Replies to '10/01 Jena 6 Continues'

I feel your pain. It is simply statistics. Houston received way over 100,000 neighbors from Katrina's flood in New Orleans and our crime statistics mushroomed into oblivion. For many months no one was allowed to bring up the fact that the demise of our community was because of the refugees. I know firsthand that the little children are groomed to hate. I know this, and that is why they are so angry. I know that they mirror the violence that they see at home, and they think that it is normal. If half the energy that is put into teaching the horrors of slavery was put into reading or math homework, etc., or anything that enlightens or encourages, this would go away. Racism today is a product of stemming on what happened in yesteryear. Boo-friggin'-hoo. My father was a prisoner of war and I never showed my daughter photos of dead soldiers hanging in trees. Why would I DO that? I don't want her to REMEMBER that. I do not even want her to know that my dad was tortured. What good would it do? It WOULD ONLY MAKE HER HATE. Haters...they are creatures of habit.

I watched the video and personally, I wonder why the person was recording a video rather than trying to help the boy.  The newsman who is "reporting" the video claims there are sounds of people egging on the attackers, why isn't there a sound of the person taking the video calling on the people to stop?  Things like that continue to happen and whether it be black on white, white on back, black on black or white on white, people need to stop standing by and watching or recording it and put an end to it or at least make an attempt. 

I detest what happened with the noose.

I detest what happened with the beating.

 

I think that crime is crime and there should be a set punishment, under the law, applied equally to all.  To my way of thinking, trying to decide what "motive" someone had for committing a crime is just plain stupid, not to mention impossible.  We don't need "hate crime" laws.  We need laws that don't try to desern motive, but simply give consequences for crime.  When someone beats someone up, it is assault.  If someone murders me or someone I love I really don't need to know what race they were or what they were thinking at the time.  Murder is murder and should have a legal consequence.

Kids of one race sitting together under a tree may be not allowed by a school, but it's not a legal crime. Kids hanging nooses is horrendous, but unless I'm missing something, it's not against the law.  Calling another person names is not against the law.  Those things are punished in school but not in the courts.  Six people beating one person is assault.  That is not something handled only by a school.  It's a legal issue.

 

Making a crime more or less because someone is perceived to hate someone else is just totally illogical.

 

I don't agree with racism on either side, black or white, but people in this country still have the right to think whatever they want.  We aren't aiming to control people's minds in this country, only their behaviors.  If people hate each other they have the right to.  But they don't have a right to assault each other.