I read on Dallas South Blog last night that Mychal Bell had been arrested for shoplifting, then this morning I read that he had shot himself in the chest. UPDATE: CNN is saying he shot himself in the shoulder.
Mychal Bell was cleaning a gun when it accidentally discharged, shooting him in the shoulder, his attorney, Carol Powell-Lexing, told CNN. He had surgery Monday night at a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana, and has not yet been able to talk, she said. CNN.com
His lawyer is saying it was an accidental shooting WHILE HE WAS CLEANING HIS GUN.
Sandra Rose is calling it a suicide attempt:
A misguided youth who found himself in the national spotlight as a kind of poster boy for teen justice, is in trouble again.
Mychal Bell was the ringleader for the so-called ‘Jena 6′, a gang of black toughs out of Jena, Louisiana who some thought were unjustly incarcerated for beating another boy within an inch of his life.
Police say Bell shot himself in the chest yesterday after getting caught shoplifting on Christmas eve.Doctors who treated bell say the wound is not life-threatening. Bell had surgery last night to remove the bullet.
According to Bell’s lawyer, the shooting was accidental and occurred when the 18-year-old was cleaning his gun. The lawyer didn’t say why a convicted felon was handling a gun Sandra Rose
I am leaning towards cry for help as opposed to suicide attempt because the wound was to the shoulder and not the head. Maybe he did shoot himself while cleaning his gun, but I am trying to figure out why you would point a loaded gun at your chest while cleaning it. But then again Plexico pointed a loaded gun at his leg while clubbing.
Shawn P WIlliams from the Dallas South Blog, soon to be Dallas South Media was lamenting the fact that people will use Bell’s latest string of trouble to somehow detract from the what Shawn and other bloggers did in the Jena 6 case.
This continues a sad story that has followed one of the biggest civil rights actions in recent memory. Money squabbles and run ins with the law give more ammunition to those who questioned the protests -and the vigorous defense of the Jena 6- in the first place. It’s another example of how our follow through on civil rights issues is sorely lacking.
I will repeate what I told him here.
Actually Shawn it is not sad. It is a learning lesson. The people were marching for the 8th amendment not individuals, but it is common in our community to mistake battles over a principle with battles for a personality. This is why plaintiffs were carefully vetted during the civil rights movement before Houston and Marshall and company would take up their case. They never wanted individual failings to get in the way of the overall cause.
The civil rights issue was addressed. Civil Rights isn’t social work. You saved them from an attempted murder charge. You did your duty.
Everybody isn’t ready for the bright glare of national media attention. Few people are, let alone a troubled teen who was already in the “system” before all of this started.
Again, I will repeat, the Constitution applies to good actors, but it most certainly applies to bad actors. Therefore you don’t have to minimize people’s bad acts in order to demand their rights under the Constitution. Where a lot of people went wrong was in trying to turn the Jena 6 into choir boys which they never were. The issue should never have been of their innocence or diminishing the severity of what they did to their classmate, but about the fact that even if they WERE guilty of a bad act, they were still entitled to the protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Same thing with Genarlow Wilson, he’s no choir boy. He’s a predator, but even predators are entitled to the protections of the Constitution. If you believed Bell’s Constitutional rights were violated, then you were right to march, the fact that he appears to be a habitual offender doesn’t change that. Chalk all this up to a learning lesson. In addition, its almost 2009, y’all got to let 2007 rest. It was a great thing, but keep moving.
27 comments ↓
Al, Jesse,Mike Baisden provided no mentorship or looked after them after this case after they came to the Jena 6 cause all late and grabbed all the media attention?
Tell Jesse to get these boys some jobs at his Budwiser plant
I agree that the above did not do any follow up. In fact, Bell’s father says he has not heard a thing from them since they left Jena. Now, Brandon McClelland, a 24 year old black man has been drug to death by two white “friends” and no one from the “civil rights” industry has been to Paris, Texas to even say sorry for your loss. This Bell boy is on his way to prision, no doubt about it. I guess Baisden et.al will now protest that his shop lifting was not his fault. I am black man and the different treatment makes me sick.
http://www.lonestarpowerpages.com/nov-9-2008—top-story.html
Uh, isn’t this young man on probation? What’s he doing with a gun, loaded or otherwise?
Black activist need to take a page from the ACLU. The ACLU rarely fights personalties, but issues. They have regularly defended some of the most repugnant characters , readily admitted their repugnance and pointed the case wasn’t about the person but the issue.
Jena was about the the issue..and in the interim they tried to turn the boys into poster boys of the New Civil Rights Movement.
ANd when they turned out to not be the choir boys they never were…folk want to complain.
It’s a mess.
And I actually feel bad for the boys.
this is sad indeed. their parents provided no leadership. We as black are quick to run to defense of blackmen which is great but we need to see the full picture and what it is we are defending.
I’m sorry but Jena is further evidence of the corruption of the Civil Rights movement, which has now turned into a bisiness. While I don’t deny the presence of prosecutorial overreach, Jena did not warrant the resulting massive mobilization. Jena stands alongside the perverted circuses that surrounded Dunbar Village and the Duke Rape case.
Additionally, I really don’t have a problem with ignoring the fates of the Jena scum. It was completely hypocritical for the black political mainstream to devote as many resources as they did while black folks were suffering the ghetto tyranny that comes at the hands of people just like the Jena defendants.
This could justifiably have been one of those instances that fell through the cracks.
He is an 18-year-old cleaning his gun? Don’t you have to be at least 25 to own a gun?
I don’t understand how the failings of an individual can be blamed on the civil rights movement. Mychal is an imperfect human being, but the issue of fair treatment in the justice system still hasn’t changed. Demanding that “poster children” be free from all blemish is unrealistic in my opinion…but then again, i agree that no mentoring, no job offers, no college help was forthcoming from all the spotlight chasers…
I blogged on this by analogizing it to family: just like we can’t choose our families, apparently we can’t choose our rallying points. For every Rosa Parks, they’re a dozen knuckleheaded kids like this one. He was a symbol, nothing more, and what needed to be done was done. But holding him up as some sort of hero was never my thing. Now he’s basically undermined everything. Of course, is that jesse or Tom Joyner’s fault? No. If he and his parents can’t team up to plan a regular life, then to hell with them.
As a Black Conservative Minister, I am tired of those in our community that justify criminal behavior. When will we learn to take moral responsibility for our behavior? We keep the negative stereotyping alive by constantly glorifying thuggish ghetto behaviors in our culture. It is unacceptable! Where is Sharpton now? Out chasing the next photo-opt for himself! These kids need help and self-discipline. I blame the parents for these foolishness.
It’s time to straighten up Black America!
P.S.
I’m Black and No “Tom”
For every Rosa Parks, they’re a dozen knuckleheaded kids like this one.
Yeah, but back in the day, the community didn’t organize around knuckleheads, they vetted their causes and you had to be above reproach and have the character to endure the attention that came with the cause. Rosa Parks was not the first choice to sit down on that bus. The first choice got pregnant and Rosa was next in line.
Kinda like Rodney King…
“Additionally, I really don’t have a problem with ignoring the fates of the Jena scum. It was completely hypocritical for the black political mainstream to devote as many resources as they did while black folks were suffering the ghetto tyranny that comes at the hands of people just like the Jena defendants.”
thank you, thank you, i COMPLETELY agree with you on this and have nothing else to add. well, actually, i want to add i was baffled from the get go why there were so many seas of black people (on tv, huffing and puffing) protesting on behalf of these hoodlums (sp???). there was more outrage towards what happened to the jena 6 than what happened to Megan Williams. the black community is really sick when you consider how there was barely any outcry for Megan but rallys/demonstrations for the jena hoodlum 6. really sick and almost evil if you ask me how they neglect black women
Glad to see people are able to get past the superficial distractions the media puts up and discuss the real issues.
Mary, there is a sickness in our popular culture and few people want to talk about it. In my estimation, it is an Uncle Tom-like self hatred that imbues the entire civil rights establishment. Whether its Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Michael Eric Dyson, Cornel West, or the NAACP, they all share one thing in common: the lives and existence of black folks have no validity where black on black victimization is concerned unless, somehow, white people can be attributed with some sort of culpability.
Civil Rights philosophy was a miserable failure in that it placed more emphasis on what white people do to black folks and not what black folks NEED to do for themselves. Yeah, I said that. The fact that WE rally around the very thugs and miscreants that terrorize our neighborhoods shows how morally bankrupt the Civil Rights Establishment is. Think about those pitbulls raised to be vicious and terrifying (Michael Vick). Think about those low class ghetto hoochies (Crystal Mangum). Think about black males that victimize black women (Dunbar Village). Think about the countless victims of black on black dysfunction (there isn’t enough space to list their names). And when people try to call attention to this, they are attacked. Its pathetic when morons like Michael Eric Dyson enforce the unwritten edict about not “talking about our dirty laundry” in public so as to preserve the the privelidge and status of the Afristocratic political structure of victimology that only serves to provide the Civil Rights industry with wealth and status. They are the real Uncle Toms and Aunt Sarahs.
I think the nasty fight over money that is going on between the offspring of Martin Luther King is a metaphor for what the Civil Rights movement is all about. And if you notice, I never mentioned anything about Jesse’s illegitimate child.
Khadija of Muslim Bushido posted an excellent piece that relates to this “Table Talk for Activists, Part 1: Support Principles, NOT Individuals” (http://muslimbushido.blogspot.com/2008/12/table-talk-for-activists-part-1-support.html). We’ve absolutely got to learn to keep our eyes on the principle and not the individuals who sometimes actually get in the way.
“Afristocratic”
OH AL! That’s myr WORD for 2009!!!! Afristocracy! I love it. Black Elite Establishment take a bow to Afristocracy.
@clara these are real issues. Principle vs personality is a real issue
There is a typo in the first paragraph.
“UPDATE: CNN is saying he shop himself in the shoulder.”
You have the word Shop instead of Shot.
Just thought I would bring it to your attention.
Original Wombman, I agree
Yes, Mychal has problems, but that does not make him unworthy of equal justice.
*sigh*
When will these men and others like them be forced to take responsibility for their continued practice of poor decision making?
For once I would like to see or read about men that admit “I was wrong”, “I made a mistake”, “I did it” and I’m sorry…
No instead, too many people believe that someone else is to blame. Or someone else should help them out. Too many excuses. If you continue to do wrong, engage and practice criminal activities, ignore guidance, education, and working hard in life then you deserve the penalities and/or punishments that result.
NEXT!!
“Support Principles, NOT Individuals” Great point.
This young man needs some help and mentorship
Al from Bay Shore – I love you man!!
Civil Rights “philosophy” was not a miserable failure. Beware of the revisionists who want to denigrate your culture, and your heroes. Obfuscating the truth while ridiculing the historical phenomena that broadened the definition of what it means to be an american for the entire country is a sure sign of a mindless self-hating drone.
@SjP
Rodney King came to my mind also. At some point, I was tired of seeing Rodney King pop up. Add OJ to that list, also.
I’m sorry the young man shot himself. I don’t know how or why. Cleaning a loaded gun??? Where were his parents? How old is this kid?
Where is the back story? What kind of gun was he cleaning? Where was he cleaning the gun? He was cleaning a gun the day after he was arrested for shoplifting?
In my father’s house, this wouldn’t be called a cry for help, it would be called a cry for a strategically placed belt on his backside. (also known as the board of education on the seat of understanding)
Mychal Bell Suicide Attempt: He’s Going Through Difficult Time
by Brian A. Wilkins
1/1/09
This is an excerpt from a blog entry on Operation-nation.com. To read the rest, go to:
http://blog.operation-nation.com/2009/01/01/mychal-bell-going-through-difficult-time.aspx
CNN, the perceived “mainstream” standard in journalism, called Mr. Bell “Jena 6 Figure” instead of humanizing the young man. FOXNews played the “black athlete” card, trying to make Mr. Bell’s story out to be the typical Euro-media, “Black Athlete Rises From The Ghetto” story. Both, however, barely acknowledge the fact this young man had to spend 10 months in a Confederate prison, which likely scarred him mentally and physically, for life, because of inbred prosecutors and Confederate law practices. If I think “55 Days In Maricopa County Jail” was bad, what Mr. Bell is going through is something I likely would not have lived to see.
Have people forgotten what most of us where like as older teens? What is this “vet” stuff? Jesus said whoever is perfect cast the first stone. We should focus more on mentoring, and getting jobs, to this horribly abused young man — not talk about “vetting” him. What, we only want to help perfect (undoubtedly middle-class) people now? Remember Colvin and Rosa Parks…