How to Free the Jena 6

The “Jena 6” is a group of Black teenagers in Jena, LA who have allegedly violated Louisiana’s defunct slave code: Thou shall not strike a white person. They are being prosecuted in a slave court, the forerunner of the military tribunal. This court existed two hundred years ago and after the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory.
Slave courts were established in the English colonies to prosecute enslaved Africans for allegedly committing public offenses. These offenses went beyond the purview of slaveowners’ own property. Thus, the trials had to be fair to the slaveowners.
Enslaved Africans received fairer trials than “emancipated” Africans today because Black parents replaced white slaveowners and Africans were emancipated without reparations. Private property is the sine qua non of capitalism and property defines standing in the legal system.
This prompted Chief Justice Roger Taney, in Dred Scott, to assert, “no Negro has any rights that whites are bound to respect.” He made no distinction between free Africans and enslaved Africans. Africans were “emancipated” in 1863. He spoke of the original intent of the U.S. Constitution.
This construction of the Constitution is being employed in Louisiana and also in the United States Supreme Court. The major Supreme Court cases during Reconstruction, which signaled a retreat from according Blacks special treatment to compensate for slavery, started in Louisiana.
Dred Scott is being played out in Jena. Mychal Bell, a member of the Jena 6, has already been prosecuted and convicted by an all-white jury. The prosecutor was white and hostile. He made good on his threat to destroy any Black student who violated the slave code. The white trial judge had permitted Bell to be prosecuted on over-blown charges.
On appeal, the intermediate appellate court found that the adult court lacked the jurisdiction to prosecute Bell. The evidence was also insufficient. The Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits an egregiously, unethical prosecutor from getting two bites at the apple.
Louisiana’s criminal justice system not only refuses to give deference to Black parents but also to attorneys who are bent on complying with the Code of Professional Responsibility in representing Black defendants. Ethics only protects whites. See the disbarment of Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong.
After September 20, white public officials escalated their war against Bell. He has been illegally detained and no one has sought a writ of habeas corpus. Instead, Black leaders unabashedly begged the governor for bail. They waived Bell’s double jeopardy claim. This would give the white prosecutor two bites at the apple.
Once a one-sided deal was agreed to by Black leaders, the trial judge granted bail in the amount of $45,000, with bail conditions, loaded with dynamite. Within four days after he was released from jail, Bell would find himself back in court on a probation violation.
Black leaders had overlooked this possible retaliation. The judge revoked bail and sent Bell back to jail. This prompted Black leaders to go hat in hand to the Louisiana governor to beg again for mercy. They wanted her to intervene in the Bell prosecution.
This means that they had to give the governor further consideration. Bell would lose any bargaining rights. The trial judge would reinstate bail plus demand an additional $5,000 for LaSalle Parish. In addition, Bell, before bail was revoked, would be under house arrest in the strictest sense of the term.
The trial judge and the prosecutor were not through with Bell, however. Belatedly, they decided that Bell had committed a violation of probation on a prior juvenile charge. This proves that hindsight is, indeed, 20/20. Now, Bell has been sent to prison, summarily, and Black leaders have raised the white flag. None of this makes sense. A dog and pony show followed on October 16 in the nation’s capital.
Political and economic leveraging went out the window. This means that there will be no boycott in Louisiana and Blacks will pledge greater allegiance to plantation politics while the Democratic Party makes its philosophical move to the right.
In other words, history is repeating itself. This was our plight with the Republican Party after the First Reconstruction. Blacks were stuck in the Republican Party while white Republicans were courting conservative Democrats. Blacks forfeited political leverage and were booted out of Congress.
After numerous dealings with whites, Indians concluded that the white man spoke with forked tongue. Since we lack the ability to connect the dots, and we lack any knowledge of Indian history, opinions of Indians can be ignored.
This is why we were flim-flammed and we eventually forked up $50,000 to get Mychal Bell out of prison. This was ephemeral. We are dealing with P.T. Barnum and we are financing our own oppression. Our destination is 1857.
As soon as the local sheriff had counted the money, Judge J.P. Mauffray sentenced Bell to 18 months in prison. He declared the political deal unenforceable. Black leaders were left with egg on their faces. What else is new?
If we were anything but “deaf, dumb and blind” we would know that we have only two options. Our first option is to form a political party. This would give Blacks the greatest political leverage. The second option is for Blacks, at least, to step away from the Democratic Party and become independents.
Sen. Charles Sumner, approximately 140 years ago, advised Blacks to form their own political party. He was a member of the Republican Party and understood the role of American politics. Blacks ignored the shepherd and teamed up with the wolf.
Enrollment as independents would require Blacks to stay away from white primaries. They are political traps. We could become wild cards in general elections. Political bargaining would become an asset. Both major parties would have to bargain for our vote.
To achieve these goals, we need personnel and resources. The success of the United States started with the selection of a general. George Washington was a big landowner. Today, the president is also the commander-in-chief. A general sees the big picture. Wars are about turf.
There must always be an employment of strategy and tactics to achieve an agenda. So far, we have no Black agenda. There are no strategic moves. We simply take orders from the Democratic Party. Our knowledge of military science is suspect.
A general refuses to take orders. Instead, a general writes the blueprint. On September 20, Jena was a media event and we became props or extras. CNN, in Atlanta, was the headquarters. CNN was only interested in media ratings. Justice took a vacation. History continues to repeat itself.
Louisiana is like South Africa in the 1960’s. Apartheid rules the roost. When it comes to Black rights, whites are above the law. There must be economic sanctions to redress this racial imbalance. Blacks can ill-afford to finance their own oppression. Louisiana must be brought down to its financial knees.
There must be a return to Jena, LA en masse. Protestors must camp out and engage daily in civil disobedience. It will take thousands of people to pack the jails in LaSalle Parish and in Louisiana. Jena, on September 20, had no resemblance to either Birmingham in 1963 or Selma in 1965.
The state’s criminal justice system is still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Louisiana lacks the resource to process detainees and to provide them with adequate legal representation. This country call ill-afford another Birmingham or another Selma.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, holds the key to Louisiana’s future. She already has the executive power to pardon Bell forthwith. This would end his incarceration. The Constitution already blocks a second prosecution of him in the beating of Justin Barkin.
If he had been convicted of beating Barkin, he would have been automatically pardoned, as a matter of law, after he had served his prison sentence. The months he served illegally in pre-trial detention can be employed to wipe out the probation on a prior charge.
10/18/07