Los Angeles, Sep 21 (Xinhua) Hundreds of people rallied in downtown Los Angeles to protest the alleged ill treatment of six African American teenagers who were accused of assaulting a white classmate.
The march Thursday in downtown Los Angeles was peaceful, said police officer Karen Smith.
The marchers condemned what happened in Jena, Louisiana, as symptomatic of a racist justice system.
“There is still an undercurrent of racism in this nation,” said Steven Webb, a march organizer. “The Jena Six could be the Jena 100 or the Jena 1,000. What about the thousands of African Americans who are jailed and who are not given a voice?”
“This kind of injustice happens too many times to the black youth,” said another march organizer Tony Muhammad. “You never read about white teenagers tried as adults.”
The racist tension in Jena was originated from August last year. A day after black students were allowed to sit under a tree where white students usually congregated, three white teens hung nooses in the tree, evoking a scene in which black people were punished in old south and were, however, let go without any charge.
The tension escalated on Dec 4, 2006 when six black high school students in Jena were initially charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating a white classmate. The white student was knocked unconscious but was able to attend a school function later that night.
The charges were later reduced to battery for five of the students and the sixth was charged as a juvenile delinquent.
District Attorney Reed Walters denied that racism was involved in the prosecution of either case.
He said the noose incident was a “villainous act,” but that he could find no Louisiana law under which to charge them criminally.
As for the beating case, he said four of the teens were adults under Louisiana law and that the sixth, Bell, had a prior criminal record.
Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, along with thousands of mostly black college students, descended on the Louisiana town of 3,500 on what was supposed to be the sentencing day for Bell. Although the conviction was overturned, organisers decided to go ahead with the rally.