In a New York Times Op-Ed piece, Reed Walters, the Jean 6 DA, writes a justification for all of his actions in a sensitive tone in an attempt to appear reasonable, and I assume, not racist. Let us begin.

Reed Walters' Poison Pen

Before I get into what he wrote in the Times, lets talk about some things he said that aren't disputed. Walter read stood in front of some students in an assembly at school and told them “With one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear.” Many black students felt that remark was directed at them and reported that he was looking directly at them when he said it. However, regardless of which group of students his comment was directed at, he was still talking to HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS!!!! Before there was an incident worthy of national attention, he behaved in a way that is equal parts unprofessional and irresponsible. Furthermore, I believe his behavior played a role in escalating tensions surrounding the noose incident. I've heard the pen is mightier than the sword, but I'm saying though-this is incomprehensible.

In his Op Ed piece, Reed Walters wrote:

I do not question the sincerity or motivation of the 10,000 or more protesters who descended on Jena last week, after riding hundreds of miles on buses. But long before reaching our town of 3,000 people, they had decided that a miscarriage of justice was taking place here. Their anger at me was summed up by a woman who said, “If you can figure out how to make a schoolyard fight into an attempted murder charge, I’m sure you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime.”
That could be a compelling statement to someone trying to motivate listeners on a radio show, but as I am a lawyer obligated to enforce the laws of my state, it does not work for me.

Dangerous Sneakers
According to Louisiana Penal Code aggravated second degree battery charges specifically includes the use of a dangerous weapon.
I have read that the dangerous weapon he is alleging was used in this case was the student’s sneakers?!?! I guess that’s not a racist application of a law and its perfectly logical for us to assume that sneakers are deadly weapons when they are attached to these students’ black feet. I don’t have the data about how he has treated other cases, but I would be curious to know how many pairs of sneakers have been labeled dangerous weapons on white feet, hell, on any other feet. Sneakers are not deadly weapons no matter how you slice it, to charge the students in this way is immoral and inappropriate. If Reed Walters thinks overcharging to an admittedly lesser offense than Attempted Murder is appropriate, we can all see where his notions about fairness and justice will lead.

Schoolyard Fight?!?!

Last week, a reporter asked me whether, if I had it to do over, I would do anything differently. I didn’t think of it at the time, but the answer is yes. I would have done a better job of explaining that the offenses of Dec. 4, 2006, did not stem from a “schoolyard fight” as it has been commonly described in the news media and by critics.

Reed Walters' grand omission here is that he charged some teenagers who jumped another student, with second degree attempted murder. That he shows no contrition for such an excessive charge speaks volumes. Schoolyard fight, or bar room brawl, Second degree attempted murder charges for a fight are excessive.

Still I march on to the notion of whether the term 'school yard fight' is appropriate. It was a fight and it happened in a school yard, so that part is accurate. However, I think the true test in this is to think about how you would feel if your child had been beaten by several students and was unconscious, bloody and taken to a hospital in an ambulance. I would not characterize that as a schoolyard fight, so Reed Walters and I do agree on something.

Freedom or Justice?
As I have said to many a friend in response to the ridiculous hip hop ‘campaigns’ to free x rapper, or x rapper's weed carrier; calls for freedom are reserved for people who are falsely accused/imprisoned. While I think the Jena 6 have been overcharged, I haven't heard anyone claim that they have been falsely accused. What I want for the Jena 6 is justice. Freedom may be justice for all or some of them in this case, or it may not be, depending on the circumstances. The fact that the kids were over charged initially, and are still being overcharged, imo, does not mean they all ought to exonerated unconditionally. I am not certain about everything that happened, but, we do know that Justin Barker was beaten unconscious and lets assume that some or all of the students known as the Jena 6 were responsible. This incident is not something I would characterize as a schoolyard fight. When a kid is beaten unconscious and taken to the hospital in an ambulance, that is a serious matter. Yes, even if he was well enough to go to an event later that night, its still serious. I certainly would be taking it very seriously if a group of kids knocked my child unconscious. So lets establish that.

That the police were involved in a situation like this does not seem unusual or happening solely because the students were black. A kid gets beaten unconscious on school grounds, and has to leave in an ambulance, and several kids allegedly beat him, yes I would think anywhere in America, school administrators would call the police. So I think we have a situation where kids have taken some actions which have lead them into the arms of the criminal justice system and are now facing charges.

What kind of charges ought they face, if any, and what kind of sentence ought to be meted out if they are found guilty? I'd say they ought to get the same kind of justice that upper class white teens get when they do things they aren't supposed to do. I think thats a fair. way to go about evaluating the fairness in any case.I also think that our community needs to be more critical and strategic about when and how we respond to instances of alleged injustice. There are so many more egregious examples of injustice that are deserving of our outrage, that if we were on our jobs as community, I'm not sure we would have had time to focus on Jena so loudly. In fact, if we were really on our jobs, there might not have been a Jena 6 in the first place.

Labels: black community, criminal justice, Jena 6, New York Times, racism

Props to Nahright on letting me know about the story, but heres my take.

A small controversy turned into something major when Lupe Fiasco, performed in honor of A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ) recently at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors award show. In Lupe's cover of Electric Relaxation, Lupe messed up 2 bars of one of the verses. This only became a somewhat big deal because weeks prior to the awards show Lupe made it known that he wasnt a big fan of ATCQ growing up and wasnt familiar with it.

Well after the slip up, he defended himself by saying, rather obnoxiously, that he only did it because he was asked to by Q-Tip, the group's lead rapper. He also added in, that he still hadn't heard the Midnight Marauders album (which is considered by many to be ATCQ's best work, and one of the best hip hop albums of all time). Not only that, but ATCQ is held in nearly mythical status and is widely believed to be the second greatest hip hop group of all times (behind Wu-Tang). AND unfortunately for Lupe, his fanbase overlaps heavily with his because his music is so similar in so many ways to the kind of music ATCQ made, albeit much more ordinary, imho.

You can read more about the details of this whole saga here

What this got me thinking about was this is why hip hop sucks. Lupe Fiasco, who is so obviously operating in a space that wase created by ATCQ (regardless of whether he was personally influenced by them or not), is in essence refusing to listen to their work. This is a huge part of why Hip Hop in general and emceeing in particular is not growing. Lupe is not alone in thhis regard. Multi-Platinum selling artist The Game clumsily stumbled his way through a debut album name dropping albums, artists, executives, and their personal assistants, when he erroneously said this:

I woke up from a Coma in 2001/
the same time Dre dropped 2001/

The problem is, Dr. Dre didnt drop 2001 in 2001, he dropped it in 1999. And the problem with that is, The Game is from Los Angeles and this is DR. DRE we are talking about!! Whenever Dre drops an album, the earth stops spinning and the fighters in the middle east take a 2 week break from suicide bombs and straffing civilian buildings so they can digest the album Dre has put together. This is an album that sold 10 million copies worldwide, and he was put out on Dr. Dre's label for crying out loud!!!! This isn't so much an affront to Dre as it is an affront to the artform itself. An affront that no one but me and a few other purists care about. I take my craft seriously, and it bothers me that others, particularly those fortunate enough to be making a living from it, care very little about the art form.

Is there a Jazz Saxophonist of any stature who hasn't heard nearly every single note that Charlie Parker ever played? I doubt it. Why? Because Jazz is an art form where artists take their craft seriously and so do its listeners. Hip Hop is an art form, where all too often neither the artist, nor the teenage fans they are trying to win over, takes the art form seriously. These are problems inherent in the demographic that most hip hop targets and its also a problem in terms of what purpose hip hop is trying to serve. Jazz musicians want to be artists and want to make music that is respected as art. Rappers want to be rich and want to make music that makes them rich.

Did I mention that these labels and this industry seems wholly divorced from any understanding of what hip hop could be? I mean do all black people really sell crack or love Louis Vitton? I'm just saying. But most of these new 'artists' are not 'artists' at all, they are products, not even original products, just an old product with a new package and a new shape. I can't wait to take over hip hop.

Labels: A Tribe Called Quest, Art Form, Hip Hop, Jazz, Lupe Fiasco