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Tuesday, September 25. 2007

What am I missing about Jena?

Six black athletes beat up and stomp a white kid at school. How did this become a racism incident worthy of the attention of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Simon at Classical Values. One might think that this would be the sort of thing they would wish to avoid.

It's a neat trick to beat someone up and then claim victimhood, but I guess that kind of upside-down stuff is all the rage these days. Pomo logic, you know. We lawyers can learn a thing or two from this. It's the old saw about the kid who killed his parents, then asked for mercy from the judge for being an orphan.

But, on the other hand, is beating up kids in the playground a real crime? Raging hormones, etc. Isn't it normal?  I got beat up once in junior high school, and was too ashamed of losing the fight to tell anybody. (I did, eventually, get even with the jerk in a highly sadistic and thoroughly-satisfying manner. He is now a very successful real estate developer, and is still a first-class jerk.)

Good comments - thanks

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, Politics at 07:27 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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"But, on the other hand, is beating up kids in the playground a real crime? Raging hormones, etc. Isn't it normal?"

Not six on one. That speaks to a pathological acceptance of violence. There is no victim empathy, it is a display of remorseless hatred...

I would like Jesse and Al to speak to the fact that black males are committing 50% of the violent crime in this country while making up only 7% of its population. They have earned the responsibility of having to answer to this fact.
#1 Scott Wiggins on 2007-09-25 09:24 (Reply)
6 to 1? Sounds more like a lynching.
#2 Tom C. on 2007-09-25 09:46 (Reply)
OK, I agree that 6 on 1 isn't exactly fair, but is schoolyard fighting criminal? I really don't know.
#2.1 The B. on 2007-09-25 09:58 (Reply)
How bad was he hurt? There seems to be a blackout on the facts here. Schoolyard fighting and viscious gang attacks are different things. If the kid was hurt, i.e broken limbs or cracked skull, this would be different.
#2.1.1 Tom C. on 2007-09-25 10:04 (Reply)
I have not seen a single word in the media about the extent of the injuries to the kid, other than a comment in many AP stories that he went to a school event later that night (implying that the injuries must not have been too serious). The victim is not the subject of interest to the media.
#2.1.1.1 The Dylanologist on 2007-09-25 10:18 (Reply)
The white kid was beaten unconscious,and they were still kicking him.
#2.1.1.2 jeff on 2007-10-23 20:52 (Reply)
Calling it a "fight" is being generous. From what I have been able to discern, it was six on one and the attackers knocked the kid down from behind, beat him until he was unconscious, then continued kicking him in the head while he was down and out. A display of hatred, yes, and cowardice at the same time.

We all know if six white kids had jumped a black kid and severely beaten him it would have been a "hate crime" for which only the severest punishent would suffice (with riots ensuing if the accused got off, a la Rodney King?), and of course evidence of the racism endemic in our society. Whether it's white kids beating up blacks, or black kids beating up a white kid, does not seem to matter - the blacks are always the victims, and white racism is always to blame.
#3 The Dylanologist on 2007-09-25 10:04 (Reply)
Victimhood is the business model for the African-American community. It has been so useful in the past it's being expanded to justify all manner of crime. Whoopi came to the defense of Michael Vick by saying dog-fighting is "a black thang." Correcting numbers used above, black comprise 13 percent of the population and commit 49 percent of the violent crime.
#4 Banjo on 2007-09-25 10:29 (Reply)
As the columnist Steve Sailer remarked in an article on this incident, lucky for these six that they decided only to pick on a white kid rather than a dog.
#4.1 The Dylanologist on 2007-09-25 12:02 (Reply)
Hey Banjo,

The males are committing virtually all the crime so I factored out the male population. Ok, 6.5%...

regards,
#4.2 Scott Wiggins on 2007-09-25 21:28 (Reply)
All anyone needs to do is to, in their minds, reverse the races of the parties and ask what exactly would Jesse and Al be protesting at that point?
They would be shouting from the rooftops that the six white males needed to be persecuted for hate crimes or lynching, and it would be a big tv ad for democrats.
The reality of it is, that with the circumstances as they are whites are "villanized" and blacks are "victimized" and both are done so at their own expense by men seeking to maintain power in their political (and financial) base and to maintain relevancy in the 21st Century. Is there any wonder why Al kept referring to this as the first salvo in the fight for Civil Rights in the 21st Century?
#5 JC Loophole (Link) on 2007-09-25 10:30 (Reply)
I saw some coverage of the protesting. Comments about "this is just like the struggles of the 60's" and such.

Just like the 60's?
Like when there was a black woman secretary of state? A black supreme court justice? Just like when blacks owned private property in greater numbers than ever before?

Just like the 60's?
Like when the blacks had to take to the streets to protest not being able to beat up whites with impunity? Back when famous black athletes could get away with murder?

Blame the media for holding the megaphone on this one, blame the black leadership for throwing away the honor of those who fought for something real. Blame the people for living in 2007 and still marching for equal rights that have long been granted and now confuse the right to vote with the right to beat down whitey. Ingrates all.
#6 Phil on 2007-09-25 10:56 (Reply)
Yes. Insane analogy, but the world is insane.
#6.1 The Barrister on 2007-09-25 11:27 (Reply)
Poor old Louisiana. It just cascades.
#7 buddy larsen on 2007-09-25 13:15 (Reply)
The more I read about this, the worse it gets. It seems some of these kids had already committed violent offenses, vandalism and robbery in town, were known to be troublemakers, and yet had been shielded from more serious repercussions because of their privileged status as star football players on the high school team. Hard to believe they would not have already been expelled otherwise. Any of this starting to seem familiar, Phil?

The kid who got beat up was not exactly a model student either, it seems, and had once brought a firearm onto school grounds (maybe he had good reason to!). No violent offenses that I am aware of, though.
#8 The Dylanologist on 2007-09-25 14:12 (Reply)
yes it sounds like what white kids got, and still get, heck I just mean jocks in general from when I was in HS.

They trashed our football field with beer cans and whiskey bottles and 4x4 trucks (many thousands in damage) and not a peep from the cops, nobody busted. Senior prank.

I just can't wrap my mind around protesting the fact that beat downs should be ignored in the courts and that's "justice".
#8.1 phil on 2007-09-25 19:59 (Reply)
Heather Mac Donald nails it.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-09-24hm.html
#9 mal on 2007-09-25 14:41 (Reply)
What are you missing? Astonishingly, I think, you're missing a lot by choosing consistently to leave out any context in which this sorry-assed series of events took place. There was, perhaps, some provocation involved in hanging nooses from that tree? I'm not equating any symbolic act with a gang banging or excusing anyone on assumption of victimhood or any of that, but gents, this is the deep south and there is, in fact, history, eh?
I'm new to this site, but calling yourselves "centrist" seems preposterous.
It's a cold trail, I know. This post is over a week old, but the post and the commentary it elicits misses the mark. Whew.
#10 Chuck on 2007-10-03 21:37 (Reply)

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