Do you remember Michael Baisden’s “Unequal Justice Legal Defense and Education Fund”
Do you know where the money is? Have you heard anything about it in months?
For me, the answer to both is no, so I did a little checking. On neither of the two still standing web pages about the Unequal Justice Fund can I find:
1. How much is being collected?
2. Who’s receiving it?
3. How it’s being administrated ?
Or
4. What is the method of accountability and where can we check to see that donors money is going to where it is said it would go?
There are no minglecity.com pages found about the fund, just a residual Jena 6 page. There once was a page dedicated to the fund when he was promoting his November Atlanta fundraiser and immediately afterwards. But apparently all information about the fund are now gone from mingle city.
Even at his Michael Baisden dot com site the “web-a-thon” graphic only shows money collected up through the end of September.
I can find nowhere on either of his websites where information is given about the collected money.
Also isn’t it funny, but have you heard him talk about the Jena 6 much, if at all since he unsuccessfully tried to run down Color of Change in the week leading up to his own fundraiser?
Maybe I’ll call his offices after while and see if we can’t get any info; but one shouldn’t have to do that when he has two websites that he used to raise the money from. If he can put fundraising information on there, he can just the same put information about where the money’s been going since he got it.
But if you have any information, by all means, please inform me. I’ll correct the record promptly.
Here are the two remaining sites discussing the Fund's existence and how to apply:
http://www.michaelbaisden.com/Article.asp?id=513166
http://www.michaelbaisden.com/Article.asp?id=513144
Monday, March 3, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Bunkie Louisiana, Jena's Sibling
The following article is by Alan Bean of Friend's of Justice. Alan was one of the original 2 or 3 civil rights activist who aggitated for Jena Six and got the story out to the world after going there about this time last year.
By the way, he's a White preacher from Texas; not one of us Black people "playing victim" or "playing the race card".
Hard Times in Bunkie, Louisiana
At a glance, Bunkie looks like any other cash-strapped central Louisiana town. It’s a jumble of crumbling shacks, modest bungalos and a clutch of picturesque mansions straight out of Gone with the Wind. Bunkie used to be a predominantly white community, but as one old timer told me, “the old whites are dying and the young whites are movin’ out–pretty soon you got yourself a black majority. Used to be the east side was black and the west side was white, with Highway 71 as the divider. But now a lot of black folks are buying homes on the west side. That causes conflict; a lot of whites don’t want to live around blacks.”
I first visited Bunkie on February 22, 2007; exactly one year ago. I had been organizing the families of the Jena 6 and Tony Brown, a radio personality in nearby Alexandria, had interviewed me on his morning talk show.
“You’ve got to come down to Bunkie,” Denise Atkins told me, “we got it real bad down here.”
Denise arranged a public meeting in an old restaurant that was in the process of renovation. A crowd of thirty showed up for fried chicken and conversation. Everyone wanted to talk about Chad Jeansonne, a detective with the Bunkie Police Department who had learned every trick in the drug war manual.
Moments into the meeting, several participants noticed a shadowy figure lurking in a darkened corner of the room. A middle aged black woman in the uniform of the Bunkie Police Department emerged from her hiding spot and confronted her accusers.
“What you doin’ spying on us?” somebody asked. “I’ve seen you on those raids where the cops come busting in without no warrant. You know how they do us!”
The officer was unrepentant. “If ya’ll would quit doing drugs and hanging out on the street corner you wouldn’t have nothing to worry about!”
”We all work hard for our money,” a young woman shot back. It was a familiar conversation: Mos Def meets Bill Cosby. The disgruntled officer sauntered out of the room.
A few days later, I got a phone call from an officer with the Louisiana State Police. “Hello Dr. Bean,” a pleasant voice said. “I hear you’ve been down to Bunkie talking to some folks and I was just curious about your business.”
“I was invited to Bunkie by some concerned citizens,” I replied.
“What were they concerned about?”
“Oh, the usual,” I replied. “Racial profiling, warrantless searches, and coerced testimony and plea agreements. But the conversation kept coming around to one officer in particular: a fellow named Jeansonne; Chad Jeansonne.”
“Well, I’m sure your investigation will lead you to the conclusion that Mr. Jeansonne is a fine officer doing really good work for us down there in Bunkie.”
This prophecy has gone unfulfilled. After chatting with four ex-Bunkie police officers who had worked with Jeansonne I started taking the complaints emerging from Bunkie’s poor black community much more seriously.
Read the rest of the article here
By the way, he's a White preacher from Texas; not one of us Black people "playing victim" or "playing the race card".
Hard Times in Bunkie, Louisiana
At a glance, Bunkie looks like any other cash-strapped central Louisiana town. It’s a jumble of crumbling shacks, modest bungalos and a clutch of picturesque mansions straight out of Gone with the Wind. Bunkie used to be a predominantly white community, but as one old timer told me, “the old whites are dying and the young whites are movin’ out–pretty soon you got yourself a black majority. Used to be the east side was black and the west side was white, with Highway 71 as the divider. But now a lot of black folks are buying homes on the west side. That causes conflict; a lot of whites don’t want to live around blacks.”
I first visited Bunkie on February 22, 2007; exactly one year ago. I had been organizing the families of the Jena 6 and Tony Brown, a radio personality in nearby Alexandria, had interviewed me on his morning talk show.
“You’ve got to come down to Bunkie,” Denise Atkins told me, “we got it real bad down here.”
Denise arranged a public meeting in an old restaurant that was in the process of renovation. A crowd of thirty showed up for fried chicken and conversation. Everyone wanted to talk about Chad Jeansonne, a detective with the Bunkie Police Department who had learned every trick in the drug war manual.
Moments into the meeting, several participants noticed a shadowy figure lurking in a darkened corner of the room. A middle aged black woman in the uniform of the Bunkie Police Department emerged from her hiding spot and confronted her accusers.
“What you doin’ spying on us?” somebody asked. “I’ve seen you on those raids where the cops come busting in without no warrant. You know how they do us!”
The officer was unrepentant. “If ya’ll would quit doing drugs and hanging out on the street corner you wouldn’t have nothing to worry about!”
”We all work hard for our money,” a young woman shot back. It was a familiar conversation: Mos Def meets Bill Cosby. The disgruntled officer sauntered out of the room.
A few days later, I got a phone call from an officer with the Louisiana State Police. “Hello Dr. Bean,” a pleasant voice said. “I hear you’ve been down to Bunkie talking to some folks and I was just curious about your business.”
“I was invited to Bunkie by some concerned citizens,” I replied.
“What were they concerned about?”
“Oh, the usual,” I replied. “Racial profiling, warrantless searches, and coerced testimony and plea agreements. But the conversation kept coming around to one officer in particular: a fellow named Jeansonne; Chad Jeansonne.”
“Well, I’m sure your investigation will lead you to the conclusion that Mr. Jeansonne is a fine officer doing really good work for us down there in Bunkie.”
This prophecy has gone unfulfilled. After chatting with four ex-Bunkie police officers who had worked with Jeansonne I started taking the complaints emerging from Bunkie’s poor black community much more seriously.
Read the rest of the article here
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Clearing Up The Current Mychael Bell Situation
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)
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)
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
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Jena 6 Defendant Bryant Purvis Arrested In Texas
Slaps hand against forehead - you just can't help some people.
I'll get to the particulars of the arrest in a moment, but some folks, Jena 6 supporters, on a list serve I frequented are talking about that's why they used upstanding citizens for test cases back in the day to build the movement around and that's why they used the Rosa Park incident to launch the bus boycott verses other similar incidents.
That's good, well and understood; but here's my response to that:
People's lives are not test cases or a movement.
The boys deserved justice. If justice was 1 years in jail they deserved that, if it was no jail they deserved that, if it was a few months, they deseved that; but I know they didn't deserve 80 to 100 years (what the DA first tried to charge them with).They didn't deserve 20 years in jail (the amount of time charges would have carried once he was forced to drop the murder conspiracy).
Everyone's life and right to justice is worth defending. It's not acceptable to me to stand by and watch people have their lives taken away if there's something I can do about it, just because they're not saints. Non-saints deserve equal protection under the law too.
End of story for me.
Jena 6 defendant charged in Texas assault
By Howard Witt | Tribune correspondent
4:24 PM CST, February 7, 2008
Bryant Purvis, 19, was arrested Wednesday in Carrollton, Texas, and charged with misdemeanor assault after an incident with another student at Hebron High School, Carrollton police said. Purvis was released in lieu of $1,000 bond on Thursday and suspended for three days from the school, where he enrolled as a senior after moving to the area to live with a relative.
Purvis' attorney, Darrell Hickman, characterized the assault as a "minor shoving incident" and said it involved a student whom Purvis believed had vandalized his car a few days before. A police affidavit accompanying an arrest warrant alleged that Purvis choked the student and pushed his head into a bench, injuring the victim's eye.
Read the rest of the story here.
I'll get to the particulars of the arrest in a moment, but some folks, Jena 6 supporters, on a list serve I frequented are talking about that's why they used upstanding citizens for test cases back in the day to build the movement around and that's why they used the Rosa Park incident to launch the bus boycott verses other similar incidents.
That's good, well and understood; but here's my response to that:
People's lives are not test cases or a movement.
The boys deserved justice. If justice was 1 years in jail they deserved that, if it was no jail they deserved that, if it was a few months, they deseved that; but I know they didn't deserve 80 to 100 years (what the DA first tried to charge them with).They didn't deserve 20 years in jail (the amount of time charges would have carried once he was forced to drop the murder conspiracy).
Everyone's life and right to justice is worth defending. It's not acceptable to me to stand by and watch people have their lives taken away if there's something I can do about it, just because they're not saints. Non-saints deserve equal protection under the law too.
End of story for me.
Jena 6 defendant charged in Texas assault
By Howard Witt | Tribune correspondent
4:24 PM CST, February 7, 2008
Bryant Purvis, 19, was arrested Wednesday in Carrollton, Texas, and charged with misdemeanor assault after an incident with another student at Hebron High School, Carrollton police said. Purvis was released in lieu of $1,000 bond on Thursday and suspended for three days from the school, where he enrolled as a senior after moving to the area to live with a relative.
Purvis' attorney, Darrell Hickman, characterized the assault as a "minor shoving incident" and said it involved a student whom Purvis believed had vandalized his car a few days before. A police affidavit accompanying an arrest warrant alleged that Purvis choked the student and pushed his head into a bench, injuring the victim's eye.
Read the rest of the story here.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Jena 6 March Noose Perpitrator Charged
I was there live in the flesh when this incident took place. It happened to the group that I helped to organize to go to Jena, as we waited for our buses to come back to Nashville that night after the March. I wrote about it here, this blog did not exist yet.
Feds indict teen for 'threatening' noose
ALEXANDRIA, LA -- It was one of the few blights reported by the organizers of a 20,000-person civil rights demonstration held last year in a Louisiana town at the center of a national race debate.
As a group of marchers waited for a bus to transport them from Alexandria, La., to Tennessee, a pickup truck allegedly cruised slowly by, a pair of nooses hanging from the back of the truck. Local police officers took notice and arrested the teen driver and his passenger.
Four months later, federal prosecutors have announced the indictment of Jeremiah Munsen, 18, on a federal hate crime, and civil rights conspiracy charges, for "his role in threatening and intimidating marchers" as they attempted to cross a state line.
Munsen and his 16-year-old passenger, who has not been identified by authorities, allegedly fashioned a pair of extension cords into nooses and discussed the Ku Klux Klan as they drove repeatedly past a group of marchers gathered at a bus stop, while they waited for Tennessee-bound transportation.
The rest of the story: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=5911694
Feds indict teen for 'threatening' noose
ALEXANDRIA, LA -- It was one of the few blights reported by the organizers of a 20,000-person civil rights demonstration held last year in a Louisiana town at the center of a national race debate.
As a group of marchers waited for a bus to transport them from Alexandria, La., to Tennessee, a pickup truck allegedly cruised slowly by, a pair of nooses hanging from the back of the truck. Local police officers took notice and arrested the teen driver and his passenger.
Four months later, federal prosecutors have announced the indictment of Jeremiah Munsen, 18, on a federal hate crime, and civil rights conspiracy charges, for "his role in threatening and intimidating marchers" as they attempted to cross a state line.
Munsen and his 16-year-old passenger, who has not been identified by authorities, allegedly fashioned a pair of extension cords into nooses and discussed the Ku Klux Klan as they drove repeatedly past a group of marchers gathered at a bus stop, while they waited for Tennessee-bound transportation.
The rest of the story: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=5911694
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