Protesters to Converge on Louisiana Town

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

Spurred by the Internet and a popular disc jockey's nationwide urban radio program, tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on a sleepy rural Louisiana town to protest what they say are excessive criminal charges against six black teenagers involved in a schoolyard brawl.

About 500 tour buses bearing thousands of riders were scheduled to depart from cities across the United States in the wee hours today for Jena, La., about 230 miles northwest of New Orleans. They will join others who will travel by airplane, automobile caravans and motorcycle convoys in what organizers say is a protest reminiscent of the Freedom Rides of the 1960s.

The demonstration was originally set to coincide with the sentencing of one of the defendants. But even though a state appeals court dismissed his battery conviction last week, organizers decided to go ahead with the rally. In addition, they asked people across the country to dress in black today to show solidarity with the demonstrators.

As of Wednesday, according to the local NAACP and news reports, organizers said they were hoping up to 40,000 people would converge on Jena, a two-lane-highway town of 3,500. Though no one is sure whether the crowd will be that large, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) has ordered the chief of the state police to work with the LaSalle Parish sheriff on crowd control.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/19/AR2007091900769.html?hpid=topnews

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Jena....

I heard a local woman tell CNN that they are making a mountain out of a molehill. Another woman said, she doesn't want outsiders invading their small and peaceful town and that's all she is going to say!

[EFerrari]

4. Amy did the whole hour after the headlines on this story.

Two different interviews and it was just amazing. One with a white current school board member, the other with a black former administrator.

What happened in Jena was, the black school was shut down during "integration". So, now the black kids don't have their own school any more and aren't welcomed at the "white" school". What a mess.

[babylonsister]

2. This will be huge; I'm glad. 40,000 people? Might be a lot more. nt

[EV_Ares]

3. Yeah, but all of the media is in Las Vegas. They are saying they

want a trial so the casinos expect to rake in $50 million or so. The corporate world wants an OJ trial.

[annm4peace]

5. CNN is a Joke, Watch "Democracy Now"

it is sad but this week of CNN has to be the worse. I do not give a damn about OJ.
I do care about these kids in Jena and what the state of racism in this country, as well as 100 other things going that is usually on Democracy Now.
Please go to the website to see on what station you can hear or see Democracy Now.
It seems like anytime I turn on CNN this week, I either see OJ, or whether or not Jesse Jackson called Obama white or not. What a joke. And how they report the Jena 6 case is so unprofessional or immature.

http://www.democracynow.org/

[goclark]

7. Heard Jesse say that he did not say that

I was delighted to hear JJ say that he thought Obama was "brilliant."

CNN/NBC.CBS etc. are still shills for Bush and his policies.

I'm wearing a Black Tee - Shirt today in honor of the March.

How I wish I could be there.

My heart is right there with each one of the 6 , their families and the Marchers.

[chelsea0011]

6. Thank you CNN for the full coverage but WTF are you when

it is a war protest?

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

8. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this

but didn't these 6 kids nearly beat 1 kid to death.

"Kids" got it. Tried as juvenile. I agree.

But aren't there more glaring and deserving injustices worthy of such extreme rebuke.

Good for people. March on. Just saying I'm confused.

[LanternWaste]

9. The victim was out of the hospital the following day...

The victim was out of the hospital the following day, so it's rather difficult for me to believe he was beaten almost to death.


"But aren't there more glaring and deserving injustices worthy of such extreme rebuke"

I might have thought the same thing until I learned about the prior incidents (including, but not limited to hanging nooses) that had led up to this. So while on the face of it it may simply appear to be nothing more than assault, there appears to be numerous underlying causes and tensions that a lot of people are either unaware of or simply ignoring (not saying you're guilty of one or the other).