Yesterday, Mychal Bell was released from jail. A great thing, if for one, soothing the concerns I’ve heard from some people about the time they took off from work, hopped on buses, money spent, etc, being a waste because the kid was still in jail.
The show of support last week is a huge reason why his quick trial and conviction was thrown out. Had a huge protest been organized, police barricades and all, and a hundred or so people stood outside that courthouse, there wouldn’t have been any pressure for the Louisiana court to rethink their decision.
The media attention made a huge difference.
On another level if there was never a flame put to the situation on blogs, petitions signed, that spread to radio, forced the major media to cover it even more than they did, there is no doubt that on September 20, Mychal Bell would have been sentenced to some hard years in prison.
He’s not out of the water, next week Bell returns to court this time to be tried as a juvenile. If he’s found guilty he could be held until he’s 21 - what’s that 3 years? As the only one of the Jena 6 to go to trial, what happens with his case is key to the future of the rest of his friends.
On the surface it does sound wild to say a white kid got stomped out, but we’ll let these guys go free and clean. That’s surface level though. When you look at the timeline of events and I personally think of the many fights I saw on school grounds (some of them ‘beatdowns’) it would be crazy to hear that any of those kids at that time got locked up for years - even months.
Jena 6 - I’m talking probation for all of them.
It’s f*cked for Justin Barker, but he had no problem taunting them.. which was.. kid stuff.
It’s all any of their involvement is and they should be treated as such.
I will throw this out here though.. had this been 6 white kids kicking a black guy’s ass. Would we be happy if they had their charges reduced and got off free and clean?
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