Freedom of Speech in Louisiana. Kind of.

Alright, I just have to say, the whole Jena 6 thing really upsets me, and some nagging questions about American race relations need to be answered:

-First of all, hanging up a noose is an enormous sign of ignorance. However, even in Louisiana, there needs to be freedom of speech. Hanging up a noose is hardly an act of violence, but is a symbolic - and pathetic - expression of the right to speak one's mind, a right that should be covered by the students' inalienable right to speak their minds. Although obviously misunderstood and abused in this case, this right also extends to rednecks.

-The noose incident should have been the trigger of constructive debate about current race relations, to make the obviously ignorant white students aware of the racial context in which they live. Also, the school should have taken extraordinary measures to start peaceful dialog about this, an initiative that these kids so blatantly need.

However:

-How did the six young men who ganged up on a young man who, unfortunately for him, happened to be white, become the victims in this case? Yes, the projected sentences were very tough, but hey, maybe they should have thought about that before battering another young man - six to one, no less - almost to death. Some of the attackers were even on probation, having long records of violent crime. Yet somehow these upstanding citizens are now the victims. Since when is it unethical for a jury to give jail sentences to young men who almost killed another young man? Since when is attempted murder protected speech?

-How is it that this story has been spun so perversely away from reality that the "Jena 6" are the victims of a hate crime? Nobody has indicated any credible link between the attacked student and the youth who hung up the noose except the color of his skin. And nobody can seriously believe that race played no role in why the "Jena 6" chose to attack this particular white kid. Yet the attackers are the victims of a hate crime? That really doesn't make any sense.

-Is Al Sharpton from now on going to lead "freedom marches" for all African-American attempted murder suspects? Al Sharpton, who - sadly - has lately been morphing from a great civil rights hero into a complete buffoon, lead a march of 15,000 perversely misled people, vowing to get a gang of violent criminals out of jail for a crime that nobody seem to doubt that they actually committed. As much as I respect him, that's just nuts.

-Why did no African-Americans show up for jury duty that day? In the court hearing, the jury was all white. This, however, was not a result of the jury selection process. Instead, it resulted from an all white jury pool - the 150 people called for jury duty reflected, as it should, the ethnic mix of the town, including African-American citizens. However, only 50 people bothered to show up, and none of them happened to be African-American.

Please, if you're going to complain about civil rights violations in the Louisiana society, why not start with actually taking part in it? People have died for the right to sit in juries, so cry me a fucking river if you don't use it.


Sorry, I'll stop now - I just had to vent. I'm not a huge fan of abuse of the freedom of speech, as you all know, and I am also not a particularly dedicated follower of violence, be it against white or black or red or blue or green or even cat people, so yeah, this case grinds my gears in all sorts of ways.













(Actually, violence against cat people is worse than other violence. Cat people rule!)

(Mats, you're totally right - the Brad Neely Cat People thing is no longer online! WHYYY!?)