Dear Governor Blanco
After listening to a report on National Public Radio on July 30 about a case involving youngsters in the Jena area, I became appalled by one of Louisiana’s district attorneys, specifically Reed Walters of Jena.
NPR’s Wade Goodwyn reported on events that began to unfold last year at Jena High School, a school apparently plagued by racial tension and self-segregation.
Here is the link to the story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12353776
To make along story short, Robert Bailey, a young black student got into a scuffle in a liquor store after a long, drawn-out confrontation between whites and blacks at the school. The white youngster ran and grabbed a gun from his car, and Bailey was able to take it from him, perhaps saving his own life.
Afterward, a young white student named Justin Barker was beaten by six black students after loudly gloating about a fight between Bailey and white students at a previous party. Barker was beaten by six black students. The injuries he received were so minor that he was treated by a doctor and released from care that same day.
Walters chose to charge Robert Bailey with theft of a firearm, second degree robbery and disturbing the peace, while the young white man who fought with Bailey and tried to pull a gun on him got off without any charges at all. I find this completely outrageous and criminally unfair on Walters' part.
I also feel Walter’s charging the six youngsters with attempted murder is ludicrous. The fact that Justin Barker managed to survive an attack by six young men, some of them athletes, with nothing but superficial cuts and scrapes proves the opposite of Walters’ charge. This was not attempted murder. The six boys obviously used a great deal of restraint. They easily could have killed him if they had not.
This to me is an obvious display of racism on Walters’ part. As a white American, I am sickened and embarrassed that in the year 2007, this blatant bigotry is allowed to persist in our legal system. It has been a half-century since institutionalized racism has been abolished. It is an embarrassment to the American criminal justice system, the state of Louisiana and the entire country that Walters is allowed to carry on this way.
I feel Walters has no respect for the laws of this country, and that he believes laws should be applied differently according to a person’s skin color. People like this should not be allowed to practice law, let alone function as district attorneys. He is frighteningly backward and I can only hope he is an abnormality among Louisiana’s practicing attorneys.
I hope, for the sake of credibility and decency, you as governor consider removing him from his district attorney post.
Sincerely,
Bethania Palma
Orange County, California
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