March on DC
The National Action Network, led by Reverend Al Sharpton, is leading a march on the U.S. Justice Department in Washington today. This is in response to Jena-6 as well as to “hate crimes and noose hangings on the rise across the country”.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Sharpton said, “We feel that the federal government has failed to intervene in the cases of hate crimes — swastikas and nooses…Since the federal government won’t come to the people, we’re going to bring the people to the federal government.” The Reverend believes that the DOJ should have responded to the “hate crime” of nooses hanging in a tree at the school in Jena, Louisiana last December. The white students who did not want fellow black students to sit under the white students’ tree, hung nooses in it. Black students retaliated by attacking a white student. 5 of the six black students were charged with attempted second-degree murder. The white student is said to have been suspended prior to the attack. (Just in case you did not know what happened in Jena.)
Once again we find ourselves facing an issue that boils down to freedom of speech and expression. Should the Department of Justice charge the white students with a hate crime for hanging a noose in a tree? The black students had control of their actions, regardless of being provoked, but their freedom to sit under a tree was impeded by the white students. Should not then the white students be reprimanded for impeding on the freedom of another human being?
