Plea bargaining is the state’s most insidious power chip for filling the belly of the prison industrial complex. It embodies the essential difference between talking to the police and snitching – another dynamic that characterizes the criminal justice system as it stands now. The state holds liberty above a potential prisoner’s head because every person values his freedom – plea bargaining allows the person to state his price for standing as close to seeing the outside world as possible. Through the knowledge that person [allegedly] carries, he betrays his friends in the plea bargaining process and, on a moral level, himself.

And this dynamic is hardly new; the same system of exchanging one’s personal integrity and dignity at the expense of playing along with oppressive frameworks has thrived since the history of this country. The current liberty of white Americans and the monuments to their glory and might were (and still are) built with the hands and on the backs of people of color, yet we still turn a blind eye to what those frameworks rely upon to exist. Jena Six Developments (And the Institutional Racism Continues)

Kai spotlights the electrifying (!) story of a young Malawi inventor creating energy from bicycle parts and gum.

Last week the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story on the inspiring ingenuity of William Kamkwamba, a 20-year-old high-school student in Malawi who built his first windmill from blue-gum trees and bicycle parts after seeing pictures in a textbook when he was 14 (thanks, Angela!). Mr. Kamkwamba informs us on his blog that next week he’ll be making his first trip to the US and is excited to see snow and try Chinese food. WSJ correspondent Sarah Childress writes:

MASITALA, Malawi — On a continent woefully short of electricity, 20-year-old William Kamkwamba has a dream: to power up his country one windmill at a time.

So far, he has built three windmills in his yard here, using blue-gum trees and bicycle parts. His tallest, at 39 feet, towers over this windswept village, clattering away as it powers his family’s few electrical appliances: 10 six-watt light bulbs, a TV set and a radio. The machine draws in visitors from miles around.

Self-taught, Mr. Kamkwamba took up windmill building after seeing a picture of one in an old textbook. He’s currently working on a design for a windmill powerful enough to pump water from wells and provide lighting for Masitala, a cluster of buildings where about 60 families live.

Then, he wants to build more windmills for other villages across the country. Betting he can do it, a group of investors are putting him through school.

“I was thinking about electricity,” says Mr. Kamkwamba, explaining how he got hooked on wind. “I was thinking about what I’d like to have at home, and I was thinking, ‘What can I do?’ ” William Kamkwamba’s Windmills Electrify a Household and a Nation

Carole McDonnell tells how we can become bankers for $25 and change the life of a family and a village through Kiva.org.

In some parts of the world, especially in the developing world, $25 can go a long way. If you’re interested in doing something good for your fellow humans, check out www.kiva.org

It’s an investment, not really charity. Want to be a banker?

Over at Comic book bin, Leroy S. Douresseaux examines the nuance of writing Black Superheroes

When the discussion of Black superheroes pops up, it often turns to the question of whether actual Black people as writers would tell better stories about Black superheroes than writers who are White. Of course, some always say skin color doesn’t really matter, but they’re always White, speaking from the perspective of advantage.

A White man can certainly write really good comic books featuring African-American characters. In the 1970’s, Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont wrote excellent darkly comic and bloody horrific stories for Marvel Comics’ vampire hunter, Blade. But there’s just something about a writer who has lived as a Black man in America writing stories about a fictional character that is not just a Black superhero, but also a Black person in America. Of course, I realize that sometimes a character being Black has nothing to do with or has no affect on the narrative (for instance, Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ Martha Washington comics).

But sometimes being a Black writer spinning a narrative about a Black character does matter. Witness the short-lived, mid-1990’s comic book series, Hardware. Hardware was the first comic book published by Milestone Media. Milestone was an imprint of DC Comics that sought to publish superhero comic books featuring a more diverse cast in terms of skin color and ethnicity, in particularly African-Americans. In the case of Dwayne McDuffie, Hardware’s scribe and co-creator, the title had a storyteller who certainly understood what it was to be a talented African-American who repeatedly bangs his head against the glass ceiling.

McDuffie is an underrated writer, and one who has been shamefully underutilized by both Marvel and DC Comics – more than likely because he is a Black man.Milestone Media: Hardware #1, Leroy S. Douresseaux, Comic Book Bin (h/t to Negrophile for this one.)

An email I received yesterday has refocused my attention. It turns out that Mychall Bell is positioned to be the prosecution’s star witness against the other 5 defendants in the beating case.

Think what you will of LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, he has done a masterful job of pitting Jena 6 defendants against one another and the result will probably mean jail time for each Black teenager.

Of the six Black teens accused of beating Justin Barker, a White schoolmate last year in Jena, La., only Mychal Bell is known to have had a criminal record, which included two battery incidents and two charges of criminal damage to property. By first focusing on Bell, the D.A. has been able to portray Jena 6 as hardened criminals and, equally important, force Bell into a compromising position. Recently, Bell struck a deal with the D.A. that includes testifying against his five co-defendants, if needed. Op-Ed: A Split Among The Jena 6, George Curry – BlackPressUSA -Reclaim our Civil Rights

The guilty plea may make sense for Bell given his priors, but that is not a universal sentiment.

Marcus Jones, the father of lead defendant [Mychal Bell] in the controversial Jena 6 case couldn’t have been any clearer.

”They sold Mychal out,” Jones said of the legal team representing Mychal Bell. ”I just don’t understand it.” Jones was as stunned as [was] much of America and the world [by] the news that Mychal Bell, 17, had pleaded guilty in the racially charged case that has ignited claims of judicial bias and ignited Black activisim not seen since the days of the Civil Rights Movement. Bell pleaded guilty to second degree battery for punching Justin Barker, a White teenager.

The news that Bell had agreed to an 18-month sentence and to pay restitution to the White teenager he now admits beating has caused many now to focus on the remaining five defendants, who will be offered the same plea agreement as Bell. It has also caused some to question Bell’s legal team, which sought the agreement with the LaSalle County District Attorney’s office.

Bell’s attorney, Robert Nowell, said he advised Bell to accept the plea bargain because the district attorney’s office had ”overwhelming evidence to convict him.”

Louis Grandison Scott, Bell’s lead attorney, said he told Bell he was prepared to take the case ”all the way through,” however, he thought the judge would probably convict Bell and sentence him to more than 18 months. Even if they had won an appeal of the conviction, Scott said, Bell would have already served more than the 18 months in the plea bargain. Bell pleaded guilty to second degree battery for punching Justin Barker, a White teenager. What Now With Jena? All Eyes Turn to Other Defendants, Valencia Mohammad, Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspapers

That Mychal Bell has agreed to testify against his co-defendants disturbs me on a number of levels, not the least of which is that one of the defendants has consistently maintained that he was not present during the beating and only arrived on scene as people were starting to flee. This new aspect of the prosecution’s case illustrates why the concept of “no snitching” has such a hold in the Black community.

Bell is presently serving an 18-month sentence for the previous juvenile charges. In exchange for his pleading guilty to second-degree battery in connection with the attack on Barker, the prosecutor dropped aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit battery charges against Bell. He was sentenced to an additional 18 months to run concurrently with the term he is already serving. That means, in effect, Bell will serve a single 18-month sentence that will be counted twice, for his old juvenile offenses and for his recent plea. He has already served 10 months.

If Bell serves all of his time, he could be released in June. However, those close to the case expect him to be transferred to a group home rather than spending his remaining time behind bars.

With Bell being placed in the position of serving as the star witness against the other teens, they are more likely to be convicted if they refuse to follow Bell’s example and cop a plea. This is the underbelly of an unfair judicial system. Upon entering his guilty plea, Bell admitted that he hit the White student, knocking him unconscious, and joining others in kicking him after he fell to the floor. Therefore, the D.A. will be using the most culpable of the six teens to obtain convictions against those who were less involved. That’s the way the judicial system works – or doesn’t work. Op-Ed: A Split Among The Jena 6, George Curry – BlackPressUSA -Reclaim our Civil Rights

I am ashamed that we dropped the ball on this one just when we should have been picking it up – again.

…on Nov. 7, when four others were scheduled to enter their plea in Jena, there were no national civil rights leaders present. Busloads of students from around the nation did not roll into town. And radio talk show hosts, present in abundance on Sept. 20, were nowhere to be found. Instead, they had moved on, focusing on yet another demonstration in Washington in a futile effort to get the Justice Department to be more sensitive to the selective prosecution of African-Americans.

It is disturbing that civil rights leaders gave more support to the person who has agreed to testify against his co-defendants than the teens who had less to do with the beating.

If Bell testifies against four others – Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw — they could be tried as adults because they were at least 17 years old at the time of the incident. The sixth defendant, like Bell, was a juvenile at the time. Although news organizations do not customarily identify juveniles by name, many – including Black publications – have published his name.

As I said in a previous column, it’s time to return to Jena because justice has not been served; it is even less likely to be served now that Mychal Bell has agreed to testify against the other five defendants.

Those anointed as leaders in our community are good at putting on one-day events. And apparently that’s all Sept. 20 was. The question is whether they will show real leadership and lobby on behalf of the other five teens in Jena as hard as they worked for the release of Bell. If they can’t do that, I think I’ll skip such self-serving publicity stunts in the future. Op-Ed: A Split Among The Jena 6, George Curry – BlackPressUSA -Reclaim our Civil Rights

I have some major catching up to do: reading and writing. You will be seeing more posts about the goings on in Jena here at All About Race.

READ MORE - Jena One plus Five – Great post by Changeseeker.

READ MORE - Black Amazon speaks on it – “…The same boy

with years of prison over his head…”

READ MORE- M addresses the injustice of the justice system as it pertains to plea bargaining – Jena Six Developments (And the Institutional Racism Continues)

Hatred is “in” right now and that is a sad state of affairs for us all. Like a hem length or the “new” black of the season, it seems everybody’s doing it. Of course not everybody is hanging nooses or hating, not even most, but the proliferation of nooses is an unnerving sign post on the road we are traveling. It’s a dead end.

Where are our “friends?” Where is the supposedly liberal MSM asking the question, “what in the heck is happening here?” Where is the “liberal progressive” blogosphere asking their jumbo readership to encourage members of their communities to stand against racism and seeing nooses as a “joke.” Where are the government officials stating loud and clear and over and over again that “these attempts at intimidation will not be tolerated and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

Some people believe this ever chilling climate of racial intolerance is fueled by the Bush administration. I am not so sure about that. I think it has to do with visible signs of black progress. Some white people find that evidence of that progress extremely unsettling. Couple that progress with the kind of unity seen on September 20th and you have people who feel that they have to do something, anything, to take back a sense of control that was an illusion in the first place. What are they trying to hold on to?

Part II

And so there is the requisite outrage by people of color (and the people who support them) who are justified in recognizing a hanging noose as a symbol of hatred used in an effort to terrorize. We have spoken almost in unison on this.

Then some walking epitome of foolishness steps out at the BET Awards looking like this:

What on earth…?

Yes. He’s wearing a noose.

With this one minstrel like sartorial choice he has undermined every argument that has been made by any blogger explaining the racial significance of a hanging noose and the emotional pain and in some cases deep fear such a sight produces. Like the misguided youngsters in Jena, people caught hanging nooses often respond by claiming, “It was just a joke.” No people of color are laughing.

I guess along with frustration, I feel some shame that this self-identified comedian would be so desperate for attention that he would drape himself in such a bloodstained relic of American hatred.

I am not one mired in history. But history establishes heritage. And heritage establishes the context for how we see ourselves and our role in our communities and society at large. A noose will never be a necktie or a joke to anyone with an honest, thorough grasp of American history. And anyone who attempts to assert it as such is only fooling themselves and those looking to laugh at the expense of truth.

hat tip to Villager and Attorneymom

READ – Sharpton on Hate: We’re fighting Confederates

“Yes, hanging a noose under these circumstances is a hate crime,” Washington, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, told a House Judiciary Committee hearing convened to examine the Jena case. “If these acts had been committed by others who were not juveniles, this would have been a federal hate crime, and we would have moved forward.” Justice Department may probe bias in Jena, Howard Witt, Chicago Tribune

Nooses never fit the category of naughty, youthful prank to many of us. And it seemed like we were screaming into the wind for quite some time.

It is bittersweet to have our beliefs, about the criminality of those nooses hung in Jena, finally validated.

READ - Justice Department may probe bias in Jena, Howard Witt, Chicago Tribune

…Pete Adams, the director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, said Bell’s is a routine case, and “that’s all it is.”

“It’s not being handled any differently than any other case in which there was an offender that was charged and put on probation and then committed another crime,” Adams said. “His probation was revoked, and his pending crimes were considered. Under those circumstances, any other case would be handled just like that.” DA group, Gov. Blanco say Bell’s case routine, Abbey Brown, The Town Talk

But I am surprised that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has so quickly stepped in to assure her constituents that all is well and proceeding apace while remaining mostly silent on the events and proceedings related to the Jena Six. She issued a statement on Friday:

The Office of Youth Development is “following its customary procedures with Bell, as it would with any youth committed to its custody by a court,” she said in the statement.

“OYD will approach the court with its recommendations for placement and service next week. … As with all cases, this recommendation will be based on a standard risk assessment tool that looks at a youth’s history, including behavior, school record, family history, any previous offenses and what type, and whether the youth presents a risk to the public,” Blanco said. DA group, Gov. Blanco say Bell’s case routine, Abbey Brown, The Town Talk

I wonder if those recommendations will be made public? And if not, why not?

Mychal Bell, 17, was unexpectedly sent back to prison on Thursday after going to juvenile court in central Louisiana’s LaSalle Parish for what he expected to be a routine hearing, Carol Powell Lexing, one of his attorneys said.

Instead, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. decided Bell had violated probation and sentenced him to 18 months in jail on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.

“This matter was unrelated to the December 2006 event at Jena High School, and that case was not even mentioned in the court proceedings,” District Attorney Reed Walters said Friday. Mychal Bell of the `Jena 6′ Back in Jail, AP

The father of Mychal Bell says a judge in Jena Louisiana, has revoked Bell’s probation because of an old drug charge that had never been tried. “Jena Six” teen Mychal Bell back in jail, WHCP, CBS, AP

According to the Chicago Tribune, this is a highly unusual development and appears to contradict Louisiana law.

It was unclear why Mauffray decided to send Bell to jail on the prior charges. The judge has ordered all the proceedings in Bell’s case to be closed and directed all the lawyers in the case not speak about it publicly.

Other experts on Louisiana’s juvenile laws said that Mauffray’s decision to jail Bell on the earlier charges appeared to run counter to the state’s juvenile statutes.

“I don’t know the motivation for this judge and the district attorney, but what they did goes against the grain of our own juvenile code, which holds that home and the community is the best place to treat juveniles,” said David Utter, an attorney and founder of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. Utter is representing one of the Jena 6 defendants. Jena 6 teen’s return to jail draws queries. Howard Witt, Chicago Tribune

There were a lot of flippant challenges made in comments sections around the web this morning, about whether “they” would come down “here” and march again now that the Judge has imprisoned Bell and attempted to bankrupt the Bell family. Well, it looks like WE might have to do just that.

Hat tip to Blackamazon for staying on the facts.

I awoke to the news that Mychal Bell, now the most well known defendant in the Jena Six case, was back behind bars, in jail. It appears that because of Bell’s fight with Justin Barker, Bell’s probation on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property has been terminated and he will serve 18 months in a secured juvenile facility. Unfortunately, the details of the hearing and Bell’s whereabouts are murky in part due to the gag order placed on all parties by 28th Judicial District Court Judge J.P. Mauffray. (And yes, it was Judge Mauffray’s earlier decision regarding Bell’s Jena Six related charges that was reversed on appeal.)

I have mixed feelings about this latest development. I am so angry at Bell for violating the terms of his probation and deeply sad to see another young, black man behind bars. Yes, the sentence smells of a kind of retribution for the September march and overall cry for justice for the Jena Six. And there’s the rub, by fighting, Bell put himself in position for this kind of move to take place.

I understand that some people will greet Bell’s re-incarceration with a sigh of relief. There are numerous reports, by black citizens of Jena, that Bell (and other star athletes) caused a great deal of trouble in town. (Mostly chronicled in www.thetowntalk.com, but those articles are now only for sale.) Those same reports note that when African Americans made calls to white law enforcement, to report Bell’s alleged acts of vandalism, the police officers were slow to respond and often disinterested in making a full report. And there are still others who in chat rooms around the web, are already saying, “See. We told you so. Are you coming back to march now?”

They don’t get it. As I wrote to a friend about a month ago when he complained that the “full picture” of Mychal Bell was not being presented: Bell may be or become an incorrigible social delinquent, for all I know. But he deserves the protection of equal justice and I will stand for his right to that. Because when “the system” decides to cut corners on people it doesn’t like, I could be next, or you could be.

I cannot say that Bell’s probation should not have been revoked because of his involvement in the fight with Justin Barker. I do not have a simple opinion about it because I do not have enough information at this point although I will keep looking for a fuller, verifiable account of events. I strongly disagree with those asserting that Bell should be immune from the consequences of his prior actions because he is involved in the Jena Six case. Crime ravages communities and assaults the individual psyche. Everyone who commits a serious crime should be dealt with firmly and decisively.

Once again, The Smoking Gun has the goods, including a videotaped spoof of the attack.

I will write more later. Working on a Flemish keyboard at the moment. My internet connection is down.

“I firmly believe that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened,” LaSalle Parish District Atty. Reed Walters told a nationally televised press conference.

When a black Jena pastor attending the press conference called it a “shame” that the prosecutor was crediting divine intervention for the orderly behavior of the demonstrators, Walters, who is white, said: “What I’m saying is, the Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly.” Teen in Jena case gets out of jail, Howard Witt, Chicago Tribune

No way dedication to justice, restraint and discipline could have played a roll. No sirree, Bob. That’s right Mr. Walters, remind your base to be afraid of “those people,” tell them that what they saw on that awesome day a week ago was a mirage whipped up by the Lord Himself. Afterall, only the Lord could suppress the savage and destructive urges of “those people.” African American human beings, united for a cause, could have never pulled off anything so grand on their own.

This man is the District Attorney of LaSalle Parish. I can’t wrap my mind around it. Sorry, I just can’t.

Now, the New York Times has given Jena district attorney Reed Walters a global platform to make his case without the slightest challenge. And while on this platform, Walters ignores some very important facts about this situation:

People are learning that the LaSalle Parish School Superintendent, Roy Breithaupt, called the noose hanging a childish prank and recommended the mildest of consequences–three days of in-school suspension.
People are learning that black students responded to Mr. Breithaupt’s announcement by staging a spontaneous lunch hour protest in the school square. Black students, led by a group of male athlestes, physically occupied the tree–claiming it as their own. (Thus far, no one in Jena has denied that the tree from which the nooses dangled provided shade for white shoulders only).

People are learning that high school officials responded to this legitimate and honorable protest by calling an emergency assembly in the school auditorium. Every police officer in town was asked to appear in full uniform. District Attorney, Reed Walters, looking cross and distracted, addressed the students.
Imagine a school auditorium in which the white students (in accordance with tradition) sit on one side of the aisle while the black students sit on the other side. Imagine the District Attorney directing his full attention to the black side of the room. Imagine Reed Walters zeroing in on the black male athletes who sparked the lunch hour protest. Now you’ve got a feel for the atmosphere.

Now, imagine Reed Walters waving a pen in the air with a dramatic flourish. “I can be your best friend or your worst enemy,” he tells the black students. The protests at the school have got to stop, he insists, and if they don’t, “With a stroke of my pen I can make your lives disappear.”

I am not repeating hearsay–Mr. Walters admitted to issuing this threat in the course of a mid-July hearing in the LaSalle Parish courtroom. He was angry with the black student protesters, he explained, because they were making a big fuss over nothing. He wanted the white and black students to “work things out on their own” without wasting his valuable time.

People are beginning to understand that Superintendent Roy Breithaupt could have foreclosed on months of outrage and protest simply by calling the noose incident a serious hate crime. That’s all the man had to do. He couldn’t do it.

People are beginning to understand that District Attorney Reed Walters could have defused the tense situation Mr. Breithaupt had created if he had told the student assembly that hate crimes would not be tolerated in LaSalle Parish. Had Walters waved his pen at the white side of the auditorium and issued a warning to the racist element within the student population, nothing would have remained for the kids to “work out on their own.”

But that’s just the problem: Mr. Breithaupt and Mr. Walters didn’t see the noose incident as a hate crime. They didn’t see the hate behind the nooses because they couldn’t. As representatives of Jena’s power people, these men had to see the nooses as a silly prank; there was no no practical alternative. Friends of Justice-July 17, 2007

So, never mind warning students who had staged a peaceful protest under the “white tree” that he could erase their lives with the stroke of a pen, (which he admitted to saying during his recusal hearing); never mind charging black kids with attempted robbery after they disarmed a white kid who held a shotgun on them; never mind that Barker is widely reported to have hurled the N-word regarding the black kid who was beaten by a group a white men several days before. In that white on black attack, only one of the assailants was charged, with a misdemeanor.

No. Forget all that.

It is reprehensible that Barker was beaten by multiple people. Full stop. There should be punishment but what kind, how much and for whom?

Keep in mind that although six are charged, eyewitness statements contradict one another about how many people were involved in the actual fight. Now that the six have excellent legal counsel, I trust that all of this will come out in court.