Al Sharpton Backs Wrong Horse Again, Jena 6 Defendant

Turns out that one of the Jena defendants they supported has been getting into trouble since. Perhaps claims by Jena folk that there were many sides to the story might well have been the case. It seems so, if Mychal Bell is an example. He was one of the six African American male youth convicted of beating up Justin Barker, a white boy, following a series of racially-charged incidents that followed the noose hanging. Bell was later portrayed by Sharpton as a mostly- innocent young man who happened to respond angrily with the other young men because of the symbol of those nooses. At the end of 2008 Bell is in the news again,in Louisiana, but no fanfare like the kind when the nooses were hung over the tree and Bell and his buddies were front page news and the talk of television following the incident over the nooses. Bell was picked up following a shoplifting incident that happened the day before Christmas. He took items from a store in a shopping center in Alexandria, then fled and was apprehended. On Monday he shot himself in the chest. He had been out on a $1300 bond at the time. Reports are that his self-inflicted gunshot wounds are superficial. Bell was one of a number of African American teens who were charged and convicted of beating a young white boy after seeing the nooses hung over a tree where primarily white students normally sat in the yard of a high school in Jena, Louisiana. I was around at the time of the incident and was on my way to cover the demonstrations taking place in Jena, Louisiana in 2007. I had trouble with my car and had to turn around, but many of my friends participated in the demonstrations. In this area of the country it was civil rights marches all over again. The town of Jena filled up with protestors, and all over the State of Louisiana there were marches and protests about the nooses. Furthermore there were copycat instances in other parts of the country. Perhaps it was lucky that I wasn’t able to go because the follow up hasn’t been pleasant. Now one of the young men who brought Al Sharpton to town is in the news again, this time for behavior that demonstrates that Bell may have had problems, as had been discussed by school officials, prior to the noose incident. The rush-to-judgment response from the public perhaps needs a second look given the fact that Bell continues to be in the headlines for offensive behavior. Al Sharpton was seen on television immediately after the noose incident and the judge’s decision to give the young African American youth harsh sentences for the beating of Justin Barker. He was quick to denounce the town, the administration of the school, and the town officials for what had happened to the young men. Following Sharpton’s high profile visit, the lads’ sentences were reduced. But this wasn’t the first time Al Sharpton may have backed the wrong horse. In 1987, a 15-year-old black girl named Tawana Brawley was missing and when found four days later had dog feces and racial slurs on her body that she claimed she received when she was accosted by a group of white men, one wearing a badge. Brawley maintained that she had been raped by these men. Sharpton immediately became involved, and when Brawley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, he backed her up stating that would be like "asking someone who watched someone killed in the gas chamber to sit down with Mr. Hitler." As related by Slate.com, Sharpton and Brawley's lawyers maintained that a local prosecutor named Steven Pagones "had kidnapped, abused and raped" Brawley and that he had abused her before on more than 30 separate occasions. Because there was no evidence against him, Pagones was found innocent. But that did not conclude the case. After Pagones was cleared of any wrongdoing, Sharpton found others to blame. He asserted that there was a local police cult with close association with the Irish Republican Army that had perpetrated the assault against Brawley. The case disintegrated when a security guard for one of Brawley’s lawyers reported that Sharpton and the lawyers were aware that Brawley was lying. After a grand jury’s investigation was completed in 1988, it was determined that Brawley had not been assaulted and that the entire happening had been a hoax. Pagones was awarded $65,000 from a defamation suit against Sharpton. The episode has been examined by Court TV Online revealing the details of the case, its outcome and Sharpton’s involvement Despite these types of incidents, Al Sharpton became the media darling and spokesperson for the African American community, often appearing on television to render his opinion about issues in the African American community. This wasn't something many African Americans supported, like Randy Stelly, a Creole man, who abhors Sharpton's practices. These days the community of African Americans, at least in Natchitoches, Louisiana, a town 70 miles from Jena, believes it is better represented in the person of Barack Obama. In the meantime, given what happened with Michael Bell and Tawana Brawley, it may be that Al Sharpton will be taking a longer look than he has previously done getting involved in another high profile case where all the facts and the behavior of the principals aren’t known.