Yet another update on the Jena 6

Of course Al Sharpton is on the bandwagon suddenly.

The thing that kills me about Sharpton is that he'll appear on Larry King Live in a cloud of righteous passion and indignation about the Jena 6, but he'll only tepidly chastise Michael Vick for torturing animals...in the form of a mild letter to Vick's sponsors. Interesting.

Now don't get me wrong - what's going on in Jena is horrible. And it's lopsided - the charges, I mean. 3 white students can hang nooses, but only get suspended. 6 black students send a bloodied white student who taunted them with racial epithets to the hospital, and it's attempted murder?

But if the U.S. Attorney is to believed, the noose incident and the beating of the white student are only tenuously linked.

I suppose I'm not sure what to think right now.

A commenter on CNN's story had this to say, and I think it's really interesting analysis of the underpinnings of this controversy:

"The student who recieved [sic] the beating was the victim, UNTIL the prosecutors in this case decided to victimize the 6 boys who committed this crime. Attempted murder? Assault with a deadly weapon (that weapon being a shoe)?

The boys should have been punished, instead they were turned into martyrs. The punishment needs to fit the crime, and if you think the punishment suggested fits this crime, you're out of touch with reality."