No Bail For "Jena 6" Teen

The father of one of the Jena Six said a judge denied bail Friday for Mychal Bell, the only one of the teens who is jailed in the beating of a white classmate.

Attorneys would not comment because juvenile court proceedings are secret. But the father of one of Bell's co-defendants said Bell's bail request was rejected.

Bell's mother left the courthouse in tears and refused to comment.

Bell is the only one of the group known as the Jena Six to have been tried so far in the December beating of a white classmate.

Bell was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, which could have led to 15 years in prison. But his conviction was thrown out by a state appeals court that said he could not be tried on the charge as an adult because he was 16 at the time of the beating.

On Thursday, the case drew thousands of protesters to this tiny central Louisiana town to rally against what they see as a double standard of justice for blacks and whites. The march was one of the biggest civil rights demonstrations in years.

Businesses and schools were shut down as demonstrators by the thousands poured into Jena, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts. Many drove day and night on buses from across the country: A caravan from Los Angeles, activists from Detroit, college kids from Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Houston, Atlanta and cities in between.

The crowd broke into chants of "Free the Jena Six" as the Rev. Al Sharpton arrived at the local courthouse with family members of the arrested teens.

Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader, said the scene was reminiscent of earlier civil rights struggles. He said punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants, but "the justice system isn't applied the same to all crimes and all people."

President Bush told reporters at the White House Thursday that the events in Jena have "saddened" him. He says he can "understand the emotions."

The six teens were charged amid racial tensions that had been growing after the local prosecutor declined to charge three white teens who hung nooses in a tree on their high school grounds. Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder in the December beating, but that charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile.

"This is the most blatant example of disparity in the justice system that we've seen," Sharpton told The Early Show before arriving in Jena. "You can't have two standards of justice."

"We didn't bring race into it," he said. "Those that hung the nooses brought the race into it."

Sharpton, who helped organized the rally, said this could be the beginning of the 21st century's civil rights movement, one that would challenge disparities in the justice system.

[kailumego1]

tato4x4, interesting how your sentence structure has dramatically changed, from the ramblings of a two-year old to an adult writing well-formulated sentences, what happened earlier you forgot to take your Lithium and Prozac.

And you criticize Whatithink, because of her comments on the "Old Testament", well you obviously don''t have a clue.

Individuals such as you forget the "Old Testament" foretold the creation, birth, struggles, etc. of the "Jews", no where in the "Old Testament" was there mentioned of struggles of other nationalities, i.e. Asian, Native American, European, with the exception of Roman Empire, in the "New Testament", Africans, with the exception of those in close proximity, i.e. Ethiopians, or those tribes the Israelites were "warring" against.

The "Old Testament" was written, foretelling the life and struggles of the Jews, along with man and God''s law representative of Judaism, the "New Testament" was written about Christ''s life and death, which he extended the "word of God" to the Gentiles.

And it''s interesting how you''ve overlapped the two, when most Jews follow the "Old Testament", of which many don''t even believe in the "New Testament", so how can you intertwine both text, when the recipient of the first doesn''t believe in the second..

[whatithink-2009]

tato4x4,

I don''t know whether you will see this, but I never said that you should reject the Old Testament. I said that you should view the Old Testament with the eyes of a Christian!!

[tato4x4]

whatithink: That I am not a Christian should be abundantly clear, but being a Christian certainly doesn''t mean you know anything about the Bible. Without the Old Testament, the New Testament is utterly without meaning, for the so-called prophecies supposedly fulfilled by Jesus are in the OT. You don''t get to pick and choose; you either accept the fantasy or you do not. So you reject the Old Testamant, do you? No Creation story, no Noah''s Ark, no Moses leading the Israelites from bondage into the Promised Land? Far too many self-professed Christians care only about the gospels, and ignore the other inconvenient 99% of the Bible.

[name_verify]

Christians generally tend to believe the law of Moses stands, unless Jesus said something to overturn it, and Jesus didnt say anything much about issues of ***, except that adultery wasnt punishable by death.

[socrates392]

Posted by screen_verif at 04:30 PM : Sep 23, 2007

Slavery doesn''t seem very much in keeping with Jesus'' philosophy of tolerance. But niether does homophobia and that hasn''t stopped Christians from citing Paul and Leviticus to justify their hatred of ***. So why not cite Paul to justify slavery too!

[name_verify]

Slavery was originally an alternative to debtor prison in the days of Moses. Jesus later said something to the effect nothing should be loaned unless the lender was prepared to forgive a default, which according to some abolished slavery. After Jesus, when Paul was establishing church missions during the 1st Century, Paul said something to the effect that slaves should obey their masters. Christians tend to take the word of Jesus before others. Draw your own conclusions.

[whatithink-2009]

socrates392,

I think when you read the bible you have to do it with the view of a Christian. Nobody was a Christian in the Old Testament. Christ had not come back yet. There are a lot of good lessons to learn from the Old Testament, but just because something happened in the Old Testament doesn''t mean that God supported it.

Also, sometimes people use the story of Abraham to say that blacks were cursed by God because Ham saw his father nude and didn''t cover him. This is a huge interpretation that was used to justify slavery. What people never question is that even if that was true, when Christ came all the curses of the past were washed away. He died on the cross to save our souls and to set the slate clean. He did this for everyone.

[socrates392]

Posted by tato4x4 at 03:42 PM : Sep 23, 2007

Sorry, tato4x4. I didn''t get the joke. :-( It''s funny when you explain it like that!

You are right that the bible encourages slavery; however, it is not African American slavery it is encouraging. In Biblical times, no one gave a *** what color you were. So insinuating that the bible prescribes the slavery of African Americans is a little disengenous.

As for women, can''t argue with you there. The bible is pretty clear about their place in society.

[whatithink-2009]

"The Bible openly encourages slavery and the subjugation of women. Stay away from that hemlock.
Posted by tato4x4"

So you are not a Christian because the New Testament does not encourage slavery or the subjugation of women!! The reason that Jesus came to earth is because too many people were doing the wrong thing as what was outlined in the Old Testament. So, obviously you are not a Christian.

[tato4x4]

My uncle-pa and sister-ma says them blacks is alwys stirring up truobel bcause they dont want to work and ern rites like decent Whites peepel have when INDIANS was living on our land. A noose is good becse it makes there necks longer like in natunal Gegrafic. GACK!

Sorry. I stuck an icepick in my head, to see how it feels to think like SharnCedar and write as poorly as kailumego1. Anyway, Socrates392, I''m using the same Bible as you, most likely; the only difference is I actually read mine, before using it for toilet paper. The Bible openly encourages slavery and the subjugation of women. Stay away from that hemlock.