Mychal Bell Freed on $45k Bail

The Associated Press has reported Mychal Bell was released on $45,000 bail only a day after District Attorney Reed Walters relented in appealing the court’s decision to have Bell’s case tried in juvenile court instead of adult court. Interestingly enough, the bail was reduced from its initial from $90,000 to $45,000.

In his op-ed in the New York Times Reed Walters explained

Only the intervention of an uninvolved student protected Mr. Barker from severe injury or death. There was serious bodily harm inflicted with a dangerous weapon — the definition of aggravated second-degree battery. Mr. Bell’s conviction on that charge as an adult has been overturned, but I considered adult status appropriate because of his role as the instigator of the attack, the seriousness of the charge and his prior criminal record.

But now he claims he “still believes there was legal merit to trying Bell as an adult but decided it was in the best interest of the victim, Justin Barker, and his family to let the juvenile court handle the case,” according the AP.

Walters also was quoted as saying:

”The only way — let me stress that — the only way that I believe that me or this community has been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community,” Walters said.

”I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened. You can quote me on that.”

And we will.

At any rate, its also possible many of those very same Christians, including those in town of Jena and beyond, also prayed for the protesters and the accused teens. And maybe just maybe it was never the intent of the protesters to be violent at all.

It will be interesting to hear how the apologists out there will argue how while these comments were inappropriate they should not be construed as racist.

The saga now continues in juvenile court.

Library Fines the Dead

Some people take their job a little too seriously….

Even the dead apparently have to pay the fines on their overdue books at one Westchester County library. Elizabeth Schaper said she was charged a 50-cent late fee while turning in a book that her late mother had checked out of a Harrison Public Library branch.

“I was in shock,” Schaper said. “This has rocked me to my core.”

Schaper’s mother, Ethel Schaper, died at the age of 87 on Sept. 16 after suffering a massive stroke. A few days later, Schaper said she found a library book, “The Price of Silence,” by Camilla Trinchieri, that her mother had checked out from the library.

Read the rest of the AP story here.

Quote of the Day

After The Politico asked him whether or not a Member of Congress rushed to submit an amendment to a bill on a napkin, House Majority Leader Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said:

“It was some piece of paper, the consistency of which I do not know.”

Jena 6 Prosecutor Drops Appeal to Court Ruling

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters has just dropped his appeal to an Louisianna State Appeals Court to have Mychal Bell tried in adult court, according to the Associated Press.

BATON ROUGE, La. — The prosecutor in the “Jena 6″ cases has decided not to challenge a ruling that sent 17-year-old Mychal Bell’s case to juvenile court.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters had earlier said he would appeal the state appeals court’s decision to set aside Bell’s second-degree battery conviction on the grounds that Bell should not have been tried as an adult.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, with Martin Luther King III and the Rev. Al Sharpton at her side, announced Wednesday that she had spoken with Walters and asked him to reconsider pushing to keep the case in the adult system. She said Walters contacted her Wednesday to say he had decided not to appeal the ruling.

Read the rest of the story here.

Advertising meets Mockumentary

From a friend of mine over at Civil Rights Theory.

Activist Parody Beats Reality to the Punch: Social Media Strategy

September 26th, 2007 | by jcibarra |

I was flying back from California yesterday, and on the little television on plane I watched a strange advertisement for Frontier airlines.

The show was a “parody of a parody,” a “documentary” about how Flip – a dolphin painted onto the back of a Frontier airliner – was able to “get to Mexico.” You have to see it to believe it, but the as the story goes: Frontier airlines created a fake ad campaign in which they “organized” to send Flip, a dolphin whose plane never flew to Mexico, an opportunity to enjoy warmer skies. The documentary examines the political and media strategy around Flip’s eventual success.

What struck me was the special blend of tactics used by “Flip Advocates” which included:

- A catchy tag line: “Send Flip to Mexico”
- Interesting commercial spots
- Video footage of local protesters and community activists
- Video footage of primary players
- A “Send Flip to Mexico Blog”
- Social networking community outreach
- Vlogs (video blogs) and podcasting
- And even interactive elements such as web forums and petitions

Whether these items are real or not matters less to me than the fact that the parody of activism gets it better than true-life activism. The fact is that few civil rights organizations have invested in media campaigns that organize online media as well Frontier airlines can play “pretend activist.”

Food for thought.

If you don’t believe, see for yourself:

Coast Guard Academy Investigates Hanging of Nooses

Congressman Elijah E. Cummings has requested an investigation into the recent hanging of two nooses at the Coast Guard Academy, according to the Associated Press.

The superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London says he has ordered further investigation into two incidents in which nooses were left for a black cadet and an officer giving race relations training……

The first noose was left in the cadet’s bag July 15 on board the Coast Guard cutter Eagle, French said. The second was found in early August on the office floor of a female officer who had been conducting the race relations training in response to the first incident, he said.

Guiliani Fundraiser Charges $9.11 Per Person

Presidential hopeful Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) criticized the organizers of a Guiliani fundraiser charging $9.11 per guest. According to an Associated Press report, a Guiliani spokeswoman claims the fundraiser was held without the knowledge of the caimpaign.

Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd said Tuesday a fundraising party for Republican Rudy Giuliani seeking $9.11 each from guests exploits the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for political purposes.

Dodd called on Giuliani to refuse the money raised at the event, saying the theme “is absolutely unconscionable, shameless and sickening.” A Giuliani spokeswoman said the $9.11 idea was selected without the campaign’s knowledge.

“Mr. Giuliani was quick to express much vitriol for the independent ad created by MoveOn.org last week; we would hope he would express the same kind of outrage and indignation about this group that he is the beneficiary of,” Dodd said in a statement released by his campaign.

Giuliani and other GOP presidential candidates strongly criticized the liberal, anti-war group MoveOn.org for a full-page advertisement the group bought in The New York Times [NYT]. The ad included the headline “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?,” a reference to Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq.

Dodd also said Giuliani “should reject and/or return any money raised” through the party, which is to be held Wednesday night at the home of Abraham Sofaer in Palo Alto, Calif. Giuliani’s campaign is sponsoring house parties across the country that night for the candidate’s backers.

Sofaer said he had nothing to do with the decision to ask for the $9.11.

Civil Rights Questions for Mukasey

Interesting post on DMIblog.

On September 17, 2007, President Bush announced his nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to be the next attorney general of the United States. As the head of the world’s largest law office, the chief enforcer of federal laws, and the primary guardian of our Constitutional rights, the next attorney general must be thoroughly scrutinized by the Senate Judiciary Committee when it comes to his views on civil rights issues such as voting rights, education, and housing discrimination. Towards that end, here is a list of questions for Judge Mukasey to answer regarding his commitment to equal opportunity and combating discrimination.

Questions for Mukasey

Politicization. Will you commit to fully cooperating with the Justice Department’s Inspector General investigation of the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys by Alberto Gonzales in 2005, the politicization of the hiring process at the Justice Department, and its the impact on the Civil Rights Division? Will you ensure that the ongoing investigations by the Justice Department’s Inspector General are carried out thoroughly and impartially with the full cooperation of current and former employees? And what will you do to rehabilitate the morale of the civil rights division?

Voting Rights. In recent years, the Department of Justice pursued cases that block rather than enhance access to the vote. Will you commit to a program of enforcement that returns the Civil Rights Division to the pursuit of voter access? Given the chilling effect criminal fraud prosecutions have on voters on the eve of elections, will you commit to clearly defining the contours of the relationship between the Civil Rights Division and the Criminal Division in the execution of the Department’s election monitoring programs? Will you commit to using the NVRA to promote voter registration, using the Voting Rights Act to challenge discriminatory voter identification laws, and interpreting HAVA expansively? Will you commit to increasing, not diminishing, access to the political process for racial, ethnic and language minorities?

Police Misconduct and Racial Profiling. In recent years, the Department of Justice has all but halted its enforcement of certain laws against systematic police misconduct. Will you commit to investigating and bringing lawsuits against police departments that reveal a pattern or practice of police misconduct? Will you commit to supporting the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA), which builds on the guidance issued by the Department of Justice in June 2003 to ban the use of racial and ethnic profiling by local, state, and federal law enforcement officials? Will you also commit to implementing a substantive review process to ensure federal compliance with ERPA, including the data collections requirements?

Read the rest here. Read up on the importance of the Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey here.

President Bush the Asset

You just have to love that cocky laugh.

VA Blogger Says She Was Harrassed for blogging on Jena 6 Case

Vivian J. Paige, an African-American blogger, claims she was harassed for blogging on the Jena 6 case.

Since Monday, my blog has been slammed with visitors from all over the country, looking for information on yesterday’s Jena 6 rally. Many of those new people have left comments here, some of them thoughtful and insightful, and others of them a lot less so. I’ve had to edit – or sometimes delete – more comments in the past week than I have in the 18 months I’ve been blogging.

Some of the comments were personal attacks on me – for what, I wasn’t sure. I guess simply because they could see that I was black, some commenters assumed that I thought the boys in Jena were completely innocent, that I support Al Sharpton and his ilk, that I supported the woman in the Duke case – heck, that I thought OJ was innocent. I’ve been called the n-word and the b-word by people who have never visited my blog before.

All of that – simply because I happen to be black.

Mukasey on Gitmo and DOJ Investigations

President Bush’s new nominee for Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, is beginning to win over more conservatives because of his stance on the war on terror. But those same positions could prove too troublesome for those who want a new kind of leadership at the Justice Department. Michael Isikoff at Newsweek reports:

According to three sources, who asked not to be named discussing the private meetings, Mukasey said that he saw “significant problems” with shutting down Guantánamo Bay and that he understood the need for the CIA to use some “enhanced” interrogation techniques against Qaeda suspects. Mukasey also signaled reluctance with naming a special prosecutor to investigate Bush-administration misconduct, according to one participant. “Gosh, I’m a little worried that the Democrats might have problems with him,” said one well-connected conservative after being briefed on Mukasey’s responses.

In light of recent similar reports about Mukasey’s and his own writings about all things “war on terror,” Senate Democrats should probe Mukasey to find out whether or not he will be the much needed departure from Alberto Gonzales or just another Bush apologist at the confirmation hearings. After all, keeping Gitmo open, providing legal cover for torture, and avoiding fair and thorough investigations of the politicization of the DOJ are among the reasons the Dems wanted Gonzales out. Or so they claimed.

Additionally, Democrats should be worried about Mukasey’s reported unwillingness or reluctance to appoint special prosecutor for a number of reasons. While its true that there is an Inspector General at the Justice Department conducting his own probe into whether or not Gonzales lied or misled Congress, and the political hiring of DOJ employees, a special prosecutor can provide teeth to such investigations.

An Inspector General is much like an auditor who produces a report about general misconduct, graft and other forms of mismanagement. But special prosecutor, on the other hand, has certain powers that an Inspector General does not have, such as holding officials, be they elected or appointed, accountable for criminal violations by indicting them.

But the good news is that Congress can authorized a special prosecutor, without the Attorney General’s approval. Of course, this would not prevent the administration from stonewalling the such an investigation at every turn.

If more reports like these begin to surface in the days leading up to the confirmation hearings, this “consensus nominee” could turn out to be terribly divisive in the end.

FBI Investigating Racist Anti-Jena 6 Website

The Roanoke Times reported on Friday that the FBI is investigating a white supremacist website that posted the names and addresses of the Jena 6 families and urged its readership to “Get in touch, and let them know justice is coming,” and even to “Lynch the Jena 6.”

The website is run by William A. White, who the article describes as the commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party.

This is not the first time White has been under scrutiny by federal investigators. He is also currently being investigated for his connection to death threats against Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts for his reporting on race and crime. White also posted Pitts number on his website. White views have also penned a number of pieces for the conservative Washington Times newspaper.

Template and Fonts

I am experimenting with different font styles and sizes, and templates today.

So, if the web site looks a bit screwy, don’t be alarmed. That’s just my limited knowledge of CSS of style sheets, and WordPress generally, at work.

Photo Essay of Jena 6 Protest

LAist photographer Elise Thompson has produced a great photo essay of the Jena 6 protests.

To view the photos click here.

Media and the Jena 6

The two videos below provide an interesting glimpse into the news coverage on the Jena 6. The first one is an early September 2007 piece on CNN that begins with several white men attempting restrain Mychal Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, who is in an understandable fit of rage and sadness, after hearing his son was just convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. The convictions could have sent Bell to jail for two decades. Of course, any parent would react in the same way.

(Since then Bell’s conviction has been overturned by a state appeals court, but still remains the last of the Jena teens to remain jailed. Judge Mauffray Jr. has set bail at $90,000, while the local district attorney appeals the decision by the state appeals court to have Bell tried in juvenile court, since he was 16 at the time of Justin Baker beating.)

But notice how the segment opens. It begins with an image of a seemingly unruly and perhaps one may say “threatening” black man before any real narrative explanation is done to account for his emotions. Then after a few pedestrian interviews are conducted the piece essentially ends with the white parents of Justin Baker, who was the white male beat unconscious allegedly by the Jena 6 teens, being referred to as the victim.

Baker’s parents depicted in this “Justice or Racism” piece as calm and sober thinking southern whites dealing with exorbitant medical bills. Their position of wanting Mychal Bell charged, if not convicted, of second degree murder isn’t sufficiently probed.

Nor is there any mention of the December 2006 fight where Robert Bailey, another one of the Jena 6 teens, was assaulted by a group of white males with beer bottles at a party. Nor is there any mention of how a white Jena graduate allegedly pulled a shotgun on three black high school students when they left a local convenience store.

That is not to excuse Justin Baker’s attackers whoever they were. But critical information about the climate of racial intimation needs to be highlighted rather than suppressed to provide much needed context.

Otherwise, it just seems as if some quick to anger and aggressive black men are somehow responsible rather than reacting to mounting racial tension in Jena, LA. As a result, whether deliberately or not, the viewer is encouraged to sympathize with Baker’s more than the Jena 6 teens. Keep in mind none of the Jena 6 teens pleaded guilty of the charges.

Perhaps I am wrong, or failing to take into account all the demands of telling a story on a cable news in short segments. But the CNN piece struck me as poor reporting. Judge for yourself.

And now check out the second video. If for nothing else, for another perspective on the story. Its a Democracy Now interview with the mothers of Robert Bailey and Robert Purvis, two of the accused Jena 6 teens.

Free the Jena 6.