Posted by
animalgirl on Thursday, September 20, 2007 5:13:09 PM
In E.L. Doctorow's opus, 'Ragtime,' (if you haven't read it, read it now), there is a character named Coalhouse Walker, a ragtime musician from Harlem around the turn of the century.
Driving through a small town, Coalhouse is stopped by a group of firemen jealous that a black man has a Model T. His car is vandalized. He insists on the damage being paid for. They laugh at him. He files a police report. The police tell him to go home. He tries to find a lawyer to sue, and no one will take his case. He becomes obsessed. Things spiral out of control, and horrific violence eventually erupts. And it is impossible to read the book and not have great sympathy for Coalhouse, and see how his frustration drove him mad.
Jena is a mostly white town, and white boys at the school carried on a campaign of harassment towards the few black kids at the school, even dictating where they could go and sit.
Hanging a noose from a tree to try to intimidate someone and control their behavior is absolutely a terroristic threat. It is a clear threat of bodily harm in order to control. In civil society, we cannot allow this kind of behavior.
The kids at this school were consistently engaged in this kind of behavior, and school behaviors and local law enforcement REFUSED to discipline them the way they should have. These are only kids. After dealing with months of aggravation and injustice, and watching other kids abuse them and get off scot-free, they snapped. And even then, they didn't even hurt the kid that badly--shoot, he got a bump on the head. A lot of boys wouldn't have even gone bawling to the police about something like that.
There should be punishment. We are not allowed to respond with violence, even when provoked. Coalhouse was punished. But when when a person is severely provoked, and the authorities will do nothing, I have sympathy for those who lose their patience.
It's unfortunate that in this day and age, people can still get away will abusing people for months on end with no succor from authorities. The reason we HAVE law enforcement is to prevent this kind of situation; so people will not have to take justice into their own hands. In Jena, law enforcement fell down on the job.