[10 minute work break - this couldn't wait!!!!]
Maybe I was right the other day: maybe the tide really IS turning in Jena.
Or, in this case, the larger state of Louisiana. Where, less than an hour ago, the Court of Appeals overturned Mychal Bell's conviction on charges of aggravated battery on the grounds that he should not have been tried as an adult once the "adult criminal charge" (the bogus attempted murder charge) had been dismissed by the State.
With last week's reversal of Bell's conspiracy conviction by the trial court itself on the same ground, this means that the State of Louisiana, if it really wishes to push this thing, will have to start from Ground Zero.
Only fools would do that. Because unlike before, this time the world is watching.
(But hey, only fools would have allowed this situation to get to the point where kids were accused of attempted murder for a schoolyard fight, too.)
All that being said, next week's protests -- including mobilization in Jena, Louisiana itself -- scheduled for September 20, 2007 (the date that Bell was to have been scheduled) still needs take place, in my view. The Jena Six are not out of the woods yet. Particularly because, with what I imagine is now a beat-down by the Louisiana appellate court (I have not yet read the decision but will update once I do) Reed Walters and the other racists in Jena who insisted on creating this modern day attempted lynching case (since life in prison might as well be death) likely be gunning for bear to try and save their reps, using one of the other boys as a scapegoat. They tried to clean their legal overreaching and Jim Crow justice up only by little dribs and drabs, reducing the boys' charges from attempted murder only individually and only as the cold spotlight of adverse media attention was shined upon them while the next trials approached. Well, now they have the appellate spotlight and ethics spotlight shining on them. Given Walters' highfalutin insistence on retribution against these boys for complaining about the nooses to begin with, I suspect that right about now he's a little pissed off.
So keep those busses rolling towards Jena for the 20th! But also take a minute now to give thanks!!!!!!
Update: Egads I screwed up. I thought that there was no other diary on this when I started writing this, but it turns out there was one, written by Weelzup. Go show him some love, and I'm sorry!