You start by getting to know the kids in your neighborhood. Parents in the community can get together and sponsor something like a barbecue for the kids. Use this as a time to mix and mingle finding out their likes, dislikes, aspirations, etc. The key here is making it a point to know the kids in your area.

Another thing that can be done is spend some time volunteering with organizations that are reaching out to the kids in your community. When I lived in Atlanta, we were part of one of the largest churches in the city. Anyway, they put out a call for all the men to get involved in their mentorship program. Out of the hundreds that threw up their hands in support, only about 3 (including me) men showed up. Mind you, this was an organization that worked with hundreds of kids in the area. Mind you, this was an organization that worked with hundreds of kids in the area and at the time was largely staffed by women.

Yes, you do have your exceptions out there like 100 Black Men, Black fraternities/sororities, etc., but there is only but so much they can do. This is why the role of YOU, the individual is so key.

Growing up, my parents also took me on regular visits to see the elderly and prison inmates. Also, since my parents were Sunday school teachers, every Saturday was spent going to the homes of students checking up on them and getting to know the parents. To this very day, these kids (now adults) still remember my parents.

Lastly, you don’t fight crime by holding vigils, marches or any other event that basically amounts to a media grab. Crime is largely fought successfully by taking the time to know these individuals and their families IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD. There are kids (now adults) that I can point to now that were prone to find trouble, but are now either happily married or responsible adults partly because I spent time with them.

Jena may have been the beginning of awareness for some so don’t knock what happened and what people took a stand for. Maybe this one thing will opened the eyes if those who are NOT AWARE!

Lastly, I never knocked what happened in Jena (if you would have read anything else I have wrote on it, you will see that I supported it). Also, I don’t buy the ‘I’m not aware what goes on in my own city’ line. You have local television, the Internet, local newspapers, and most importantly REAL PEOPLE to inform you on what goes on in your city. All it took for you is one headline about Jena and you were on the fastest thing moving towards Louisiana.

Jena may have been the beginning of awareness for some so don’t knock what happened and what people took a stand for. Maybe this one thing will opened the eyes if those who are NOT AWARE!

Three months prior to that attack, Bell committed two violent crimes while on probation for a Christmas Day battery in 2005, according to testimony. Later that same week, he led the Jena Giants to a shutout victory in a football game against the Buckeye Panthers.

Bell was adjudicated — the juvenile equivalent to a conviction — of battery on Sept. 2 and criminal damage to property on Sept. 3, said Cynthia Bradford, LaSalle Parish deputy clerk.

A few days later, on Sept. 8, Bell rushed 12 times for 108 yards and scored three touchdowns — one of the best performances of the year for the standout athlete.”

http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070825/NEWS01/708250317/1002

“While it’s undisputed that Mychal Bell was an honor roll student, it is now also proved that he had a criminal record, including violent crimes, starting two years before the Justin Barker beating.

Battery – 12/25/2005

Criminal damage to property – 7/25/2006

Battery – 9/2006

Criminal damage to property – 9/2006

This explains the fact that Bell’s bail was much higher than the others.”

http://pursuingholiness.com/2007/08/28/the-jena-6-mychal-bells-criminal-history/

“As expected, the media picks up Mychal Bell’s juvenile history to distract from the nooses hanging from the “white” tree and the punishments applied to the black students and no punishment for the white students.

Prosecutor: “Jena Six” defendant had four juvenile convictions

8/25/2007, 6:36 p.m. CDT

The Associated Press

JENA, La. (AP) — The teenager convicted of beating a student at Jena High School in December 2006 had been convicted as a juvenile for attacking someone a year earlier, then committed three more crimes while on probation for that one, prosecutors say.

That makes Mychal Bell’s aggravated second-degree battery conviction his fifth conviction for a violent crime, state District Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. said Friday.

Because of that record, the judge said, he will not reduce the $90,000 bond he set for Mychal Bell, one of six black students arrested in the attack which left a white student bleeding and unconscious.”

http://www.vanessabyers.net/video/index.html

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Three months prior to that attack, Bell committed two violent crimes while on probation for a Christmas Day battery in 2005, according to testimony. Later that same week, he led the Jena Giants to a shutout victory in a football game against the Buckeye Panthers.

Bell was adjudicated — the juvenile equivalent to a conviction — of battery on Sept. 2 and criminal damage to property on Sept. 3, said Cynthia Bradford, LaSalle Parish deputy clerk.

A few days later, on Sept. 8, Bell rushed 12 times for 108 yards and scored three touchdowns — one of the best performances of the year for the standout athlete.”

http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070825/NEWS01/708250317/1002

“While it’s undisputed that Mychal Bell was an honor roll student, it is now also proved that he had a criminal record, including violent crimes, starting two years before the Justin Barker beating.

Battery – 12/25/2005

Criminal damage to property – 7/25/2006

Battery – 9/2006

Criminal damage to property – 9/2006

This explains the fact that Bell’s bail was much higher than the others.”

http://pursuingholiness.com/2007/08/28/the-jena-6-mychal-bells-criminal-history/

“As expected, the media picks up Mychal Bell’s juvenile history to distract from the nooses hanging from the “white” tree and the punishments applied to the black students and no punishment for the white students.

Prosecutor: “Jena Six” defendant had four juvenile convictions

8/25/2007, 6:36 p.m. CDT

The Associated Press

JENA, La. (AP) — The teenager convicted of beating a student at Jena High School in December 2006 had been convicted as a juvenile for attacking someone a year earlier, then committed three more crimes while on probation for that one, prosecutors say.

That makes Mychal Bell’s aggravated second-degree battery conviction his fifth conviction for a violent crime, state District Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. said Friday.

Because of that record, the judge said, he will not reduce the $90,000 bond he set for Mychal Bell, one of six black students arrested in the attack which left a white student bleeding and unconscious.”

http://www.vanessabyers.net/video/index.html

`

I give you this much, at least you did not hide your true racist feelings behind a lil’ ol’ march.

Who said that you should stop? Did you read my post on the blogswarm?

unsolved murder rates being sky high in atlanta (or philly, or anywhere else) doesn’t negate the fact that injustice does actually happen in america and that it is actually racially provoked a lot of the time.

Again, this is not about negation, but consistency. You cannot cry, march and hold vigils when a White person offends a black person while not being just as angry and emotional (I’ll say that again–”just as angry and emotional”) when it happens everyday at the hands of some Black kid shooting another Black kid.

I just heard today that there are some Black folks out there who are wearing Black today in support of the Jena 6. When was the last time such a thing was done for folks that were killed just in Philly last week? Where is the freakin’ solidarity for those folks, or is this some unspoken outrage trapped in some dark corner of the blogosphere?

The truth here is that you hold White folks at a much higher standard when executing the law than you do your own (which explains all the silence on cities like Atlanta and Philly which are governed by Blacks). If this is tiring to you, then I think there is nothing more to be said.

a lot of us do. but does that mean we should stop making our voices heard in regards to the cases that grab media attention? no– just the opposite…

sometimes you look hard for reasons to go against the grain, good or bad, right or wrong. unsolved murder rates being sky high in atlanta (or philly, or anywhere else) doesn’t negate the fact that injustice does actually happen in america and that it is actually racially provoked a lot of the time.

your constant crusade to prove otherwise is tiring and at times counterproductive.

it’s best if i just stop participating.

bless.

No More Nooses: Thousands Storm Louisiana Town to Free Jena 6

http://diversityinc.com/public/2476.cfm

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You’re a broken record…

I think people are focusing on the nooses too much. The injustice of being tried as an adult on attempted murder charges for a fight is enough. Especially when white students in similar situations were not charged.

It is racism if this Bell Negroe got slaps on the knuckles for beating up black folk (conjecture, for we know not what his two previous battery convictions as a juvenile were for) and then thrown under the jail for participating in the beating of a white individual.

“The judge has refused to lower his $90,000 bail, citing Bell’s criminal record, which includes four juvenile offenses — two simple battery charges among them.”

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/ 0…=rss_topstories

Lady what is your husband’s name? He ain’t my husband, he my baby daddy.

To hades with these baby daddy Negroes, purge them from our mist.

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