Jena Six, and I’m confused
Well there was once upon a time when a bunch of teenagers fighting wasn’t the end of the freaking world.. but the world is a changed place.
First of all, my understanding of this “Jena Six” scenario:
The white guy that got ganged up on, was shooting his mouth off (cause that’s odd for a teenager).. He may/may not be a racist, but the fellas that gave him a beating sure thought so. period.
I think there’s a lot more going on here, but in the end this is the only thing that should matter in these cases. Whether or not white students hung nooses, or if it was ninja monkeys.. none of that matters in the case for me.
- Its rude what that guy did, and in a perfect world, he could get a little roughed up and learn a valuable lesson.. Don’t be a jerk
- There is just no reason unless this guy is a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter, that it should take 6 kids to give him a beating.
- They should absolutely be punished for battery, or aggravated battery.. or whatever. They kicked the kid in the head and messed up his face and hand. Meaning, they weren’t “fighting” they were just beating a kid down.
- Aggravated battery vs 2nd degree murder
- I can see that this is a little out of place when not considered that this is a 6 on one attack.
- AND that most of his seriousness of his injury was a concussion. While not the end of the world, the fact that this was either a goal on purpose or just on accident.. its reckless ( I know teens don’t think, I remember being that age..)
- even if you say “oh I don’t see how thats so bad”, keep in mind that even if it was just 1 (one) kick in the head, if done at just the right angle, this is fatal. Whether you mean it or not, the guy still dies. Not sayin they really WERE trying to kill him, really I don’t know.. and don’t care. Just saying that the ability of you to kick someone and kill them is significantly higher than for you to punch them (legs being several times stronger than arms, etc).
- If you are pointing a gun at a guy, and you don’t know its loaded.. and it goes off and you kill him.. You committed murder.. (the classification I don’t know, cause I’m no lawyer) Then you go to jail. How long I think depends on whether the jury believes you are dumb enough not to see bullets, or just crazy enough to think that a loaded gun wouldn’t “go off”.. but still. Jail, for murder
Now for Sharpton:
As far as I can tell, Sharpton is all about equality. All about lets all just be the same and no favors one way or the other. I know of people on both sides of the color scheme that would argue that he is SO not… But I think he is.
To say that he wouldn’t have gone ballistic even more had this been 6 white kids beating on a black kid, is retarded. He’d be cryin out for the limits of the laws.. Storming about how this is proof racism is still in America, and so on, and so forth. THEN, if the charges levied against the attackers was attempted 2nd degree murder, I doubt he’d say a THING. I love his prose, and can imagine it like this “This poor young man, was deliberately singled out for the color of his skin. Beaten to the ground and then kicked around, until hospitalized.” All true by the way (I don’t think the white kid got it for being “white” so much as just for being a jerk).
Lessons to learn:
One: Kids should be allowed to fight, it heps reinforce social norms. (if you grab a guy by the shoulder and make a fist, he assumes you want to fight even if you are just showing him your fake superbowl ring). You shouldn’t do some things and you know it. Legal/Illegal, doesn’t matter to me at this point. Like if a guy grabs your wife’s “posterior”.. You can be a wimp and shrug it off.. or you can deck him. Deck him. If he’s bigger than you, you might get beat up but you defended yourself and someone you love (assuming you love your wife..), and thats courageous.. and maybe even honorable.
Two: 6:1 is not a fight, it is a deliberate attack. Like a mugging. Now had this been a standup fight where the jerk stood up and fought back.. I’d think differently. Cause then he gets a broken nose and a black eye.. maybe still a concussion (weren’t all these guys football players?). It isn’t fair, and shouldn’t be tolerated unless the 1 guy is the incredible hulk, or a UFC champion gone crazy in a joint (unlikely, but still.. I guess Rich Franklin or someone could just go off and be crazy and get in some trouble.. I doubt only 1 guy could take them down though). This kind of attack SHOULD be treated more seriously, and SHOULD be prosecuted to the highest extent to keep it from happening. Black on white, White on Black, Yellow on magenta.. Color means nothing to the odds here. The same punishment should be sought whether it was white:black or black:white. Maybe if the white guy was wearing a Klan hood, I could see it more.. but still 6:1?
Three: If you followed sharpton before and respected him as I did, this has to put you on notice that he either 1) isn’t forward thinking enough to think.. were the roles reversed I’d have pushed for that too, or 2) knows he would push for it and doesn’t care (shooting the WHOLE “equality” thing right the crap out of the window.
Again, murder? I don’t really think so, but I can kinda understand.. maybe its a stretch though? Now IF this town is a racist haven, means nothing. Whether you are a racist or not should not affect the LAW. I imagine Sharpton would push for “hate crime” if this had been the other way around though. So on that aspect I follow him, but I think there should be more separation of all these issues..
Nooses in a tree: Technically, its probably racially motivated.. I concede it. However hanging a piece of rope from a tree is probably not illegal.
Getting into a fight at a private party when crashing: This is normal, I’ve seen it happen and if you’ve lived much so have you. Good bouncers make this less of a problem as you get older, but still. What I read was the party was “invitation only”, and that the guys weren’t invited. Some jerk (probably watched too much “Road House”) jumped in and started a fight.. then it moved to the parking lot.. and he got charged.. etc. He got off minor though, but he wasn’t 6:1 from what I could tell in reports.. He was more 1:1, maybe 2:1.. I dunno but I heard nothing of “hospital visits” for anyone involved.
The big one I thought, but isn’t being played up that much:
Getting a gun pulled on you: Some of the black students (or just adults, who knows..) had a gun pulled on them at a gas station. Now, this looks bad.. But the story I got from a biased news source (aren’t they all?) seemed to play down that “he sited self defense as he thought he was being robbed”. I think that is pretty key, but in the end.. if there was 2 guys coming at him.. ya know.. maybe he could’ve thought that. So anyway the black individuals wrestled the gun from him and the guy ran away. Later I think one of the black people were cited for “theft of the gun”? This is funny to me, but technically accurate. If there is no proof one way or another on the charge of “are they robbing me, or am I just a nutjob”, then they did just take a gun from a guy.. Which is a theft. They took something that didn’t belong to them. I think that’s pretty basic.
Racism is an ugly thing. I don’t consider it criminal, but I do consider it wrong. I think, as a white guy, we get picked on a lot as if we are just all racist. Really and truly, YOUR perception of ME means almost nothing to ME. If you think I’m racist, go for it. Do I have more white friends than black, well yeah. Do I have black friends? Yeah. Really its a kinda small circle anymore with kids and school and a wife, dog, house… You get my point, I don’t get out much. Anyway don’t assume that everything you see white:black, black:white.. is racially motivated. I am pretty sure all people have a potential to be a jerk and say some stupid crap.. Whether that means you need a posse of 6 guys to teach him a lesson is really the issue I have. Really people should be adult and TALK things out. They should. We should all drive below the speed limit, and all pay our fair share of taxes. And if this was the case there would be no pollution, litter.. you get my point here too. People are just not there yet. Some are, but not all. Be kind to each other.. and for God’s sake.. stop talking trash ppl.