Democrats Slam Feds Over Jena 6 Case

Lawmakers Blast Federal Officials For Failing To Respond To Noose-Hanging Incident

(CBS/AP)  Democratic lawmakers denounced federal authorities Tuesday for not intervening in the highly-publicized case of six black high school students charged with the beating of a white student, citing racist noose-hanging incidents far beyond the attack in the small Louisiana town of Jena.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing with federal officials and community activists examining the case of the teenagers known as the Jena Six. The incident happened after nooses were hung from a tree on a high school campus - a symbol of the lynching violence of the segregation era.

Democratic lawmakers, many of them black, blasted federal authorities for staying out of the local prosecutor's case against the six, particularly that of Mychal Bell, who is currently in jail after a judge decided he violated the terms of his probation for a previous conviction.

"Shame on you," Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said to Justice Department officials, directing most of her fury at Donald Washington, the U.S. attorney for Louisiana's western district - and the first black person to hold that position.

"As a parent, I'm on the verge of tears," Jackson Lee said.

"Why didn't you intervene?" she asked repeatedly, raising her voice and jabbing her finger in the air as some in the audience began to applaud.

Committee chairman John Conyers, a Democrat, called for quiet before Washington spoke.

"I was also offended, I too am an African-American," Washington told the panel. "I did intervene, I did engage the district attorney. At the end of the day, there are only certain things that the United States attorney can do."

Following that exchange, Conyers pointed out he had invited the local district attorney, Reed Walters, to testify, but he declined. At that, some in the audience yelled out, "subpoena him!"

Recently, the Justice Department has opened investigations into at least a dozen more cases of nooses found hanging in public places across the nation, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.

Since the Jena case made headlines, there have been nooses found in high-profile incidents in a black Coast Guard cadet's bag, on a Maryland college campus, and, last week, on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University in New York.

Today civil rights activist Al Sharpton said he believes it's a sign of a resurgence of racism in America.

"And that is something I don't think the federal government can tolerate," said Sharpton.

He called for the federal government to play the kind of active role it played in previous generations, adds Reid.

The Department of Justice has created a task force to handle noose-hanging investigations in five states. It investigated the Jena matter but decided not to prosecute because the federal government typically does not bring hate crimes charges against juveniles, Washington said.

Black lawmakers and activists said more forceful action by the Bush administration was needed to squelch what they claim is a sharp rise in racism in the United States.

The senior Republican on the panel, Lamar Smith of Texas, said, "more than anything what we need is an effort to reduce racial tension... What we do not need is stoking racial resentment."

Several other Republicans on the panel questioned whether the white beating victim, Justin Barker, had been forgotten in all the uproar, but Rev. Brian Moran, president of the Jena chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that the most pressing issue is justice for the six teens facing criminal charges.

More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects were treated, but the cases against the Jena Six remain unresolved.

Last week, a judge sentenced Bell to 18 months in jail after a judge determined he violated the terms of his probation for a previous conviction.

Racial tensions began rising in Jena in August 2006 after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended by the school but not prosecuted.

[bev291]

The man responsible for the Tawana Brawley affair has never been held accountable. How in the world can he be looked upon as a moral compass for this country.

[hwy71so]

Hey Al. The beaters were the criminals, not the victim.

Is this guy mentally ill or what?

[gumbo1962]

Sharpten has distorted the views of Matin Luther King.

This is the same reason O.J. was not convicted of murder.

[Krazcarl]

Old hickory Al couldn''t take the time to stick up for the black youth beat to death in Fl. oh that''s right there were some black guards so that made it OK used to neutral with al but lately he''s on a back slapping campaign and trying to get a page in the history books basically useless unless there is a limelight around.

[cosmo072]

WHY IS IT CALLED RACISM WHEN A WHITE PERSON DOES AN INJUSTICE TO A BLACK PERSON, BUT, WHEN A BLACK PERSON DOES AN INJUSTICE TO A WHITE PERSON, THEY ARE SAID TO BE PERSECUTED, UNDER PRIVILIGED OR MISGUIDED. IT''S TIME THE BLACK RACE TO STAND UP AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS, GOOD OR BAD. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR ANYONE, WHITE, BLACK OR WHATEVER, TO DO THE THINGS WE''VE DONE TO EACHOTHER. WE, AS AMERICANS, ARE TIRED OF PAYING THE PRICE FOR YEARS OF WRONG DOING BY OUR ANCESTORS, WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON AND SO FORTH. THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY. LEARN TO GET ALONG AND MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS. JUST BECAUSE YOU LIVE IN THE INNER-CITY DOESN''T MEAN YOU HAVE TO SELL CRACK, BE A PROSTITUTE, HOODLUM OR WHATEVER. TRY WORKING FOR A CHANGE-GET A JOB OR 2, GET OFF GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE/WELFARE, JOIN THE MASSES AND STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR WHAT YOU DO. THERE''S WORDS WHITE PEOPLE DON''T LIKE BUT DON''T ISSUE NEWS REPORTS OR HAVE NEWS CONFERENCES ABOUT THEM. SHARPTON DOES MORE DAMAGE THAN GOOD BY FAR.

[dfamuny]

It eats me up when people post comments when they don''t even have the story straight...
crzmeat: Al Sharpton DID come to Florida to rally with students and community members over the boot camp death of Martin Lee Anderson...so please get the facts straight so you don''t embarass yourself...
The REAL injustice comes from people still refusing to open their eyes to notice that African Americans should not have to keep fighting and protesting and marching for justices that everyone else seems to receive plenty of...without doing all of that. Then when we say something about all of the disproportionate treatment...WE''RE the ones "causing trouble." It''s called INSTITUTIONAL RACISM. What is wrong with people? Wake Up!

[griking]

This board needs and expansion of it''s cap lock abuse laws

[xlib]

This is shear insanity but the left loves it. How about the AA scumbags (hate words) that tortured, raped, burned and killed the white couple in Tenn.? Then again how very dumb of me, AA can''t be racists, they can''t committ hate crimes, right lefties??
This is shear insanity, folks. Crimes are crimes and attempting to delve into someone''s mind is just facists. But hey, this from the party who want to silence right wing radio no matter what.
And you guys have the nerve to whail about the Patriot Act.

[Rontimcoe]

Al Sharpton is an idiot.

Anyone who has watched him and his selfengrandizing antics for over twenty years as I have, would know that.

[Rontimcoe]

Amen trenticus !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hwy71so]

"to notice that African Americans....

Posted by dFAMUny at 08:58 AM : Oct 16, 2007"

Okay, show of hands. How many people in this country have a dual citizenship; African and American?

When my wife became a U.S. citizen, she swore an oath that her loyalty would now be with the U.S. even if it meant going to war with the country of her birth. She became an AMERICAN. Sure, she has dark skin, black hair and dk brown eyes, but just like me she is an American.

Choose where your loyalties lie. If with Africa, I suggest you go there and not come back. How many of the "African"-Americans would trade their living arrangements here for that of the tribes of Africa? We''re, as a nation, the most spoiled on this planet. Black, White, Brown, Red and Yellow ALL have EQUAL opportunity to excel as we choose. If we choose to slum, we''ll slum. If we choose to prosper, we''ll prosper.

[rational_1]

Hey Al. The beaters were the criminals, not the victim.
Is this guy mentally ill or what?
Posted by Hwy71So at 07:47 AM : Oct 16, 2007

A very pertinent question. Personally, I think his victimization complex has progressed to a mental disorder.

[nexgen99]

This is good, maybe now we can prosecute him for his racist speech.

[iceman_1960]

"Sharpton Eyes Expansion Of Hate Crime Laws"

Hopefully they"ll expand enough to get Al Sharpton himself thrown in the slammer:

"White folks were in caves while we were building empires... We taught philosophy, astrology, and mathematics before Socrates and those Greek homos." - Al Sharpton

"If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house." - Al Sharpton


Yes, lets expand those hate crime laws until Al Sharpton is doing hard time in Leavenworth.

[honestabe8]

What do you expect? Sharpton combines the most prevalent blowhard archtypes...he is a preacher and a politician. Why anyone gives this bag of wind the time of day, I do not understand.

[hungry1968]

I agree that there should be an expansion of hate crime laws. They should include sc*mbags that call for the persecution of people without knowing the facts of a case, intervening in law enforcement and criminal investigations, stirring unrest in the impoverished communities, and generally practicing racism against white people because whites were slave owners over 150 years ago.

Geez - sounds almost like I described fat Al, huh?

Hey "Reverend" - I don''t think your god would appreciate your overt racism. Maybe you should put away your pulpit until you can finally see all people equally, instead of being the black version of David Duke.

[iceman_1960]

"White folks were in caves while we were building empires... We taught philosophy, astrology, and mathematics before Socrates and those Greek homos." - Al Sharpton

First of all, Al, the Greeks didn"t teach that pseudoscience, astrology.

And secondly, you just admitted that Black folks were practicing systematic slavery ("building empires" is those days involved slave labor) long before White folks were.

Just shut up, Al.

[momtoall2]

His fate should be the same as that little girl. I think if all child molsters were to be striped covered with honey and left for the gators or red ants i think they would think twice about harming children. as a nation we are to easy on these lower than life idiots

[iceman_1960]

"First of all, Al, the Greeks didn"t teach that pseudoscience, astrology."

That was the Chaldeans.

Some Greeks may have mentioned astrology, but their great contribution lay in scientific astronomy, including the very first sun-centered model of the solar system, by Aristarchos of Samos.

A man who doesn"t know a Greek from a Chaldean is a man who should be studying history in silence, not holding forth on it from a public podium.

[dogsoul]

So the concept of equal protection under the law, while cited continuously as it pertained to the civil rights movement - now doesn''t apply because Sharpton, Jackson & a variety of special interest groups have orchestrated a way in which UNequal protection is in THEIR favor.

And good point, that people seem to forget that it was the black kids who committed the violent crime in question... yet some white kids leaving a noose behind is somehow the more egregious offense...

The hypocrisy of this whole issue boggles the imagination...

[ralan40]

I hope he adds a rider about manditory jailtime for people of one race who falsly accuse people of another race of crimes they didn''t commit.....and the people who leverage political brownie points in that context.

[ralan40]

I hope he adds a rider about manditory jailtime for people of one race who falsly accuse people of another race of crimes they didn''t commit.....and the people who leverage political brownie points in that context.

[robertkjjj]

Hey Al, everyone on this board clearly hates you. Not because you''re black, though. But because you''re divisive, bigoted, backwards, idiotic, opportunistic, arrogant, self-promoting, ignorant, and intent on driving a wedge between the races. You may as well prosecute us all with a "hate crime", because we all hate you, Al!

[cheddarboy82]

I am so sick of this ***

[cheddarboy82]

I hate him

[iceman_1960]

"Sharpton Eyes Expansion Of Hate Crime Laws"

If he isn"t careful, he"s going to get a whole lot of rappers thrown in jail.

[secundus2]

Sharpton is useful. His bizarre notions need to be aired publicly and defeated in open discission, not suppressed, as some here argue.

BTW, he was convicted of slander or libel (can''t remember which) against one of the prosecutors in the Brawley case, but others apparently paid the judgment against him. So he did pay (found guilty) and didn''t pay at the same time. Correct me, if I''m wrong. The interesting thing is that the media don''t refer to him as a "convicted slanderer" to warn the public about him.

[iceman_1960]

Al Sharpton, enemy of [white] racists, but apologist for Islamic terrorists:

"Who defines terrorists? Today''s terrorist is tomorrow''s friend. We were the ones that worked with Saddam Hussein. The United States worked with bin Laden." - Al Sharpton



Who defines white racists Al ? Today"s white racist is tomorrow"s friend.

[Zell Miller, for example. Once a white racist, he became a "friend" when black voters grew in power in his state.]

[rharrin1]

Hey Al you forgot to apologize to the Duke players that you and Jackson were quick to point a finger at.

Clearly you and Jackson are both bigoted, immoral, hypocritical and more racial than those you pursue.

Have a bad day.

[iceman_1960]

"BTW, he was convicted of slander or libel (can"t remember which) against one of the prosecutors in the Brawley case"
- Posted by secundus2 at 10:04 AM : Oct 16, 2007

"Steven Pagones was an Assistant District Attorney in New York who was falsely accused in 1987 by Tawana Brawley and Al Sharpton of raping Brawley. An exhaustive grand jury investigation found that Pagones had nothing to do with any attack on Brawley. Evidence indicated that there had not even been any attack on Brawley and that she had fabricated the entire story.

On July 13, 1988, after an eight-month-long trial, a jury found that Sharpton, Alton H. Maddox and lawyer C. Vernon Mason had defamed Pagones. On July 29, 1988 the jury awarded Pagones $345,000 in damages. Sharpton was found liable for $65,000 of the total damages, Maddox for $95,000 and Mason for $185,000.

Sharpton still refused to apologize to Pagones, and had one of his friends pay the damage amount.

Pagones went on to become an assistant state attorney general." (*)

There is nothing "reverend" about Sharpton, He should not be lecturing anyone on any moral or ethical issue.

(*) Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pagones

[gunownerdan]

Why does Al Sharpton believe that black people should not be trusted with guns, just like the KKK?
blackmanwithagun.com

[iceman_1960]

"I believe something happened to Tawana Brawley... I think it is absurd that someone would say that a 15-year-old girl could have made all that up, including fooling a hospital." - Al Sharpton

What an idiot.

Young girls are prone to make up wild stories like that. It happens all the time.

Of course any accusation made should be thoroughly investigated, as that one was, but a comment like that really exposes Sharpton as a mediocre thinker at best.

[iceman_1960]

RE: "I think it is absurd that someone would say that a 15-year-old girl could have made all that up, including fooling a hospital."

I was reading just the other day about a young [white] girl who triggered a massive police search when she called 911 and told the dispatcher that she had been kidnapped, and that she was calling on her cell phone from inside the trunk of a speeding car.

She was safely in her bedroom the whole time.

[billmahonee]

Sharpton is a racist. He is egotistical and a Black Supremecist. Civil rights apply to more then one ethnic/racial group. If he wanted to be more effective as a leader for civil rights, he would speak up for groups in instances that were not only when a Black American was involved. It seems that Sharpton only speaks when it is opportunistic to speak out against "whitey". Al Sharpton is a Black Supremecist, therefore a racist and not any better then people who do mean things to people because they are racist. I am offended that anyone with any sense or political position accepts anything Sharpton says.

[actornaught]

This country needs someone doing what Al does. Inspite of his failures, and sometimes questionable methods, someone of this nature is needed as balance. After all, history is rampant with proof that racists are far more extreme than this guy. Racism is something that''s not on a steady downward trend, but occasionally rears it''s ugly head. And sadly, it will probably always be with us. So, we will always need some kind of firebrand to bring it to public attention, and make some effort to poke racism back under it''s rock.

[iceman_1960]

"So, we will always need some kind of firebrand to bring it to public attention, and make some effort to poke racism back under it"s rock."
- Posted by actornaught at 10:26 AM : Oct 16, 2007

Sorry, that is like saying that the best way to wash mud off your body is to bathe in a muddy ditch.

The answer to racism is not equal and opposite racism.

Pouring gasoline on a fire has never extinguished it.

[papabc]

They beat a person half to death then want off.
Thought the blacks wanted equality. Why not in punishment?

[racam_us]

I am probably the least racist person around. If any one thing ever made me lean toward racism, it would be the proliferation of hate spewed by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. I admired Martin Luther King as a man that wanted true peace between the races. If this would happen today, what would happen to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? They would be relegated to the ranks of the people that they depend upon by keeping racism in the forefront. Most of the people of color would not be trying to lean on racism if it wasn''t for these two people driving it into their heads that they should be. Sharpton and Jackson depend on the promotion of racism to keep their names in the news. Also the media in this country depend on Sharpton and Jackson to sell their promotion of racism.

[far_point200]

Hey Big Al!
Yo yo yo Sharpie!
How about a law punishing demagogues preventing and/or delaying the assimilation of Blacks into American society to perpetuate their own personal wellbeing?

[allunknowing]

Al Sharpton and Jess Jackson will support civil rights and anything that brings any type of publicity to the subject for one reason:

THEY MAKE TONS OF MONEY FROM IGNORANT SUPPORTERS.

Without this type of article being run, they''d be out of a job, out of a million dollar mansion, and out of $1000 suits. These guys are comparable to internet trolls. Please Do Not Feed the Trolls.

[actornaught]

"The answer to racism is not equal and opposite racism."

I stated my reservations about Al''s mistakes.

But he has never been implicated in any fashion in an act of violence. His methods are legal actions and public awareness. I don''t think that qualifies as ''equal and opposite racism'', considering the violent acts that he''s addressed. And yes, i think a noose should be taken as a threat of violence.

Even I think it should be easy to find methods better than Al''s, but nobody else is doing it.

[erik2590]

Blacks..............whatever..

[jaredhildebr]

Yeah, i don''t care if everyone bashes on Al Sharpton. But who doesn''t agree that hanging a noose is a hate crime? No, it wasn''t right for the young men to assault another, but it could have been prevented if the first act, the noose hangings, would have been punished.

[petesis]

Negative Al. As distasteful as it is, it is in my opinion free speech. Something you should appreciate. This double standard does nothing but engender hard feelings between peoples and keeps guys like Sharpton in business.

[condumism]

Posted by PapaBC
They beat a person half to death then want off.

Where are you getting your information? This White Trash Boy attended a social function that same night. Hardly a beating to the death. Central Louisiana is the epicenter of White Trash. Go spend some time there, Bubba, to learn about the real world for yourself, instead of your FAKE FOX infotainment world of FOOLS!

[cls5695]

Sharpton you are the worst example of a leader. you say you support the constitution but you want to get rid of the basic human rights. Man thats what they are for to use. And by god thats what people should do!!!

[condumism]

Posted by cls5695
Sharpton you are the worst example of a leader. you say you support the constitution

I guess this is your example of leadership: White House Forbids Telecom Companies From Telling Congress About Surveillance Activity. You jinGOPigs are the most pathetic examples of TRAITORS in US history. NOw go back to your braindead activities and watch FOX for more dissinformation. FASCIST!

[cls5695]

Good one AL you have to be the most ridiculous person alive. You are taking the side of the Jena 6 who beat a white male.

[jaredhildebr]

DarkMeat, please re-read my post. I said it was not right for these young men to assault another. The noose cannot be classified as violent or nonviolent. It is one thing: hate. It is very much a hate crime. Please respond, others as well. I prefer discussion over assumption.

[antoniof123]

So you are excusing the Jena 6 "gangstaz" violent behavior because of a non-violent act?

darkmeat4

No he is not excusing the violent he stated it was wrong but if you would have read it COULD HAVE BENN PREVENTED. Now I know that is not what you wanted to read but that is not only what he said but the truth. Had the DA done his job there would not have been a beating.

Stop trying to put words in other peoples mouths.