Jena All Over Again

photo © 2006 James McCauley | more info (via: Wylio)
No evidence. People locked away for life. Over drugs. But no evidence. Air and ground raids.

"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."

No evidence. Sunrise raid.

LaSalle Parish is a politically conservative enclave located in northwest Louisiana. Former Klansman David Duke received a solid majority of local votes when he ran for governor in 1991 -- in fact, he received a higher percentage of votes in LaSalle Parish than in any other part of the state.

The only witness is a criminal. Locked away for life.

photo © 2008 smlp.co.uk | more info (via: Wylio)

The Parish became famous in 2007 for the case of the Jena Six. In demonstrations that were called the birth of a 21st-century civil rights movement, an estimated 50,000 people marched in Jena -- nearly twenty times the population of the town. They were protesting a pattern of systemic racism and discriminatory prosecutions. All six youths, who once faced life in prison, are now either enrolled in college or are on their way.

Pointing guns at children and threatening them. All white juries for nearly all-black defendents.

The Sheriff told the Jena Times that he began preparing for Operation Third Option in November of 2007, less than two months after the historic protests. The raid occurred just a few weeks after the Jena Six cases were finally settled.

Racial retaliation for Jena Six trials. Activist started as a result of Jena Six trials.

Catrina Wallace, 29, was sleeping in her bed with her youngest child when her door was broken down and she awoke to the feeling of a gun to her head. When she opened her eyes, her small home was filled with police. "I never seen that many police at one time," she recalled. "Everywhere I looked all I saw was police. There were six or seven just in my bedroom." She says police pointed guns at her small children and wouldn't let her comfort them.

Locked away for life. No evidence, except for the color of their skin.