When I posted this article a few weeks ago, I expressed my surprise that Mychael Bell had been released, wondering how I could have possibly missed that. Well I didn't. The lazy professional media that Steven A. Smith thinks should be the only ones allowed to report on issues, simply got some basic facts wrong.
I just spoke with Alan Bean of Friend's Of Justice, and Bell isn't living with foster parents in Monroe Louisiana, he was transferred to some sort of "half-way" house there, pending his release around June.
I'll try to get in touch with one of his lawyers next week to see if I can get a little more detail and clarification of his status. Lord knows I'm not going to get it from the mainstream media. Yahoo and Google news searches have had nothing listed on Mychael Bell for weeks now, and next to nothing on the Jena 6 in general.
It's clear that the main stream media has retreated back to it's pre-September 2007 dearth of coverage of this case. And these are the people we’re supposed to trust the dissemination of information to.
Thank Holy God in Heaven for the internet (not withstanding it’s potential to be used for evil)
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
More Detail On Bryant Purvis' Arrest
Police still investigating Hebron fight involving Jena 6 student
By Chris Roark, Staff Writer
(Created: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 10:25 PM CST)
Carrollton police continue to investigate an incident in which Hebron High School senior Bryant Purvis’ tires were deflated last week.
The incident, according to police records, ignited a fight between Purvis and Hebron senior Christopher Jones on Feb. 6. That led to police arresting Purvis, who was one of six students known as the Jena 6 accused of assaulting a white student in Jena, La., in 2006.
Purvis moved to Carrollton last year and lives with his uncle, Dallas Cowboys player Jason Hatcher.
“There is no indication that this is a racially-biased crime,” said Sgt. John Singleton, spokesperson for the Carrollton Police Department. “It just stems from an altercation between two students.”
According to police records, Purvis believed Jones deflated the tires to his vehicle, so he approached him Wednesday morning, grabbed him by the throat and threw him down. Singleton said Jones has visible marks around his neck and bruises around his left eye.
After being questioned, police arrested Purvis and charged him with assault causing bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor. Purvis was transported to the Denton County Detention Facility, where he has posted bond, Singleton said. Singleton said simply letting the air out could lead to a substantial inconvenience charge, which would be a Class C misdemeanor. Using a device to cut the tires could lead to a higher charge.
Meanwhile, Purvis is facing discipline at school. Lewisville ISD spokesman Dean Tackett said Purvis will face the same disciplinary action at school as any other student in this situation would, which is a three-day suspension and seven to 10 days at the Lewisville Learning Center.
“If this was a scuffle, the police wouldn’t have gotten involved,” Tackett said. “But, the police get involved when it’s an assault.”
Tackett said this is the only incident Purvis has been involved in at Hebron that he’s aware of.
Keith Owens, who has a daughter at Hebron, said the incident shocked him.
“When I heard about it, it surprised me,” Owens said. “But, I don’t think it’s isolated to Hebron, because these things happen at all schools.”
Purvis has played on Hebron’s varsity basketball team, and Owens said he has briefly talked to him following a game.
“He seems like a normal kid,” Owens said. “I guess he just lost control, and his emotions got the better of him.”
Purvis is the team’s leading rebounder and third-leading scorer. He will be unable to play while serving the suspension.
http://www.carrolltonleader.com/articles/2008/02/15/carrollton_leader/news/5front.txt
By Chris Roark, Staff Writer
(Created: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 10:25 PM CST)
Carrollton police continue to investigate an incident in which Hebron High School senior Bryant Purvis’ tires were deflated last week.
The incident, according to police records, ignited a fight between Purvis and Hebron senior Christopher Jones on Feb. 6. That led to police arresting Purvis, who was one of six students known as the Jena 6 accused of assaulting a white student in Jena, La., in 2006.
Purvis moved to Carrollton last year and lives with his uncle, Dallas Cowboys player Jason Hatcher.
“There is no indication that this is a racially-biased crime,” said Sgt. John Singleton, spokesperson for the Carrollton Police Department. “It just stems from an altercation between two students.”
According to police records, Purvis believed Jones deflated the tires to his vehicle, so he approached him Wednesday morning, grabbed him by the throat and threw him down. Singleton said Jones has visible marks around his neck and bruises around his left eye.
After being questioned, police arrested Purvis and charged him with assault causing bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor. Purvis was transported to the Denton County Detention Facility, where he has posted bond, Singleton said. Singleton said simply letting the air out could lead to a substantial inconvenience charge, which would be a Class C misdemeanor. Using a device to cut the tires could lead to a higher charge.
Meanwhile, Purvis is facing discipline at school. Lewisville ISD spokesman Dean Tackett said Purvis will face the same disciplinary action at school as any other student in this situation would, which is a three-day suspension and seven to 10 days at the Lewisville Learning Center.
“If this was a scuffle, the police wouldn’t have gotten involved,” Tackett said. “But, the police get involved when it’s an assault.”
Tackett said this is the only incident Purvis has been involved in at Hebron that he’s aware of.
Keith Owens, who has a daughter at Hebron, said the incident shocked him.
“When I heard about it, it surprised me,” Owens said. “But, I don’t think it’s isolated to Hebron, because these things happen at all schools.”
Purvis has played on Hebron’s varsity basketball team, and Owens said he has briefly talked to him following a game.
“He seems like a normal kid,” Owens said. “I guess he just lost control, and his emotions got the better of him.”
Purvis is the team’s leading rebounder and third-leading scorer. He will be unable to play while serving the suspension.
http://www.carrolltonleader.com/articles/2008/02/15/carrollton_leader/news/5front.txt
Monday, February 11, 2008
Why I'm Proud To Defend the Jena Six, Model Citizens or Not
Concerning Bryant Purvis' recent arrest in Texas and the debate about defending those who are not model citizens, some valid points have been pointed out
In a list serve discussion another blogger states in part that "the way this issue was framed actually made it about individuals - You can't go back now and say well that really didn't matter."
She goes on to state
"Nothing wrong with standing up for people, but how you frame the issue is important. When you are dealing with cirminal defendants, you are almost always dealing with someone who exercised poor judgement at the very least and engaged in criminal behavior at the very worse. I mean as far back as two months ago, the CBC was attempting to get a FULL pardon for the six teens from Blanco.
It is almost as if people don't know how to disengage and will ride
this bad boy into the ground. You saved their youth. What other role
do you have to play now?"
Here's what I think in regards to these points.
Sure, we have to be careful about how a protest is framed, but some of how anything is framed is out of our hands, as the run-away media will say what it wants to it's echo chamber of whites (including liberals) who minimalism racism.
It was always a lie that Jena 6 supporters thought that the young men should receive no punishment; yet, that's the lie that was spread by mainstream media and white "progressive" blogs alike, from day one.
Calls for pardon were after they had all already spent months in prison, and the DA was digging his heels in on going forward on trumped up charges and illegal prosecutions and tactics. It was a response to the failure of the legal system to provide equal protection under the law, so at that point a pardon was right. They
had already been punished, and the legal system was showing itself ineffectual in responding to a malicious prosecution.
When we get down to deciding who's rights should be defended and who's shouldn't based on who they are, then we get to a point where it's going to be:
They came for the Jena 6, but I said nothing because I was a well behaved Negro, and not a criminal like they
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.*
That may seem dramatic, but it's really not. If they can trample criminals rights, then they can trample yours too; especially when they do so based on the criminal being Black, as this article shows that in Louisiana Black youth are sentenced 6 times more harshly than white criminals who commit the same crimes:
http://www.blackperspective.net/index.php/black-teens-six-times-more-likely-to-be-sentenced-to-jail-than-white-teens/
And when they get through with the Black "criminals", taking away their rights; you want to know who they're coming after next to feed the prison industrial complex; The rabble rousers, the protesters, the intellectuals; just as tyrannies always do.
So yeah, I've seen where some people have run out in defense of somebody Black who got tazered, and it turns out his black ass was in the wrong, and deserved to be tased; so we do have to be careful - get our facts first, and make our arguments based on good knowledge.
But at the same time we can't let the "good test case"/model citizen ideal be the determining factor in whether we defend against injustice being committed against someone. The "good test case" thing really only applies to challenging unjust laws, not in challenging unjust prosecutions, when the law itself isn't at question.
*This section of my exegesis is an allusion to a poem entitled First They Came
In a list serve discussion another blogger states in part that "the way this issue was framed actually made it about individuals - You can't go back now and say well that really didn't matter."
She goes on to state
"Nothing wrong with standing up for people, but how you frame the issue is important. When you are dealing with cirminal defendants, you are almost always dealing with someone who exercised poor judgement at the very least and engaged in criminal behavior at the very worse. I mean as far back as two months ago, the CBC was attempting to get a FULL pardon for the six teens from Blanco.
It is almost as if people don't know how to disengage and will ride
this bad boy into the ground. You saved their youth. What other role
do you have to play now?"
Here's what I think in regards to these points.
Sure, we have to be careful about how a protest is framed, but some of how anything is framed is out of our hands, as the run-away media will say what it wants to it's echo chamber of whites (including liberals) who minimalism racism.
It was always a lie that Jena 6 supporters thought that the young men should receive no punishment; yet, that's the lie that was spread by mainstream media and white "progressive" blogs alike, from day one.
Calls for pardon were after they had all already spent months in prison, and the DA was digging his heels in on going forward on trumped up charges and illegal prosecutions and tactics. It was a response to the failure of the legal system to provide equal protection under the law, so at that point a pardon was right. They
had already been punished, and the legal system was showing itself ineffectual in responding to a malicious prosecution.
When we get down to deciding who's rights should be defended and who's shouldn't based on who they are, then we get to a point where it's going to be:
They came for the Jena 6, but I said nothing because I was a well behaved Negro, and not a criminal like they
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.*
That may seem dramatic, but it's really not. If they can trample criminals rights, then they can trample yours too; especially when they do so based on the criminal being Black, as this article shows that in Louisiana Black youth are sentenced 6 times more harshly than white criminals who commit the same crimes:
http://www.blackperspective.net/index.php/black-teens-six-times-more-likely-to-be-sentenced-to-jail-than-white-teens/
And when they get through with the Black "criminals", taking away their rights; you want to know who they're coming after next to feed the prison industrial complex; The rabble rousers, the protesters, the intellectuals; just as tyrannies always do.
So yeah, I've seen where some people have run out in defense of somebody Black who got tazered, and it turns out his black ass was in the wrong, and deserved to be tased; so we do have to be careful - get our facts first, and make our arguments based on good knowledge.
But at the same time we can't let the "good test case"/model citizen ideal be the determining factor in whether we defend against injustice being committed against someone. The "good test case" thing really only applies to challenging unjust laws, not in challenging unjust prosecutions, when the law itself isn't at question.
*This section of my exegesis is an allusion to a poem entitled First They Came
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