Mychel Bell was one of six black teenagers who faced adult felony charges in the 2006beating of a white classmate in the town of Jena. The beating followed months of racial tensions in the community of 3,000 after three white students hung a noose in a tree whose shade was traditionally off limits to blacks at Jena High School.
Now comes word that the troubled young man "accidently" got shot.
The case of the "Jena 6" drew national attention from civil rights groups who argued that the charges were excessive. An estimated 15,000-plus people turned out for a September 2007 rally in the Louisiana town on the black youths' behalf.
Bell eventually pleaded guilty to battery in a juvenile court, served several months in a youth home and later moved to Monroe, about 70 miles north of Jena.
On Tuesday Bell was in the hospital after a shooting that his lawyer said was accidental.
CNN is reporting that Mychal Bell was cleaning a gun when it accidentally discharged, shooting him in the shoulder, his attorney, Carol Powell-Lexing, told CNN. He had surgery Monday night at a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana, and has not yet been able to talk, she said.
Monroe police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten said the wound was not life-threatening.
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.
If Sharpton sees nooses as a symbol of racism, others obviously don't agree. Why else would we see nooses; hanging from trees, hanging around the necks of entertainers, in gym bags, and as jewelry? Has America now come to accept nooses just like tattoos, ipods and leather leggings (see article below), as a "throw back", "in vogue" and a part of the American landscape.
(Katt Williams: Purple suit and a noose???)
Today, Tuesday,the Reverend Al Sharpton, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the case of six black teenagers in the small Louisiana town of Jena charged with the beating of a white student. The incident happened after nooses were hung from a tree on a high school campus there — a symbol of the violence of the segregation era. But for sure today's pow-pow with Congress, will center on the "fashion must-have" of the year ... nooses.
Since the Jena case began attracting national attention, there have been a number of other nooses found in high-profile incidents around the country — in a black Coast Guard cadet's bag, on a Maryland college campus, and, last week, on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University in New York. "Nooses, the 'n' word, a Klansman's hood, and the burning cross are the clearest symbols of hate for black America," Sharpton said in remarks prepared for delivery to the committee.
Normally Sharptons testimony would be pin pointed at the unbalanced of justice received by defendants of the Jena Six case, but all the defendants are out of jail except for Mychal Bell, who last week was sentenced to 18 months in jail after a judge determined he violated the terms of his probation for a previous conviction.
Racial tensions began rising in Jena in August 2006 after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended but not prosecuted. More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects are treated.
But today on capital hill they will be separating the emotions and hyperbola and focus on the symbol that started this whole barn a blaze ... nooses.
Obviously the message, how Black people feel about nooses, is not getting out. Perhaps they are not teaching in school the significance of the noose in history.
Perhaps African Americans should roll back the clock like our Jewish and Armenian family members consistently do each year, and pick a time to remind the world of our atrocities and reflect.
Perhaps Sharpton and others are making too much of this, making it too complicated to understand. Perhaps we need to justify and clarify as we simplify. Simple enough, here are some pictures.
A teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy was back in jail Thursday after a judge decided the fight that put him in the national spotlight violated terms of his probation for a previous conviction, his attorney said.
Mychal Bell, who along with five other black teenagers is accused of beating a white classmate, had gone to juvenile court Thursday expecting another routine hearing, said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys. Instead, after a six-hour hearing, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced him to 18 months in jail on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.
He had been hit with those charges before the Dec. 4 attack on classmate Justin Barker. Details on the previous charges, which were handled in juvenile court, were unclear. "He's locked up again," Marcus Jones said of his 17-year-old son. "No bail has been set or nothing. He's a young man who's been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it."
After the attack on Barker, Bell was originally charged with attempted murder, but the charges were reduced and he was convicted of battery. An appeals court threw that conviction out, saying Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that charge.
Racial tensions began rising in August 2006 in Jena after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended but not prosecuted.
More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects are treated. The case has drawn the attention of civil rights activists including the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Sharpton reacted swiftly upon learning Bell was back in jail Thursday.
"We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement," said Sharpton, who was instrumental in organizing the protest held Sept. 20, the day Bell was originally supposed to be sentenced in the case. Mauffrey, reached at his home Thursday night, had no comment.
Bell's parents were also ordered to pay all court costs and witness costs, Sharpton said. "I don't know what we're going to do," Jones said. "I don't know how we're going to pay for any of this. I don't know how we're going to get through this."
Bell and the other five defendants have been charged in the attack on Barker, which left him unconscious and bleeding with facial injuries. According to court testimony, he was repeatedly kicked by a group of students at the high school. Barker was treated for three hours at an emergency room but was able to attend a school function that evening, authorities have said.
Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw were all initially charged — as adults — with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same. A sixth defendant was charged in the case as a juvenile.
Bell, who was 16 at the time, was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. LaSalle Parish prosecutor Reed Walters reduced the charges just before the trial. Since then, both of those convictions were dismissed and tossed back to juvenile court, where they now are being tried.
Charges against Bailey, 18, Jones, 19, and Shaw, 18, have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. Purvis, 18, has not yet been arraigned
Mychel Bell was one of six black teenagers who faced adult felony charges in the 2006beating of a white classmate in the town of Jena. The beating followed months of racial tensions in the community of 3,000 after three white students hung a noose in a tree whose shade was traditionally off limits to blacks at Jena High School.
