Protests Over BART Shooting Turn Violent

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Oakland, Calif. Wednesday to condemn the shooting of an unarmed man by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer. That officer resigned his position on Wednesday.

50 Shots: The Sean Bell Demonstrations

Max Blumenthal takes us to the streets of Queens, where New Yorkers vent their rage against the Sean Bell verdict, a travesty of justice with implications in the presidential campaign.

MOS DEF SPARKS HIP HOP SUPPORT OF JENA SIX

Last week, Mos Def sent out a viral video calling for students to walk out of classrooms to protest the prosecution of the Jena Six, six black teens in Jena, La. who were initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.

The rapper has been outspoken in his outrage over the Jena Six case, and was front and center at the march in Jena last month, as were fellow rapper Bun B of UGK and singer Lyfe Jennings. Ice Cube and T.I. are among the rappers who have supported the protest either morally or financially, reports AP.

"I don't know what motivated the prosecutors to do what they did but what's definitely evident to anybody who looks at the case is that he placed a bigger (punishment) upon the black man than he did upon anybody else was involved," Jennings told the Associated Press.

Soulja Boy, who has the No. 1 song in the country with "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)," has also gone public with his feelings about the case.

"Right now with the situation going on with Jena Six, I got to pay my respects to them," says 17-year-old rapper. "When I was in high school there was a lot of fighting going on; I ain't never really seen nobody get the type of punishment they got, where the dude is trying to throw the book at them. I feel like that's not right, so I gotta send my respects out to those young dudes, and I hope everything go well with them and their families."

Mississippi rapper David Banner, who spoke out against censorship in hip hop during a recent Congressional hearing, decided not to attend last month's protest in Jena. Instead, he went on a radio tour to promote his album so he could spread the word about the case.

"I thought it would have been more powerful for me to get on the radio and talk about it, and drive people there and let people know what's going on than actually being there," said Banner. "We wanna be there to show face, but if you're actually more powerful at the capacity that you are, then you should do what you do."

Banner says he became involved because "it's so close to home.

"No. 2, there's a Jena Six that goes on in Mississippi every month — or every two months," he continued. "See that's the thing. America has a tendency to try to make things — single out things — as if this is a one-time occurrence. ... We have to stop acting like stuff don't exist."

According to the AP, the walkout planned by Mos Def was a collaborative effort among artists Talib Kweli, M1 of Dead Prez, Common and the activist groups the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Sankofa Community Empowerment, Change the Game and the National Hip Hop Political Convention.

"We will continue with these acts of civil protest until Mychal Bell's freedom, not only — but safety, is secured," Mos Def had said in a video last month publicizing the walkout.

JENA 6 RALLY DRAWS THOUSANDS

*Thousands of protesters – most dressed in black – filled the streets of Jena, Louisiana as promised Thursday to support six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.


Chants of “Free the Jena Six” erupted as Al Sharpton and syndicated radio host Michael Baisden made their way to the local courthouse with family members of the accused teens.


Sharpton said he will join Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and William Jefferson, D-La., to press the House Judiciary Committee next week to summon the district attorney to explain his actions before Congress. Also, a march in Washington is being organized for November.

"What we need is federal intervention to protect people from Southern injustice," Sharpton told the Associated Press. "Our fathers in the 1960's had to penetrate the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, we have to do the same thing."

As coverage of the protest was carried throughout the day on CNN, MSNBC and international media outlets, President Bush said a few words about the Jena situation during a press conference yesterday at the White House.

"The events in Louisiana have saddened me," he said. "All of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared at the rally, as did Dennis Courtland Hayes, interim president and CEO of the NAACP and Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader.

King described the scene as reminiscent of earlier civil rights struggles. He said punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants, but "the justice system isn't applied the same to all crimes and all people."

The six black teens were charged a few months after three white teens were accused of hanging nooses in a tree on their high school grounds. The white teens were suspended from school but weren't prosecuted. Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder for the beating of a white student in ongoing racial eruptions at the school. That charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile.

The beating victim, Justin Barker, was knocked unconscious, his face badly swollen and bloodied, though he was able to attend a school function later that night.

District Attorney Reed Walters stressed on Wednesday that race had nothing to do with the charges in Jena. Walters said he didn't charge the white students accused of hanging the nooses because he could find no Louisiana law under which they could be charged. In the beating case, he said, four of the defendants were of adult age under Louisiana law and the only juvenile charged as an adult, Mychal Bell, had a prior criminal record.

"It is not and never has been about race," Walters said. "It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions."

Sharpton urged demonstrators to remain peaceful, and there were no reports of violence. Most businesses in the small town closed up shop for the day, and white residents in the predominantly white town of 3,000 have largely been reluctant to comment, saying privately that the town was being unfairly portrayed.

According to the Associated Press, a group of about a dozen white residents and black demonstrators engaged in an animated but not angry exchange during the march. Whites asked blacks if they were aware of Bell's criminal record, blacks replied that Jena High School administrators mishandled the incidents.

JENA 6 PROTESTS

Civil Rights Protesters Converge On Jena

Thu Sept. 20, 2007 5:00pm EDT

By Matthew Bigg

JENA, Louisiana (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of black Americans descended on a small town in central Louisiana on Thursday to protest what they say is injustice against six black teenagers charged over a high school fight.

Protesters arrived in buses and cars from cities as far away and apart as New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and New Orleans for a rally in support of the "Jena 6."

The case has become a symbol for many African Americans of a wider struggle against racism and perceived discrimination against black males by the criminal justice system.

"I came because enough is enough. I am tired of the way the courts have been treating African Americans historically," said Doug Martin, a computer analyst from New Orleans.

Most of the demonstrators were dressed in black. Some held banners reading "Free the Jena 6" and chanted "no justice, no peace, no racist police," while others lounged in lawn chairs or took pictures of each other.

By mid-afternoon, scores of buses departed the town as protesters began long journeys home.

Many said the rally, which was peaceful, was a success and gave young people an opportunity to participate in the activism associated with the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.

The case stems from an incident in August of last year when three nooses were found hanging from a tree at the high school in the town of 3,000 northwest of New Orleans. Nooses have been seen as a symbol of racial lynchings of blacks.

Black residents said that incident stoked tension in the town and in December the teenagers were charged with assault after a white schoolmate was beaten up.

Charges against some of the boys were later raised to attempted murder, drawing accusations from protesters that they had been excessively charged. Those charges have since been reduced.

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

For many blacks the "Jena 6" has attained the status of a modern-day version of the incidents that punctuated the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Word about it has spread through the black community partly through syndicated radio shows by civil rights leader Al Sharpton and popular disc jockey Michael Baisden.

Several candidates for the Democratic nomination for president including Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards issued statements urging justice in the case. The candidates are vying for black votes.

The protest was originally timed to coincide with the sentencing of one of the students, Mychal Bell, convicted on charges including aggravated second-degree battery.

He was tried before an all-white jury which civil rights leaders said is itself evidence of discrimination.

This month the conviction was overturned, in part because Louisiana's Third Circuit Court ruled that he should not have been tried as an adult.

Prosecutor Donald Washington, U.S. attorney in the western district of Louisiana, said some facts of the case had been exaggerated. He said there was no direct link between the noose incident and the December fight, which he said was motivated by "male bravado" rather than race.

Some black community leaders in Jena said the case was an example of wider problems in the town, which they said was effectively segregated and had few opportunities for blacks more than 40 years after federal laws were passed to end segregation.

"Blacks live on one side of town. Whites live in another side of town. We live in a segregated city. We've done it all our lives. It's not something that we want but it's something we can't do anything about," said B.L. Morgan, pastor of Antioch church in the town and a rally organizer.