Jena Media Frenzy
by Bob Parks

ESPN's "Outside The Lines" portrayed Jena as a small Louisiana community where people got along. It wasn't a utopia, but it did not become inflamed racially until outsiders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton arrived on the scene with the national media in tow and in a frenzy.

The legal process was working. On September 19, even Ajamu Baraka, executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, admitted as much. "While we applaud the actions of Louisiana's Third Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday vacating the conviction of Mychal Bell, this is only a first step to address the human rights issues in this case. Authorities must take immediate further action to ensure that the overall culture of the school respects human rights and promotes understanding across communities."

Why did District Attorney Reed Walters set the bail so high on these young boys involved in what could be construed as a simple schoolyard fight? But, then, why did not some good liberal bail them out? Where were Oprah, Jackson, Sharpton, Amy Goodman, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Andrew Young, and the rest of those who are so sensitive to racism issues; and why has only David Bowie stepped forward publicly to date and offered a sizable donation to the boy's defense fund? Why haven't any of these millionaire activists bailed the kids out?

Why was bail denied for the young high school football star Mychal Bell? As Rev. Sharpton put it on CBS's "The Early Show" before arriving in Jena, "This is the most blatant example of disparity in the justice system that we've seen. You can't have two standards of justice. We didn't bring race in it. Those that hung the nooses brought the race into it."

According to him and the other activists, it was all about racism. It was a white town persecuting young black boys. It was a white school committee that overturned the expulsion of the white kids who hung the nooses. It was about a white kid who justifiably got his ass kicked for calling the young boys "nigger". It was about a racist white D.A. who railroaded the young black boys, once again calling into question the racial fairness and integrity of the criminal justice system.

As it turns out, a bond hearing revealed that Mychal Bell had a history of juvenile scrapes with the law, one of which involved him punching a 17-year-old girl.

I know this will come off as piling on the victim, but it's the choices these boys made that put them in this situation. The fools who put the nooses on the tree in the first place will have to live with their prank, and walk around with their heads on a swivel, for the rest of their lives. The expulsions-turned-suspensions are something in their academic records they will have to answer for. The tree where the nooses where white kids hung out and the nooses were hung was cut down. This was an ugly incident, but the town of Jena could have moved on.

Instead Amy Goodman, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the thousands they enraged descended on this small town, implied every white there is a racist and every black is a victim. When the ends justify the means, the truth can be a victim as well.

According to the Louisiana Weekly, "The Rev. Al Sharpton told the Associated Press Thursday that he and Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and William Jefferson, D-La., will press the House Judiciary Committee this week to summon Jena district attorney Reed Walters to explain his actions before Congress."

Should that hearing actually happen, it may be more embarrassing to the activists seeking "justice." The facts associated with this case that they were either ignorant of or just plain ignored were much more complicated.

In the future, I would hope people would be more cautious regarding the reasons these activists exploit such divisions and make them worse by seeking their own ends in disregard for the long-term interests of the community.

Bob Parks is a member/writer for the National Advisory Council of Project 21, Senior Writer with the New Media Journal, VP of Marketing and Media Relations/Senior Writer for the New Media Alliance, and VP of the Massachusetts Republican Assembly.