Jenna6 - the other side of the story the media wont talk about...

[bparker]

Ms. Malkin, I am writing to you for this reason: I have listened to you on O?Reilly and read your columns for the last few years, and have concluded that you are the fairest newscaster in the media. As Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story" is about to break here in Louisiana, for we have a story that is comparable in many ways to the Duke lacrosse scandal of 2006-2007.

Perhaps you have heard Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson speak about the ?Jena 6,? and the trials that they are facing. The 6 are charged with aggravated assault against a young man who goes to school with them. The national news, with their typical leftward slant, has discounted the crime and focused on race, for the Jena 6 are black and their victim is white. The good people of Jena, LaSalle Parish, and Louisiana have been vilified unjustly for months as redneck racists, and they have had enough. They are trying to get people to look at both sides of the issue, but so far, it is to no avail. May I tell you what happened?

For several weeks prior to the school attack, the six boys had been ?jumping? on lone white kids around and about town, with nothing done except another page added to their rap sheets. As a group, they tried to crash a private party, and young Justin Barker asked them to leave, for they were there to start more fights. The law was called and the six were made to leave.

The next week at school, they planned an attack on Barker. They waited for him to go through a door, where one of six locked the door to keep teachers from interfering. Another of the group hit Barker on the back of the head, a sneak attack, and knocked him unconscious. While on the floor in an unconscious state, the six proceeded to kick him in the head and all over his body. Twenty or so students were witnesses and were able to identify the thugs. Teachers were finally able to get to the young man separated from the attackers, which most likely prevented his death. One teacher thought the boy dead, since his pulse was so faint. He was taken by ambulance to the local hospital, where the staff worked for three or four hours checking his injuries, and basically saving his life.

The six students who attacked this one person, were arrested; one has had his trial, where he was found guilty of the crime that he committed. Other trials are upcoming. Charges have been reduced from attempted murder to aggravated assault. What the national media fails to report is that the convicted person, Mychal Bell, had already been convicted four times for assault, but has had no punishment at any time.

The national media has had a field day with this story, for to them, it casts a bad light on the South where they think everything is about race. What they fail to report is that this attack was a sneak attack, unprovoked, and planned, and six thugs jumped one lone kid. It was not just a "schoolyard fight" as it is being portrayed in the media.

Jesse and Al cry for ?justice for the Jena six,? but what they really mean is to let them escape any punishment for their actions in attacking the Barker boy. You and I both know that actions have consequences, and if the actions are criminal, the consequences will be serious..

There is a side to Jena that the media tends to overlook. When Katrina destroyed New Orleans, all of our little towns in this part of the state welcomed refugees from the floodwaters. The white churches in Jena fed, clothed and sheltered 3,000 people, of whom 2,800 were black. No black churches in Jena stepped up with offers to use their churches as shelters. Were they prejudiced against their own people? Not long ago,Jason Hatcher, a black athlete who went to school in Jena, went on to distinguish himself in college and now plays for the Dallas Cowboys, was given his own special day in the town, with all townspeople coming out to express their pride in this young man. Racists do not behave in this manner, do they?

Jena is known far and wide as one the friendliest, best-places-to-live sort of town, for people here have traditionally worked out their differences to the betterment of the whole community. Turmoil has replaced peacefulness, and local citizens are just plain fed up with the distortions of the press and televised media.

Every town has troublemakers, and through the years, Jena has had its share, black and white, and they have been dealt with and punished. This time it is black troublemakers who nearly killed a high school student. If they are not punished, could not a logical person assume that they would consider themselves above the law, and repeat their beatings on other singled out students?

Here is something else that is not being reported: reliable street information says that some or all of the Jena 6 are responsible for burning down the high school last fall, and will be charged with this crime once the assault trials are over. Jesse and Al never mention that, do they.

Much to-do was made about the fact that the jury was all-white in the first trial. What is not reported is that out of the pool called for jury duty, not one black of the fifty selected showed up. The reason: the black community is sick of the way these teenage hooligans have terrorized their community with stealing, beatings, and intimidations, and refusing to serve on the jury was their only hope to see that the perpetrators of countless crimes would finally be held accountable.

It has gotten to the point that all Jena citizens, black and white, refuse to be interviewed by anyone, for they are sick and tired of having comments taken out of context, having statements of truth deleted from interviews when they contradict what the media wants to say. Just like in the Duke case, only one side is being presented, while the truth is being hidden. We all saw how the Duke case was finally resolved, and when facts are used rather than the hysterical rantings of Jackson and Sharpton, perhaps this case can be resolved, too.

Another very important thing to remember is this: the US Justice Department has investigated this case from all angles, and has found no evidence of wrongdoing from any of the law enforcement officials involved. The sheriff?s department, the district attorney and the judge have all been commended for their thoroughness and diligence in prosecuting this case. But that is not good enough for Jesse and Al and their minions, who want every charge thrown out because the Jena 6 are black.

We both know that the Jacksons and Sharptons of this world promote anger and hatred; their goals are not to unify, but to divide people, and to shakedown anyone for anything that they can get. Jackson is asking people to descend on Jena the day of the sentencing of the first convicted student. He says he expects 40,000, which is a bit far-fetched. Of course, if the cameras and news people are there, 400 will be stretched to 40,000, and Jesse, with his perpetual scowl, shall lead them- to where, I do not know.

The race mongers and outside media have wreaked havoc with this small community with their distorted reporting. They conveniently keep overlooking one fact: this should not be about black and white, it should be about right and wrong. It is about six high school athletes who planned and executed a sneak attack on one fellow student.