The Jena Six

Here's a good column about the Jena Six controversy in Louisiana.

No comment from me on this one, just read it it, it's good.

Now, here's a news update on the matter.

And on this one, I do have a comment. The 2nd piece, from WAVY-TV, ends with this line:

"If they can't get justice in Jena the protesters tell me the Capitol will hear their cries. "

Justice?

To me, "justice" is when wrongdoers are punished under the law.

No, the Jena rallies aren't about justice. The Jena rallies aren't about fairness.

The Jena rallies are about a segment of America that refuses to live by the same rules as the rest of America, and about those who enable -- and even encourage -- that disregard for law.

It's pretty straightforward -- 6 people beat up 1 other person. That's illegal. To me, race plays no part in this, other than the role that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton -- two guys deathly afraid of having to find real jobs -- create for it by exploiting ignorance and shameful behavior.

A 6-on-1 fight isn't a fight, it's a beating. In the Jena case the crime was racially motivated, and even though I'm not too find of hate-crime legislation, crimes like this are exactly what those hate-crime laws are supposed to be about.

Finally, I'm really sick of hearing people invoke the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King fought to have men judged by their character, not the color of their skin, and that's what we should do. The only way American society can stop from going the rest of the way down the toilet is for people to stop looking at crime, and criminals, in terms of race, and judge those people's actions.