely! I LIVE HERE IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY In JENA! Do you? I know all about what racisim is, trust me! I Just want you to know about the people your defending so feircely! They are not innocent by no means! When this does go into court im sure that their character will be brought up. For example, If one or more of them were known for being a rapist but were never convicted in the courts, because blacks here don't involve the law most of the time, would you still defend them? Come on now, not all of them in question but at least three are not innocent! I agree with you on the fact that the boys who hung the nooses in the trees should have gotten expulsion "at least"! That was a hate crime and their should be some law that protects people from that sort of ignorance. Most everyone in town except their parents agree on that. The boys who did that are in fact a bunch of rednecks and they knew what they were about to stir up here! Im ashamed to say that all they got was a "slap on the wrist". If anyone deserved their ass whipped they most certainly did! However, thats not the case! The reason why none of the other incidents (the black guy who was beat up at the fair barn and the guy that pulled a gun on them at the conveniece store etc..) were never brought to justice is because no one ever pressed charges. The black guy beat up at the party decided to go tell a few other black guys ie "Jena 6" and they were going to handle it on their own. That is against the law to take matters in your own hands. Why didn't the parents of this black guy go press charges? He was a minor and i wish they would have! Blacks in this area RARELY involve the law. They almost always handle these things on their own. That white guy or guys should also have their ass sitting in jail right now too. Also everyone that ive talked to believes that the kid that got beat up for saying the N word deserved to have his ass whipped too, but not 6 on 1!! Thats just not right for anyone. You can't possibly defend that. His parents did go press charges and thats why its six black guys in jail instead of however many white guys that beat up that black kid. My opinion is that if this wouldn't have happened at school the charges may have never been brought. You send your kid to school expecting to be safe and i think those parents should also sue the school board. Which i heard they plan to in the future and thats a good thing maybe then they'll protect everyone from hate crimes and violence. The majority of people in this town are not racist though. I work in a place where i talk to cops daily and most of them also beleive that attempted second degree murder is really extreme. I feel that that has alot to do with the parents of this white kid that got beat up, their pissed! I don't think it will hold up and i don't think that a jury would convict any of them for that. I do agree that they shouldn't have the same lawyer because im sure one of them is sitting in that jail thinking "all i did was hit the guy once". This one should testify against the others and get off, not feel he has to protect his friends for fear of retaliation later. You asked me about the black man that 3 of the Jena six beat up just a few weeks before they went to jail. I was there and this black man called his family, not the police. He sat there in his yard with a gun in his lap talking to his family members just waiting for one of the guys that beat him up "let them lil bastards start some more shit, i got somethin for their black asses" as he said it! He could have had them arrested then and he should have. Let me just tell you 3 of the six ARE criminals and one of them needs serious therapy. I wish CNN would go take a look in that ones bedroom, it looks like he has a damn arsonal in there from all the guns hes stolen. I ask what in the hell was his mother thinking letting him have all this in there. But then again his mother is a criminal too and she rasied him in all that crap. I have to feel for sorry for him but at the same time im relieved hes in jail and i hope someone can help him. People defending these kids and making excuses for everything they do though is not helping them. They need to just come to terms with what they did was wrong and that they never meant to attempt to kill anyone, it just got out of hand. The DA is a dickhead(i aplogize but i don't know how else to put it) to whites and blacks, i don't know too many people that like him or agree with him. Im not sure what his problem is? The people in Jena just want this to be over with though and when it is we hope that our school district set clear ground rules when it comes to hate crimes, threats, intimidation and violence in the schools whoever it might be doing this. The parents just need to accept the schools dicipline. Parents need to disipline their children at home and not let them run the streets all night stealing and stirring up trouble. Unfortunately there is a race problem here in America. We are the a melting pot full of all types of races and religions. There will always probably be a race problem but people need to trust in the laws to handle them fairly, thats why we have juries so they will be. If someone commits a crime though it is our law that they will be brought to justice based on the evidence, right? How can you be so sure that they wouldn't get a fair trial here in Jena? After all this community has helped in rasing them. I have pictures of some of them when they were little kids. Some of them are superior athletes with teachers and coaches who support them and hope that they'll learn from this and hopefully go on to do great things. Im particularly dissappointed in one but i hope this is a wake up call for him. You can't go around beating up on people because you don't like something they say. To listen to him now making a millon excuses for his actions, i realize he has missed the point. He doesn't realize that people aren't defending what he did but just making excuses for why he did it! He knows deep down he did it just to fit in with his friends and nothing else! I think right now in their life, knowing the path they were headed down, this is just the wake up they need. I hope that they never want to go back to prison. Instead decide to go on to college and be a lawyer so they can help change some of our old laws and make sure that justice is served. Most importantly, i hope that they realize that the mind is much more powerful than a fist will ever be and because they've been through this their words will be heard. This is very personal to me ella and it about much more than just their case. I am not some older person, i am their peer! I thought that you would be interested and knowing alittle more about who you are defending coming from someone who knows! Lifes not fair but we do the best with what we're given. No, i don't think that they will ever be convicted of second degree murder, no one here does but i just hope they don't use what sentence they do get as an excuse. Thank you for responding to my comment. I haven't commented anywhere else but i just couldn't hold my thoughts on this whole thing in anymore. I am torn on this and its hard to believe that all this has happened because of some rednecks and some wanna be thugs. Yes thugs im sure that might offend you but i promise thats the title ive heard them refer to themselves! Although in my eyes their just a bunch of kids who've done a bad thing. They were not defending themselves though, no one ever had the guts to attack them. June 03, 2007 2:14 PM nick said... oh and btw about the tree with the nooses in it someone have outta just burn it down instead of the school hmmm mb we'll see! im personally sick of seeing it as a reminder and so is the rest of the student body!! June 03, 2007 2:50 PM SOURCE