Outrage Over Hate Crimes Spurs D.C. Rally

(AP)  Marchers surrounded the Justice Department headquarters on Friday to demand federal intervention in the Jena Six case and stepped-up enforcement of hate crime laws.

On a chilly but clear day, busloads of people packed a downtown plaza to protest charges brought against six black teens accused of beating a white high school student in Jena, La. Tensions between black and white students had run high for weeks in Jena, including an incident where a noose was hung from a tree at school. No one was charged with a crime for hanging the noose.

"They need to deem these things hate crimes when it's necessary and obvious," said protester Letrice Titus, 32, of Syracuse, N.Y.

Organizers said more than 100 busloads of people turned out for the protest. The city police department declined to estimate the crowd's size, per its policy.

The march, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton, came only a few days into the tenure of new Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a former federal judge.

Mukasey issued a statement saying his agency is working with state and local police and civil rights groups to "investigate aggressively dozens of noose-hangings and other recent racially and religiously motivated" crimes.

The Jena case has angered blacks who say noose-hanging incidents should be forcefully prosecuted. Lax prosecution, they charge, has led to other, similar incidents since the Jena case came to light.

"Anytime there's a hate crime the Justice Department should prosecute, and a noose is certainly a hate crime," said Martin Luther King III, son of the famous civil rights leader.

Federal prosecutors have said they are actively investigating multiple noose incidents, but did not pursue charges in the Jena case because it involved minors.

In the last year, the department said it has won 189 convictions on civil rights charges, the largest number in its history.

Five of the Jena teens initially were charged with attempted second-degree murder in a local court. Those charges were later reduced. Mychal Bell is the only one of the six to stand trial. He was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. The convictions were later overturned and the case sent to juvenile court. A state judge agreed Friday to open Bell's juvenile trial to the public.

Bell, now 17, was ordered to jail last month for a probation violation in an unrelated juvenile case.

[weareone2]

I agree attempted murder charges against the Jena 6 people seem unwarrented. But they should be charged with a hate crime.
When this is the first comment I''ve posted in a few weeks, why do I keep getting the message "The Publish button will be enabled shortly. We have temporarily disabled it so everyone has an opportunity to comment."

[weareone2]

I agree attempted murder charges against the Jena 6 people seem unwarrented. But they should be charged with a hate crime.

[weareone2]

I agree attempted murder charges against the Jena 6 people seem unwarrented. But they should be charged with a hate crime.

[weareone2]

Why are the Jena 6 thugs not being charge with hate crimes?

[dixxson-2009]

Incidents that take place in the so called best nation
never happened, and could not happen any place in the known world!

Perpetual and continious persecution of a national
past time living legeng baseball hero. Based on rmor
and innuendo.

Perpetual persecution of O J SIMPSON, MICHAEL JACKSON and DON KING until he dons a monkey suit and
waves the confederate flag of surrender at the confederate convention!

A Witch Hunt against a sitting president by a
goverment branch!

DESECRATION,,,,Anna Nichole Smith
DESECRATION,,,,George Gipp (the gipper)

SLAVE MARKET,,,,Only americans sold there own
flesh and blood as livestock!

CIVIL WAR,,,,,,,Just to eradicate slavery!
POLITICAL KIDNAPPING... by a sitting president
Ronald Regan, Russian Parents.

ATTEMPTED POLITICAL KIDNAPPING..CUBAN LITTLE ELIAN

The only nation whose leaders make a joke of Global
Warming!

World''s fastest police on the trigger!
Most numerous and prolific MASS MURDERS, THRILL KILLERS, SNIPERS, RAPISTS, CHILD MOLESTERS GRATEST
PRISON POPULATION....WHAT A COUNTRY!

[harp1963]

"Today, there is an inescapable duty to make ourselves the neighbor of every individual, without exception, and to take positive steps to help a neighbor whom we encounter, whether that neighbor be an elderly person, abandoned by everyone, a foreign worker who suffers the injustice of being despised, a refugee, an illegitimate child wrongly suffering for a sin of which the child is innocent, or a starving human being who awakens our conscience by calling to mind the words of Christ: ''As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me'' (Matthew 25:40)" (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 27, Austin Flannery translation).

[harp1963]

"Today, there is an inescapable duty to make ourselves the neighbor of every individual, without exception, and to take positive steps to help a neighbor whom we encounter, whether that neighbor be an elderly person, abandoned by everyone, a foreign worker who suffers the injustice of being despised, a refugee, an illegitimate child wrongly suffering for a sin of which the child is innocent, or a starving human being who awakens our conscience by calling to mind the words of Christ: ''As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me'' (Matthew 25:40)" (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 27, Austin Flannery translation).

[harp1963]

"Today, there is an inescapable duty to make ourselves the neighbor of every individual, without exception, and to take positive steps to help a neighbor whom we encounter, whether that neighbor be an elderly person, abandoned by everyone, a foreign worker who suffers the injustice of being despised, a refugee, an illegitimate child wrongly suffering for a sin of which the child is innocent, or a starving human being who awakens our conscience by calling to mind the words of Christ: ''As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me'' (Matthew 25:40)" (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 27, Austin Flannery translation).

[mcvet]

When people hang rope in a tree there''s a message... that message is NOT new and it is HATE, PERIOD. Those who practice hate regardless should be held acountable.

[sevenveils]

%u201CAnytime there''s a hate crime the Justice Department should prosecute, and a noose is certainly a hate crime,%u201D said Martin Luther King III, son of the famous civil rights leader.

I agree with principle of this statement. Hate crimes should not be tolerated.

Wasn''t the six black boys brutal beating of a white boy also a hate crime? After all it was hatred that drove them to this violence.

And how did these six boys know that this noose was directing prejudice and hatred towards them? How long will it be before both sides of the whole story will be told?

Where is the blind justice?

If displaying a noose is a hate crime, think of all those hate crimes committed during Halloween. Like the word gay, the noose has been stolen by a minority and given a negative meaning, beyond its usual symbolism for death.

So, does this mean that kids playing hangman in class could be expelled for drawing the noose? Where will the insinuation of hate stop?