LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of people
rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday to protest the treatment of six
African-American teenagers accused of assaulting a white classmate.
Meanwhile, about 200 students walked out of a high
school in the city to show support for the so-called "Jena 6".
The march in downtown was peaceful and there were no
problems, police officer Karen Smith said.
Other marches and rallies in the Los Angeles area are
scheduled for Thursday afternoon and night.
The marchers condemned what happened in Jena,
Louisiana as symptomatic of a racist justice system.
"There is still an undercurrent of racism in this
nation," said march organizer Steven Webb. "Jena 6 could be the Jena 100 or the
Jena 1,000. What about the thousands of African Americans who are jailed and who
are not given a voice?"
"This kind of injustice happens too many times to
black youth," said march organizer Tony Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. "You
never read about white teenagers tried as adults."
Last year, six black high school students in Jena
were initially charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating a white
classmate. The white student was knocked unconscious but able to attend a school
function later that night.
The charges were later reduced to battery for five of
the students and the sixth was charged as a juvenile.
One of the students, Mychal Bell, was convicted of
aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in
prison, but the conviction was overturned last week by a state appeals court
that ruled he should have been tried as an adult.
The six teens were charged months after prosecutors
declined to charge three white high school students who hung nooses from a tree.
The school's principal recommended the students be
expelled, but the school's superintendent overruled the recommendation and the
punishment was reduced to three days of in-school suspension.
District Attorney Reed Walters Wednesday denied that
racism was involved in the prosecution of either case.
He said the noose incident was a "villainous act,"
but that he could find no Louisiana law under which to charge them criminally.
As for the beating case, he said four of the teens
were adults under Louisiana law and that the sixth named Bell had a prior
criminal record.
"This case has been portrayed by the news media as
being about race," he said. "And the fact that it takes place in a small
southern town lends itself to that portrayal. But it is not and never has been
about race. It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding
people accountable for their actions."
The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, along with
thousands of mostly black college students, descended on the Louisiana town of
3,500 on what was supposed to be sentencing day for Bell.
Although the conviction was overturned, organizers
decided to go ahead with the rally.
Protesters have been calling the furor over the case
the start of a 21st century version of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
In other local reaction to the Louisiana case,
community activist Eddie Jones is calling on the Los Angeles and national media
to end what he calls a "news blackout" of the Jena 6 case and "give the case the
same intense coverage that it gave and gives the (O.J.) Simpson case."
Later Thursday afternoon, Earl Ofari Hutchinson of
the Los Angeles Urban Police Roundtable will hold a news conference and rally to
announce a donation to the Jena 6 Legal Defense Fund and challenge other civil
rights organizations to match the donation.
On Thursday evening, Community Coalition and Project
Islamic Hope will host a teach-in and candlelight vigil for the Jena 6 with
African American and Latino youth and community members.
Mass protest in U.S. town against
"unfairly" charges against six black teens
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A small town in Louisiana
witnessed an unprecedented crowded scene Thursday as thousands of people
gathered here to show their support to six black teenagers who were charged with
attempted murder of a white classmate.
Shown in the CNN footage, thousands of demonstrators
wearing in black converged on the local courthouse and a park and thousands more
marched on the streets, chanting "Free the Jena Six," "Black Power" and "No
justice, no peace." Full story
