They should also sue Jackson and Sharpton

The parents of Justin Barker who was beaten December 4, 2006 in Jena by the "Jena 6" plus others who were juveniles are suing the parents of the cowardly thugs who beat up their son. They should also include Jesse and Al, who decided to jump in and defend these young criminals to boost their flagging careers as so-called black leaders. These two old men are trying to get African Americans to blame others for their community problems. The criminal behavior of the kids (and their whiny moms) are increasing the danger that black Americans will be the victims. I'm just guessing, but what do you want to bet that the Jena 6 had already beaten up a few of their black peers before they took out their adolescent rage on Justin and weren't called to account for it?

And they have help from the experts. Yesterday James Alan Fox, a criminologist, reported in USAToday that there is silence about the escalating crimes committed by blacks against blacks.

"Murder statistics can be misleading. Despite a modest 1.8% increase in homicides nationally in 2006 from 2005, the situation in many cities is more dire. Police chiefs report escalating street violence, particularly involving youngsters and gangs with guns.

Some startling trends can be seen in the latest national homicide data. From 2002 to 2006, the rate of murder committed by black male teens rose 52%, with a smaller but significant increase among black male young adults and black women. In contrast, there was no increase among whites of any age.

Gang-related homicides have crept upward in recent years, virtually returning to the peak of the early 1990s. Since 2002, gun killings have climbed 13% overall — but 42% among teens and 71% among black teenage males — while non-gun homicides have essentially remained unchanged."

So who is at fault? Not the kids, not their parents, not the aging, sagging has-beens of a 50s-60s civil rights movement. No. It's the federal government. Cuts in funding for youth programs. Backing off from gun control. Even without being hit over the head with it, it's all Bush's fault, is the sub-text (given the dates he cites). Well, I don't buy it Mr. Fox. Back to the drawing board for you and the other experts. It just could be that youth programs and more regulations and marches on Washington just don't do it for this generation.

The Jena 6 myths

Sunday morning I was preparing lunch and tuned in a local church program. The black preacher had a good sermon going about St. Paul, when all of a sudden he was off and running with the Jena 6, repeating every preposterous story that could be concocted. Where's he get his news, I wondered; the local barbershop? So I changed channels. That much ignorance is a shame for a man of the cloth. Even so, the story written up in the Chronicle of Higher Education added a few bits I didn't know about, and it makes you wonder how this story got legs that led all the way to DC, even with Jesse and Al whipping the horses. Truly, there are Americans who want racial hatred to never die, or they'd be out of work.

Myth 1: The Whites-Only Tree. There has never been a "whites-only" tree at Jena High School. Students of all races sat underneath this tree. When a student asked during an assembly at the start of school last year if anyone could sit under the tree, it evoked laughter from everyone present – blacks and whites. As reported by students in the assembly, the question was asked to make a joke and to drag out the assembly and avoid class.

Myth 2: Nooses a Signal to Black Students. An investigation by school officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the placing of two nooses in the tree the day after the assembly. According to the expulsion committee, the crudely constructed nooses were not aimed at black students. Instead, they were understood to be a prank by three white students aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo team. (The students apparently got the idea from watching episodes of "Lonesome Dove.") The committee further concluded that the three young teens had no knowledge that nooses symbolize the terrible legacy of the lynchings of countless blacks in American history. When informed of this history by school officials, they became visibly remorseful because they had many black friends. Another myth concerns their punishment, which was not a three-day suspension, but rather nine days at an alternative facility followed by two weeks of in-school suspension, Saturday detentions, attendance at Discipline Court, and evaluation by licensed mental-health professionals. The students who hung the nooses have not publicly come forward to give their version of events.

Craig Franklin, a local Jena reporter, then adds 10 more myths. Indeed. This is an amazing story and you wonder why anyone, even a professional organizer who draws his income from stirring the pot, would want to put a community through this.

Documents on Jena 6

You can read the documents about the beating of a white teen by a group of black teens, an incident that had nothing to do with a tree or nooses, and more to do with thuggery. Now aging civil rights leaders with nothing to do, are jumping in to support some teen aged hoodlums.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton says Congress should expand hate crime laws to deal more forcefully with noose-hanging incidents like the one in the Jena Six case in order to squelch what he called a sharp rise in racism.

Isn't this the same guy who got snookered by Twana Brawley? Does he ever come to the rescue of black citizens terrorized by black crooks?