Jena DA Reed Walters dissembles in NYT

In an op-ed in the New York Times today, Reed Walters, the DA who is prosecuting the so-called "Jena Six," offers a seemingly reasonable defense of why they should be charged with aggravated second-degree battery. However, the primary reason for the protests is that five of them were charged with attempted second-degree murder, a fact that he barely acknowledges:

[T]he offenses of Dec. 4, 2006, did not stem from a “schoolyard fight” as it has been commonly described in the news media and by critics.

Conjure the image of schoolboys fighting: they exchange words, clench fists, throw punches, wrestle in the dirt until classmates or teachers pull them apart. Of course that would not be aggravated second-degree battery, which is what the attackers are now charged with. (Five of the defendants were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder.) But that’s not what happened at Jena High School.

The victim in this crime, who has been all but forgotten amid the focus on the defendants, was a young man named Justin Barker, who was not involved in the nooses incident three months earlier. According to all the credible evidence I am aware of, after lunch, he walked to his next class. As he passed through the gymnasium door to the outside, he was blindsided and knocked unconscious by a vicious blow to the head thrown by Mychal Bell. While lying on the ground unaware of what was happening to him, he was brutally kicked by at least six people.

Imagine you were walking down a city street, and someone leapt from behind a tree and hit you so hard that you fell to the sidewalk unconscious. Would you later describe that as a fight?

Only the intervention of an uninvolved student protected Mr. Barker from severe injury or death. There was serious bodily harm inflicted with a dangerous weapon — the definition of aggravated second-degree battery. Mr. Bell’s conviction on that charge as an adult has been overturned, but I considered adult status appropriate because of his role as the instigator of the attack, the seriousness of the charge and his prior criminal record.

Unfortunately, many readers may find the piece convincing and not realize the extent to which Walters is dodging his critics.

Clarification 9/26 2:47 PM: A commenter points out an ambiguity in my language -- the defendants were charged with attempted second-degree murder (the victim did not die). I've clarified this above.

Comments

[WinslowLeachtheComposer]

They were charged with second-degree murder?! The kid died??

[psmarc93]

Exactly -- the point is that Justin wasn't so innocent. He was also egging on a friend, another student who took a rifle and charged Mychal -- Mychal stood his ground, took the rifle, chased after the guy and then kept the rifle. Mychal was charged with attempted battery and theft -- the white student with NOTHING. Yes, of course, Mychal must be charged with assault for what he did to Justin (a black eye, hospital released him after minutes and he attended a rally that evening - hardly fatal), but one would hope the jury would suggest lieniency in sentencing considering all Mychal has endured WITHOUT any support from the police, court or community. Who wouldn't want to punch the coward's face in?

[Debra P.]

I believe it was ATTEMPTED second degree murder they were charged with. But that doesn't alter the fundamental point of the disparity in treatment of the white and black students.

[Kent]

Yes. I did find Walters' piece convincing (as well as lucid and completely fact-based), in stark contrast to the hysteria and the usual sensationalist, incoherent race-baiting we get to enjoy from the Rev. Al and Jesse and the likes of NBC and CNN.

Amazing to see what kind of people are held up as "civil rights heros" these days (oh, and of course, these "heros" are "victims" as well): A bunch of high school jocks who ganged up on a kid and beat him until (and after) he was unconscious. This laughably characterized as a "simple school yard fight" by black "leaders" and equally moronic protesters.

"Free the Jena 6!!!" Yeah, sure. Let's free OJ while we're at it. Oh, I forgot. He is free - acquitted by a racist jury.

[grahams]

For all concerned, let's deal with this. Get the FBI in, examine the cases, examine the track record of the DA, examine his case history. That should settle this one way or another.

[dnA]

Kent,

"Lucid and Fact based" it wasn't. The man even omitted the fact that the "deadly weapon" used to charge the six with "aggravated assault" was their sneakers, because he knew it was indefensible.

There is an entire series of incidents in Jena in which Walters consistently failed to pursue serious charges against white students for similar actions.

Although, the meaning you equating of O.J and the Jena Six is not lost to me. What do they have in common, other than the fact that they are all black? And what exactly, does OJ have to do with this incident at all?

Brendan,

I apologize in advance for posting a link to my site here, but I think it's important that you know that the charges of attempted murder wasn't the only significant omission in yesterday's op-ed.

http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/09/reed-walters-forgot-to-mention-few.html

Peace,

dnA

[jobu]

"a fact that he barely acknowledges"

Anyone able to read can see he clearly states this. Was he supposed to put it in bold-face for us?

I'm a little confused, and I'm missing the dodge.

[Michael]

A peculiar clutch of black racists are lamely arguing that Mychal Bell shouldn't be held responsible for joining five thugs in beating a lone white cracker, and yet those same racists will undoubtedly try to have you prosecuted if you racially profile a gang of black men standing on an inner-city street corner at 1:00 am.

Here's a note of advice for the moderator of this site: The gent identifying himself as dnA will censor you without a second thought should you attempt to address reason on his own blogsite. Beware the man, an incontrovertible racist and predictably enthusiastic panderer to leftist political mayhem. Hanging nooses in a Louisiana tree is indeed a rude and stupid tactic, though aggravated assault is quite another: Were the perpetrators of the Jena violence white and the victim black, the incident would've resulted in a lengthy prison sentence for the white assailants. Reason has thus been turned on it's head by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton--both of these men reputedly "men of the cloth."

[Ric]

Why don;t any of these people defending Mychal Bell mention he has a rap sheet as long as your arm? He, and his 5 thug friends were well known in this town as troublemakers - whether they be white or black!

This town is 82% white and 12% black - deal with it folks. I am tired of reading the "there's no blacks on the school board' - "there's no blacks on the jury"...hell, the town hardly has any blacks - what do you expect?

I find it sad that black people cannot find real civil rights heroes in this day and age. They can't even find decent rol models.

As far as racism - blacks here in Detroit danced in the streets when OJ was found innocent...after all, it was just white people he killed...

Once again, like pied pipers, the race baiters Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson marched into a peaceful town and tried to make some dumb, young thug a hero for being a coward and ganging up on some kid who had nothing to do with the conflict at hand...real hero. I'd like to see how well he fares one on one with someone rather than hitting them from behind and ordering his thugs to attack the kid.

[Michael]

All excellent points, Ric.

When I was a kid, Henry Aaron was a role model for virtually every kid--black, white or in-between. He was a genuine civil rights hero and gracious gentleman who indisputably earned his own keep in life, despite incredible odds rarely seen today. And does the NAACP today embrace the man as an embodiment of equality or civility? Hardly. Instead we get Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, Jackson and Sharpton. The civil rights movement of the 1950s has devolved grotesquely, malignantly, and is presently afflicted with terminal cancer. What we're witnessing is a dying patient sedated with drugs, and in absolute delirium and denial.

[Mr. C]

I must disagree of what I read about how there are very few if any black role models. There are plenty of positive black role models for the younger generation to follow, but you don't hear about them, because the "media" controls for the most part what you see, hear, and read. As far as they are concerned positive black role models does not make for good television....but I am not surprised, because we for the most part live in a pessimistic society where divide and conquer are of the norm, hence the "Jena 6" issue.

My apologies for veering off from what the main basis of what this discussion is about.