Cops: Nooses Dangled In Front Of Marchers

Two Teens Arrested For Hanging Nooses From Truck Near Jena Civil Rights Demonstration

(AP)  A teenager was arrested Thursday when police allegedly found hangman's nooses dangling from the rear of his pickup truck after he drove past a crowd of people who had attended a civil rights march earlier in the day.

The incident took place only hours after tens of thousands of civil rights marchers demonstrated in Jena, about an hour's drive from Alexandria, on behalf of six teens charged with beating a white schoolmate at Jena High School.

Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Colfax, La., and a 16-year-old passenger in his truck were arrested Thursday night near a bus station where a group of people who had marched in Jena were waiting for buses to take them home.

Munsen, who is white, was booked on charges of inciting a riot, driving while intoxicated and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. A city attorney will decide whether charges against the 16-year-old boy from Dry Prong, La., are warranted, said Alexandria Police Sgt. Clifford Gatlin.

"I wish we had a charge in Louisiana for aggravated ignorance, because this is a classic case," Gatlin said.

Gatlin said the crowd of about 200 people at the bus station remained calm throughout the episode.

"They were just offended and appalled that somebody would be that stupid to do that," Gatlin added.

The 16-year-old, who was being held in a juvenile detention facility Friday, told police he had a "KKK" tattoo on his chest and said some of his relatives were involved in the Ku Klux Klan, according to a police report.

Officers found an unloaded rifle and a set of brass knuckles in Munsen's truck, police said.

Nooses figured into the controversy that drew tens of thousands of people to Jena on Thursday.

Last year, a black Jena High School student asked whether blacks could sit under a shade tree that was a frequent gathering place for whites. He was told yes, but nooses appeared in the tree the next day. Three white students were suspended but not criminally prosecuted.

Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy, who met with many of the demonstrators at the bus station before they departed, said the visitors assured him they wouldn't let the incident taint their otherwise positive impression of the city.

"The citizens of Alexandria know who we are," Roy said. "I think we demonstrated that with great moral force" by hosting thousands of march participants this week.

Ignorance Is Bliss?

[lewiston14]

Nice: No water, No bathrooms, No food makes for a very short million man march. Now they got to go find another tree. Why did they cut the first tree down? What did the tree do to anybody. I think things just got worse down there.

[ramos937]

These two kids should be jailed to protect them from their own stupidity.

[jaspernyc007]

REMEMBER......."If the media wasn''t watching what was going on then every last one of those kids would be in jail right now," says Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, who was there when the recent round of trouble started.

[scruthut]

Ignorance piled on top of ignorance! We could lose all of them. The kids that put up the nooses in the first place, the kids who tried to kill the boy and all the marchers especially Sharpton and now these two rejects who got drunk and sling around the KKK. Oh yeah the KKK too! Lose them all!

[Krazcarl]

Kids will do stupid things for a laugh. These kids didn''t grow up with what Hate this but us older generation did they don''t know or remember the saddness it''s all stories in books to them we have come along.

[me4prezz]

Arrested for hanging nooses, which started this whole thing, by a person driving by, but the people who hung the nooses earlier this year were not! It was a "joke" then, but now worth arresting.

Why the double standard? I do not often get into race issues because I believe that card has been played too often, but in this case, I strongly believe that it has been played correctly and it is a horrifying to know that we are at war to stop similar actions across the world, but we cannot even practice at home what our troops are dying for.

Say your prayers people. Every great superpower that has ever been in being has fallen and I believe we are next in line. We just cannot act as "One nation, under God". We are too divided to ever come together.

[jrdevo]

Kids hang noose in tree, kids suspended, not arrested. (I assume freedom of speech is still legal in the U.S.)

Kids (6 blacks) attack and knock unconscious one (1) other kid (white) and are arrested (appropriately) for a crime.

D.A. overreaches by charging with attempted murder - BUT - later, charges are reduced against all, one still being held because he was the organizer and has a violent history.

Several thousand protesters (protesting what? - black kids being arrested for a violent crime? hmmm...)
descend on this small southern town (capitalizing on AND perpetuating the myth that the south is a bastion of ancient slavery and racism....)

They want the perpetrators of the beating RELEASED? ...and say the noose-hanging high school kids should be charged with a hate crime?

Sorry - The entire mess is a race-hustling, turned upside-down and backwards, and inside-out FIASCO orchestrated by the Masters of black racism and victimization - Jackson & Sharpton.....they can count the contributions coming in with each fund-raising event !

[rudy654-2009]

Kids hang noose in tree, kids suspended, not arrested. (I assume freedom of speech is still legal in the U.S.)Posted by JRDevo

Oh Jethro, I always did think you were so funny! Defending threatening someone with a hang noose as free speech. HAHAHA! Oh, Jethro? Can the student who walked into the airport with a fake bomb claim that as free speech too? I know you will have good answer, because you done graduated from sixth grade.

[goatclone]

Most of you people are so full of it! Anytime there is the slightest incident of an African American being beat the news reporters are all over it and siding with the minority no matter what. And I guess all white on black crimes are made to seem minuscule right? Kind of like the whole Rodney King incident! I think you should stop expecting special treatment. I guess hundreds of African Americans can rally and its just a peaceful protest. But if hundreds of Caucasians done the same it would be considered the same as genocide. And how about BET(Black Entertainment Television)? Im sure African Americans would rally for sure if Caucasians had such a thing as WET(White Entertainment Television). So get over yourselves and stop trying to find a scapegoat for problems that have existed since the beginning of time.

[goatclone]

Most of you people are so full of it! Anytime there is the slightest incident of an African American being beat the news reporters are all over it and siding with the minority no matter what. And I guess all white on black crimes are made to seem minuscule right? Kind of like the whole Rodney King incident! I think you should stop expecting special treatment. I guess hundreds of African Americans can rally and its just a peaceful protest. But if hundreds of Caucasians done the same it would be considered the same as genocide. And how about BET(Black Entertainment Television)? Im sure African Americans would rally for sure if Caucasians had such a thing as WET(White Entertainment Television). So get over yourselves and stop trying to find a scapegoat for problems that have existed since the beginning of time.

[mhanle]

If you live in the south for more than a year you will discover that racism, blatant and institutionalized is alive and very well in the land of dixie. You will discover that southern justice and southern "peace officers" are primarily white (good ole boys) and are predominately racist. Check into the story of Martin Lee Anderson, a black "juvenile delinquent" who managed to die of sickle cell trait after being put into the Sheriff''s Boot camp in Panama City Florida in Feb. 2006. The camp video tells the real story. Physical stress, kneeing, hammer blows and amonia capsules held over face left him unconscious as a nurse and 5 "deputies" stood over him and brushed off their hands as if they were dirty. Then read the local paper immediately following the lawsuit the parents filed when no disciplinary action was taken, as the "citizens" proceeded to attack the dead boy and his parents for seeking justice. Attend a candelight vigil where his aunt, his preacher, a civil rights leader and 30 or so blacks and 3 whites sang and prayed, for the sheriff''s dept., for the community, for the local leaders, and for justice, that they were assured in Jesus would come someday. I did not feel sorry for them that they had to endure the death of their children, I felt sorry for us whites who hide truth in false reports, hold onto power at the cost of our souls and try to brush off the evidence on our hands. Being white in the south you will discover racism has not gone anywhere.

[mydyingusa]

What people conveniently forget is there was an earlier attack right before the incident that resulted in stiff charges for the Jena Six.

A group of white youngsters attacked one of the jailed six black kids, Robert Bailey, striking him with beer bottles as he tried to enter a party.

In THAT earlier attack, only one of the white attackers was charged with anything.

And what was his charge? Certainly not murder. Rather, simple battery.

One of the earlier posters may have hinted at this: How are we going to effectively fight a war against terror when we are acting like terrorists within our own country? How can we ask ALL of America to "remain vigilant" in the war against Al Qaeda when some of us are acting exactly like domestic sleeper cells, ready and waiting to strike at fellow Americans because they have a different hue?

Is 9/11 so long ago that we can afford to hate one another in the exact same fashion as the terrorists that struck us that day?

If we can''t control ourselves and show the world what a democracy is, how do we ever expect the people of Iraq or Afghanistan to listen to one single word we say?

They may already be asking the following: "You want democracy for us. But, you refuse to grant this to African-Americans?"

"If this is your idea of settling differences and building a strong democracy, what tiny bit of hope we may have had has been dashed."

[goatclone]

MyDyingUSA
I would not compare these kids to terrorist! What the hell do you know about terrorist besides the fact that you hear about them on the news! You know nothing and that comparison is completely ridiculous and out of context. Maybe if you could experience the smell of your buddies scorched skin sitting dead next to you in what was just a few seconds ago a perfectly good Hmmwv(Hum-V) you would know what terror is. Your just and unpatriotic, self pitiful robot. You know nothing about terror so unless you have some experience in the area do not act like you have the ability to compare the two. So first off change your login name or dont comment on your "Dying USA". Just let it die and sit on your couch. Watch while soldiers die everyday for your "Dying USA".

PUNK

[ngwill1]

Anybody who lives in the south for even a short period knows the connotations of a ''noose dangling from a tree''. Claims that the youth were unaware of its significance simply cannot be true. Youth are young and rash, not stupid. Those kids knew exactly what they were doing. Does no one in Jena have the guts or decency to speak up? What kind of children are we trying to raise in this country? It is appalling that African-American children have to grow up with this kind humiliation and abasement in this day and age.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by goatclone,

Great name, keep it. If you were in a hummer, and got toasted in Iraq, you more than likely a military target. Terrorism is defined as an attack on a non military target, so you and your friend still have not encountered terrorism.

As for the smell of burning flesh, your parents can tell you what they did (and perhaps still do) to the victims of lynching, (that is if you don''t already know from first hand experience) the noose was only the opening act, the bodies are often set on fire, sometimes before the victim is actually dead.

And by the way, most television in America has been WET from the beginning, that is why there is a need for BET, which, by the way, is owned by "whites" (Viacom).

All of you defenders of "racism" need to get some courage, disguising your fear and hate under misplaced and twisted self righteousness only makes the cowardice of your "racism" even more apparent.

[mhanle]

it is a strange thing-fear of someone different, so much fear that you feel the need to erase that other-to eliminate the difference. it is about inherited coercive power and being subtley taught and led from a young age to hate the different one because they may take something away from you. It absolutely defies logic and if we could somehow shed light on it, expose the root of it maybe we could get rid of it. racist feel superior to blacks without any cause, they say all the things we say when we want to continue to feel superior to someone, we criticize intelligence, lifestyle, physical attributes. we are slightly crazy when it comes to race. I don''t know how we are ever going to get over it when it is passed down generation to generation. racism can work both ways but in places like Jena Louisiana especially all the power resides in white hands, so a racist black person can''t affect many people like a racist white judge, police officer, mayor, banker, jury can

[toldyouso21]

Hmmmmm? but I thought the prosecutor said there was no law that addressed nooses being hung in front of other races? (they never heard of the Federal hate crimes law in that little town--evidently) He gave that as the reason that the first set of people from the school who hung nooses were only suspended.

CONSISTENCY. Definitely a MUST when one is telling lies. Either it is an arrestable offense or it isn''t. And if the boys in the truck could be arrested, then the students who hung nooses at the school should be too.

There is racism and much more in that little town. The fact is--boys used to fight and scrap and get kicked out for a few days, not face attempted murder charges--especially if their victim was well enough to attend functions later on in the same day.

The city wanted to make a point to the blacks: We can do whatever we want to you--but if you dare fight back or retaliate--we will put you away. If justice was truly blind, the charges at most would have been assault and battery, unless the boy was in a coma and none would have been tried as adults--plus the white kids who hung the nooses would have been charged with a hate crime as well as inciting to riot or assault--when can also be construed as any threat or implied threat to a person, with or without the continuation on to violence.

[toldyouso21]

It''s a good thing we had almost over 400 years to teach our blacks the futility of resisting or really fighting back. (they only go beserk over things like Rodney King police acquittals, etc and then the reaction is usually quite local) Heaven help America, if they as well as Hispanics, ever decide to stop trying to use or abide by a racist, stacked system and take the law into their own hands like the insurgents are doing in Iraq. Sectarian wars...race wars...always end up with lots on both sides dying and no rules--once the ball is rolling.

[mhanle]

I like the spiritual solution I was shown gently by "those people" the night of that vigil for Martin Anderson, righteous indignation gives way to righteous knowledge that truth and justice will prevail, they had their eyes on a farther horizon, another civil rights movement has to come from that spiritual place, just as it did before

[jcr103]

I bet that kids going to grow up to vote Republican.

[howardoz]

Hey, can we start using a little intelligence? Let us not let this thing get out of control. It is OK to be responsible and if you cannot do the time, do not do the crime. If you really have to do the time, let it be just and fair for ALL, repeat ALL.

[mudduck2541]

Where''s Dr. Phill when ya need him?

[shanev137]

People who live in the south are freaken idiots.

[giord1la]

shanev137 People who live in the south are freaken idiots.......................

Just because we happen to be from the south does not make us Idiots. I was born and raised in the south, i am proud of where I come from. Do not group everyone from the south as idiots. I have lived in lots of places in the United States. From Alaska to the East coast, and hawaii, with other points in-between. There are idiots, every where. What happened to these kids is wrong and should be corrected.

[trenticus-2009]

Oh so "tens of thousand" people can march and chant in what we call right to assemble and free speech but a kid with ropes on his truck catches a charge? Was he also charged for flying the confederate flag?

[keithle1]

Big whoop. Nooses. Blacks getting worked up into a lather. Making t-shirts. Marching around. "We Shall
Overcome." Blah, blah, blah.

Q: You know what''s done the most damage to the black community?

A: The drug trade.

It''s not white racists, the KKK or skinheads.

Black men killing other black men in the drug trade.
How many lives have been ruined by drug addiction?

This is a tempest in a teapot. Just a tailormade opportunity for The Glimmer Twins, Jesse & Sharpton, to get on their soapbox & draw more attention to themselves. They love to hear the sound of their own voices. Get on TV.

"Look at me! Listen to me! Ask me to come on your show! I got things to say! Talk to my agent! Wait a
minute! Someone just told me there''s a racial injustice in California! Someone pushed in front of
a black girl at the 7-Eleven! Where''s my entourage?
See y''all! Got time for one last photo?"

[maedean]

How come all the nooses in the western movies hang white people and you don''t see us having a march. The ignorance of blacks is sickning. Then they think this gives there kids the right to gang up on a white boy, beat him almost to death and get away with it because he seen a noose and the white boy did it. So that gives the blacks beating rights? Wow what a joke this is !!!!

[my2centss]

Porn, art, and music lyrics are protected by the 1st Amendment, but not a noose. If one person loses any one of their rights, all of our rights are not far behind. At the very least, the news media should recognize this.

[cburn665]

I think, what this is about, is whether the "proper" punishment is being applied. Were the District Attorney''s actions extreme.

First, the boys hanging the nooses should have been punished by the school administration---that''s as far as this s/ have gotten.

The African-American "boys" jumping on the Causcasian "boys" should rightfully be punished, their attack constituted assault and battery. That cannot be ignored, however, the DA, I believe has discretionary powers to recommend placing these "boys" on a year probation with the condition of performing say, 150 community service hours with ZERO VIOLATION TOLERANCE.

It is sad that both Whites and Blacks seize these types of situation to promote their own personal agenda to promote discord between both ethnic groups.

Judging from the comments from a lot of you, it appears that you enjoy the divisiveness that this incident has brought about----shame on YOU! When are we going to get beyond the stupidity and backwardness of displaying nooses and referring to people as "hicks" in the south and "yanks," in the north we are Americans---people. The civil was is over!! Grow up people!!! The world is laughing at us!

[ssm9451]

cburn665~you have stated it better than any others!!!
The 1860''s are over.

[name_verify]

Is Barak trying to stir up the negros again?

LMAO

[zeitgeist4]

Yes, the nooses were blatantly offensive, but getting offended once in a while is the very small price that you pay to live in a free country--the same country that allows thousands of people to travel freely and descend upon a small town to stage a protest. Try doing that in China, Cuba or today%u2019s Russia. It%u2019s a much more serious crime to actually beat someone than to offend, regardless of how culturally loaded a particular image is. And the perpetrators should have been charged with assault and battery, unless there was proof that they actually tried to kill the person.

[mcvet]

Yes, the nooses were blatantly offensive, but getting offended once in a while is the very small price that you pay to live in a free country--the same country that allows thousands of people to travel freely and descend upon a small town to stage a protest. Try doing that in China, Cuba or today%u2019s Russia. It%u2019s a much more serious crime to actually beat someone than to offend, regardless of how culturally loaded a particular image is. And the perpetrators should have been charged with assault and battery, unless there was proof that they actually tried to kill the person.

Posted by zeitgeist4 at 01:00 PM : Sep 22, 2007
+ report abuse

You act like the Nation was somehow BORN free enough for these people to travel and protest. It''s a favorite line of Fascist in this nation and you have it EXACTLY backward. It''s BECAUSE people had the nerve to challenge the established way thing were that has created the freedoms we enjoy. It''s BECAUSE people traveled and demonstrated that we have our Freedoms. I know because I got on that bus during the 60''s to confront the Klan and Religious Terrorist when your safety was anything BUT assured. Take the word of someone who has looked these Terrorist in the eye, you STOP protesting and standing up for your rights, you go along with you nazi''s who say things are just fine in this nation and we will no longer see the freedoms those horrible "liberal''s" won for us in the past. Sieg Heil Y''all.

[mcvet]

Is Barak trying to stir up the negros again?

LMAO

Posted by screen_verif at 12:55 PM : Sep 22, 2007
+ report abuse

Nope!! Sieg Heil Grand Wizard!! Come on you pathetic Fascist help me out here!! Sieg Heil!! Sieg Heil!! Good boy!

[mcvet]

How come all the nooses in the western movies hang white people and you don''''t see us having a march. The ignorance of blacks is sickning. Then they think this gives there kids the right to gang up on a white boy, beat him almost to death and get away with it because he seen a noose and the white boy did it. So that gives the blacks beating rights? Wow what a joke this is !!!!

Posted by maedean at 11:04 AM : Sep 22, 2007
+ report abuse

So YOU think these nooses are a joke huh? You think nooses hanging from a Tree in La. is funny huh? Let me tell you something, this is from someone who CARED enough to get on a bus and ride it to Selma during the 60''s, Sparky they ain''t no joke!! Those noose''s have a meaning and it''s a very deadly meaning! Just because you are to much of a Fascist to admit or accept that fact has nothing to do with this. You fascist always SAY you don''t agree with what happened in the past yet you are the first one''s to jump up and defend the criminals who did the wrong. Sieg Heil Grand Wizard!! You really aren''t the sharpest tool in the old shed there are you? SIEG HEIL!! SIEG HEIL!! Make you feel better? ROFLMAO

[socrates392]

cburn665~you have stated it better than any others!!!
The 1860''''s are over.

Posted by ssm9451 at 12:31 PM : Sep 22, 2007

Tell that to the guy brandishing the noose. I think that''d be news to him!

[zeitgeist4]

You act like the Nation was somehow BORN free enough for these people to travel and protest. It''''s a favorite line of Fascist in this nation and you have it EXACTLY backward. It''''s BECAUSE people had the nerve to challenge the established way thing were that has created the freedoms we enjoy. It''''s BECAUSE people traveled and demonstrated that we have our Freedoms.
-------------------

No, nobody%u2019s acting like every American has enjoyed perfect freedom and equal rights since the inception of the country. That would be a completely naove point of view. Of course our freedom has been preserved and advanced by the collective efforts of those who have protested against injustices throughout our history: from the abolitionists of the 1800s, to the suffragettes of the 20s, to the freedom riders of the 60s. But once you take away certain rights of free speech, then you embark on the slippery slope downward. The right of free speech that allowed this protest to take place this week is the same one that gives people the right to display certain symbols, albeit deeply offensive ones. You can%u2019t protect just some types of speech. The first amendment was not created to protect only speech which is deemed popular and acceptable.

[socrates392]

You can%u2019t protect just some types of speech. The first amendment was not created to protect only speech which is deemed popular and acceptable.

Posted by zeitgeist4 at 01:48 PM : Sep 22, 2007

You are right to a point. However, there are and always have been limits to our free speech rights-- and rightly so. You can''t, for instance, yell "Fire" in a crowded theater or threaten to kill the president of the United States. I think the guy hanging a noose in front of these protesters was rightly charged with inciting a riot.

[xzavierbrown]

if you take al sharpton and jessie jackson out of the picture..racial acceptance would begin.

[griffac]

In some places this noose symbol isn''t just offensive, its a real threat. a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E6DF133AF933A25755C0A96E958260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FPeople%2FK%2FKing%2C%20John%20William" vidor? /a , or perhaps some old-fashioned a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/churches.htm" church burnings? /a Here you could look at some old-fashioned a href="http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm" photographs /a for good measure, in case you''re one who thinks this kid was just playing a joke.

[griffac]

it wasn''t just some sick kids joke. its a threat. see it yourself:

http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm

[klingon69]

It''''s a good thing we had almost over 400 years to teach our blacks the futility of resisting or really fighting back. (they only go beserk over things like Rodney King police acquittals, etc and then the reaction is usually quite local)

I don''t know where you live, but in my small city in Texas/Arkansas, when the Rodney King verdict came out, the blacks locally were on top of buildings throwing rocks and bottles at cars.

[linfinster]

To: Klingon69 at 04:03 PM You''re ignorant, and should be removed from society, have you procreated yet? I hope not. BAD genes.

TO griffac at 02:52 PM: My thought exactly! This Sherrif Gatlin is NOT helping the problems down there.

if you take al sharpton and jessie jackson out of the picture..racial acceptance would begin.
Posted by xzavierbrown at 02:42 PM : Sep 22, 2007



Acceptance might begin?? LOLOL what are you on? If removed from Society the world WOULD be a better place for BOTH Black and White people but racial acceptance beginning? No way, the problems and issues go so much deeper in every one of us.

[socrates392]

if you take al sharpton and jessie jackson out of the picture..racial acceptance would begin.
Posted by xzavierbrown at 02:42 PM : Sep 22, 2007

Acceptance might begin?? LOLOL what are you on? If removed from Society the world WOULD be a better place for BOTH Black and White people but racial acceptance beginning? No way, the problems and issues go so much deeper in every one of us.

Posted by linfinster at 06:15 PM : Sep 22, 2007

Isn''t it amazing how simple many of the conservatives think it is to fix the racial problems in this country. Just get rid of Al Sharpton and everything will be just fine! It will be as if the last 300 years of racial inequality never happened! A blank slate! Give me a break! The naivety such statements makes me: want to puke! :() 0 0 0 0 0

That''s just as stupid as saying, get rid of the Grand Dragon of the KKK and then racial acceptance can begin! Ha! There are always going to be radicals out there. Get over it and deal with your own issues.

[keithle1]

Why not just ignore the nooses? Don''t jump 50 feet in the air every time someone says "Boo!"

[robertkjjj]

What''s the charge? How is hanging a rope off your truck a crime? This PC-bullsh*t has gone Wayyyyyyy too far. Daily free speech is becoming crimes. Displaying a rope becomes a crime. Using the n-word gets you fired. On and on and on, our nation watches their freedoms go away, all to serve the altar of PC and Sharpton and Jackson. How is this rope thing any different from burning a US flag? Just TRY to get a conviction on this rope BS; newsflash, you WON''T. No jury or judge is THAT stupid or crazy. (unless, or course, the old 1995 OJ jury is still available)

[ninerman168]

Al Sharpton is off on another crusade trying to be MLK. This guy is a clown.

[ninerman168]

I think that the protests would have alot more meaning if they got rid of that clown Sharpton.He''s just a MLK wannabe.

[ninerman168]

I''m glad that Sharpton and his sidekick Jackson as always are doing what most of America expects out of them.Mugging for TV time.Really what good have they done for the Blacks in this Country.Nobody that I know takes either one of them seriously.As soon as they see them they just change the channel.