BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
Jena Drug Raid: Looks Like We’re Gonna Have To Go Back
May 26th, 2010
Classic style false drug raid conducted against Jena’s small Black community in apparent revenge for Jena 6 protest.
One love to the JesseMuhammad blog for sending us drum beats on this one via twitter.
Jordan Flaherty, an independent [and for what it's worth, white] journalist who was on the front line of helping break the Jena 6 story in 2007 with web articles and video; now brings us the story of last summer’s evidence-less drug raid on Jena’s tiny Black community.
Jena Sheriff Scott Franklin
By Jordan Flaherty
Posted: May 13, 2010 03:22 PMJena Sheriff Seeks Revenge for Civil Rights Protests
At 4 am on July 9 of last year, more than 150 officers from ten different agencies gathered in a large barn just outside Jena, Louisiana. The day was the culmination of an investigation that LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin said had been going on for nearly two years. Local media was invited, and a video of the sheriff speaking to the rowdy gathering would later appear online.
The sheriff called the mobilization “Operation Third Option,” and he said it was about fighting drugs. However, community members say that Sheriff Franklin’s actions are part of an orchestrated revenge for the local civil rights protests that won freedom for six Black high school students — known internationally as the Jena Six — who had been charged with attempted murder for a school fight.
One thing is clear: the sheriff spent massive resources; yet officers seized no contraband. Together with District Attorney Reed Walters, Sheriff Franklin has said he is seeking maximum penalties for people charged with small-time offenses. Further, in a parish that is eighty-five percent white, his actions have almost exclusively targeted African Americans. In a town with just over three hundred Black residents, he sent his 150 officers only into the town’s Black neighborhood.
Downtown Baghdad
According to a report from Alexandria’s Town Talk newspaper, LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin prepared the assembled crowd for a violent day. “This is serious business what we’re fixing to do,” said Sheriff Franklin. “If you think this is a training exercise or if you think these are good old boys from redneck country and we’re just going to good-old-boy them into handcuffs, you’re wrong. These people have nothing to lose. And they know the stakes are high.”
“It’s going to be like Baghdad out in this community at five am,” he continued dramatically, explaining that their target was 37-year-old Darren DeWayne Brown, who owns a barbershop — one of the only Black-owned businesses in town — and his “lieutenants,” who Franklin said supplied eighty percent of the narcotics for three parishes. “Let me put it to you this way,” declared the sheriff, “When the man says, ‘We don’t sell dope today,’ dope won’t get sold.”
Sheriff Franklin said that option one is for drug dealers and users to quit, option two is to move, and option three is to spend the rest of their lives in prison. And this day was all about option three. “They will get put in handcuffs, put behind bars today and never see the light of day again unless they are going out on the playground in prison,” he boasted…
Virtually all evidence in the cases comes from the testimony of twenty-three-year-old Evan Brown of Jena, who also wore a hidden camera during the investigation that parish officials have said provides powerful visual evidence. “We’re completely satisfied with the results,” said LaSalle Sheriff’s Department Narcotic Chief Robert Terral, who refused further comment on the operation.
“It’s going to be like Baghdad out in this community at five am,” he continued dramatically, explaining that their target was 37-year-old Darren DeWayne Brown, who owns a barbershop — one of the only Black-owned businesses in town — and his “lieutenants,” who Franklin said supplied eighty percent of the narcotics for three parishes. “Let me put it to you this way,” declared the sheriff, “When the man says, ‘We don’t sell dope today,’ dope won’t get sold.”
Unbelievable! Looks like were going to have to go back to Jena.
These trumped up drug raids, based on little to no evidence, and usual on the word of a single snitch is an un-talked about abuse of power epidemic.
How are we just now hearing about this? Why did they not reach out to those of us who helped last time. Hmm, wondering if they’re not wanting outside help, again. They were all thanking us for coming when we were at the march; and talk to Michael Bell on the phone last year he expressed gratitude for our assistance.
Maybe they feel that those activities three years ago having caused this act of revenge now, has now turned out to be more harm than good. I don’t know. I would submit that again with exaggerated ridiculously high bail, and the cost of lawyers; at they least they would need the financial resources that we brought to bear before, and could bring again; even if there is not physical protest in Jena. In which case we would probably need to defer to the consensus view of Jena’s Black community on that, or maybe just to the views of the defendants in this drug raid case.
I know that the protest was powerful, though. We were 30,000 deep down there last time. Blanketed the whole city; it was something beautiful to behold.
Tens of thousands of dollars were. I know my donation went to Michael Bell’s lawyer, because though I donated it through a local business man who was doing a collection at the march, I got a receipt in the mail from the lawyer’s office about a month later.
I also helped raise money here in Nashville before I went.
I’m going to call Mychal Bell or his mom in the next few days and see if I can’t find out more about what’s going on. Hope their numbers haven’t changed; it’s been about a years since I lasted talked to them.
When I was talking to Mychal Bell last spring, he expressed nothing but gratitude for our assistance.
posted in Action Alert, News & Events, Racial Injustice | | | View blog reactions |
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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Maybe you should call Mychael Bell again. He just got arrested in a Barber Shop for assault last week. What a great service to the public you did by helping free this punk! On top of punching a 17 year old girl in the face, where he was charged with 2nd degree assault BEFORE the school beating of Barker, Mr. Bell has now been arrested for assault a total of 5 times, as well as being arrested for shoplifting and resisting arrest. This kid even had his shoplifting charges dropped because they were his 1st official charges as an adult-so he has had MULTIPLE second chances now. All this kid has learned in life is that it’s ok to assault people because in the end, nothing happens. There are no consequences. When he kills someone, I think everyone who donated money to free this idiot should be charged as an accomplice. You are complicit.