You have a good point about football players. Whether they are black, white, or green it doesn’t matter b/c football players that are good on the field get away with so much. So after reading your comment, particularly the part about him being a football player and I finally found an article that brought out different facts for a change. Mychal has had prior convictions as we all know, but as Mike has said, Mychal got away with a lot b/c he was a good player for the high School team. In this article it seems at least on two or 3 of his past charges he was “adjudicated” b/c he won games for them shortly after each incident. At one point in this article, an authority figure said he did nothing b/c the school did nothing. If all this is true, who is really to blame here? Of course what these boys did to Justin was wrong but it seems as though there are also some flaws with the school for allowing his behavior to go unpunished, the parents (all involved), and of course all the students that were involved from day 1.
Most of us are pointing the finger to one side or the other and not really looking deep into the case. I think both sides of this case have some wrong-doing. It was wrong for 6 kids to beat up on one person, no matter what color they are. It is also wrong of Justin to have a gun on campus. It was wrong of the 3 students to hang the nooses. It was wrong of the school to overlook Mychal’s behavior/crimes just because he wins a few football games. Personally I really do’t think there are any innocent parties here. Everyone’s part has led up to this disaster.

Here is the link to the article I read:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070825/NEWS03/708250353/1062/NEWS03

Mychal Bell, the All-State football star at the center of the Jena Six brouhaha, was today sentenced to jail for 18 months for his four previous convictions. See, stomping an unconscious kid wasn’t part of his various probation deals that had allowed him to stay out of juvenile hall and on the football field for Jena H.S. in 2006:
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‘Jena 6′ Teen Mychal Bell Back in Jail

The Associated Press

JENA, La. — 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.

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We know that in one of those earlier “ajudications” (juvenile justicese for “convictions”) the 5′-10″, 185 pound fullback /middle linebacker (100 yards rushing and 12 tackles per game as a junior) who was being recruited by mighty LSU, was found guilty of punching a 17 year old girl in the face.

Is anybody other than the original small town reporter Abbey Brown and sportswriter Jason Whitlock ever going to realize that this isn’t a story about poor oppressed sharecroppers getting lynched, it’s a story about football stars who were coddled for years, until they finally went too far, because small towns in the South are crazy about high school football?

Thank you for your time.

We all can only hope that Jena can recover from all of this. it is more than 7 families that have been affected by this, the whole town of Jena has been affected.