I don’t think they should be released. This all started when the black students wanted to be more intergraded and sit under a tree which usually had predominately white students under it. We have “historically black universities,” but white students can’t gather under a tree. The “Jena 6” got what they had coming now take it like a man! If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime!

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Mike, did you study under Professor Duke? Nice catch, Andy. Too bad Bookman from "Good Times" has come to Jena -- the distubring facts of this case will be overwhelmed by the stigma he carries.

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That would be Prof. David Duke, as he's taken to calling himself.

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The real question is "Shouldn't America be equally appalled by these six teens BEATING another HUMAN BEING that left him unconcious?" I haven't seen anyone question what they did, only that they were overcharged. They beat a kid into unconciousness and could have killed him. Most reports indicate it was retaliation for an apparently racist stunt at the tree and the victim commenting that one of his attackers (I think the one with four previous convictions, two of them violent) had been beaten up by a white man the week before. We should be outraged at the way the "Jena 6" have been treated? Give me a giant break.. WAIT!!! Isn't this a "hate" crime? they beat him up because he was white and to retaliate for some people hanging nooses in the tree a few months before. "Hate Crimes" (i.e. Thought Crimes, thank you Mr. Orwell) are a double edged sword, aren't they?

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Avoid the Sunni tree whatever you do.

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What about the multiple instances of white-on-black violence among the students that went uncharged, let alone un-overcharged? Unlike a lot of people, I think the SCLC has a real point here in using this as a reason to make the disparity of justice their next big rallying cry. The DA took the black students into a room and told them he could end their lives with a swipe of his pen, but issued no similar edict to the white students. Then racial violence in both directions occurs, but is punished in completely different manners if at all. At that point, even if they did actually beat up the kid, it's not about whether the beating was justified or whether they committed a crime. It's about there being two entirely different standards applied by the DA and the school in that town. This is really all about the segregation of the crimnal justice system in the 21st century. And it's happening all the time, in plenty of places well outside of Jena, LA and it's about time people started fighting it.

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Sara, I agreed with your first statements, but you couldn't be more wrong on a few points inthat last points. There were numerous fights requiring police response over a long period of time without mention of a preponderance white on black attacks in any media reporting that I saw. There were numerous racially divided confrontations, including one where some black kids took a shotgun away from a white kid. He said they were chasing him and he was protecting himself, they said he was intimidating them, who really knows? There was one white student who was first expelled and the punishment was reduced to in school suspension. The DA made that statement at an assembly of ALL the students at the high school in an attempt to stop the fighting that was common for nearly a year. It is ALWAYS about whether a CRIME occurred and NOTHING else. That is what justice is, anything else is discrimintaion, no matter the race of the one discriminated against. About time people started fighting it? You can't be serious. Where have you been since aobout 1940? Ever heard of Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman ? Medgar Evers? Morris Dees? Dr King? I can go on for about 30 or 40 more names.

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I will ask the question this way. Why should anyone be outraged that a kid with four previous convictions, two for violent attacks on people, was tried for beating up another kid so severly that he was unconcious, was then found guilty, had his conviction overturned on appeal and sent back for trial as a juvenile? Outraged at anyone but the hoodlum, that is.

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I agree that there were racially charged incidents in both directions and never said there were more instances of white on black violence than black on white. But there are allegations that they were treated very differently. The many reports I have read claim that the DA specifically made that threat to black students, not to the student body at large. He did not take any criminal action against those who hung the noose because he believed there was no statute he could charge them under, but yet he stretched the meaning of attempted murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon to include a fight with kicking while wearing sneakers. "It is ALWAYS about whether a CRIME occurred and NOTHING else. That is what justice is, anything else is discrimintaion, no matter the race of the one discriminated against." I completely disagree. If two people commit the same crime but only the racial minority is charged with it, it's about a hell of a lot more than whether the minority committed the crime. When you have two people charged with murder, with similar facts, but the DA seeks the death penalty in the case involving a black man killing a white woman but seeks only life in prison when it's a white man killing a white woman, are you seriously going to only ask yourself whether a crime occurred? And you completely misunderstood what I meant by it being about time people started fighting it. This isn't about the same sort of obvious atrocities and publicly acknowledged racism of the state that we saw in the 60s and 70s. This is systemic, deeper, and often lamented but without people feeling like there is much we can do about it. Black criminal defendants in capital cases are more likely to have the prosecutor seek the death penalty, to be convicted, and to see a death sentence imposed. And yet would you really say that we are seeing a strong push to eradicate the deep seated disparity in application of the death penalty to white vs. non-whtie defendants? The push has all been about actual innocence, DNA evidence, and whether the methodology is cruel and unusual. While we all admit it's unfair, not much has changed since the death penalty was reinstituted. What I meant was simply that I think it is a great idea to use incidents like the Jena 6 to draw more outrage and public attention not just to instances of someone being completely railroaded in a travesty of justice, but to also point to more subtle and inherent inequalities in the way the justice system is applied to black and white defendants. I am not outraged that Mychal Bell is being tried for a crime or that he will be tried as a juvenile. But charging him with attempted murder and trying him as an adult is an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, and it appears the appeals court agreed with me. I never claimed that the Jena 6 should be freed or should not be prosecuted, but it's about time someone asked the question of why these 6 teenagers were the ones who got the book thrown at them when so many others committed criminal acts and the DA didn't even bother to try to charge them, let alone to throw the book at them.

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Most of the incidents were not clearly defined, more of a we said - they said. In this case, the perps were identified, the incident clearly defined and a real victim with real injuries. I have searched the web for all I can find on this case and, to my knowledge, no one has stepped forth with names of white people to charge. The "Shotgun Incident" was a case of the white kid filing charges first. You and I can have a dispute and, if I charge you first, the news reports will be that you are accused of "x". If you do not file charges against me, I will remain uncharged. One article referred to the nooses being hung by three members of the school rodeo team. If that is the case, perhaps there are charges to file. I am against actions like that one, but I am also against "hate speech" crimes. Perhaps there is a "terroristic threats" charge to be made. Either way, they are not the same as beating a kid into unconciousness. The DA's comments addressed to a school assembly were reported by NPR, CNN and ABC News. I found "many reports" that they were made to the black students only and they were all on blogs or forums, I could not find one on a credible news site as a news article, rather than editorial. The "Jena 6" were originally charged with aggravated assault and the DA raised the charges. Perhaps, he should receive the same treatment as Mike Nifong in the Duke Lacrosse case. I assume you mean that the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rainbow/PUSH, Al Sharpton and others aren't trying to deal with the subtleties you mention? Many efforts have been made regarding the "subtleties" of dead penalty cases, but DNA and methodolgy are the best avenues, so they are the nmost visibly successful.

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