We Have to Do Better pt.3

(Look at these coons. Yea I know they're white, but this buffoonary at its worst. It's a sad, hateful world folks.)

It's Martin Luther King Jr. day and the Klan folk are in FULL glory! uggh Disgusture.

About 30 members of a reputed white supremacists' group marched through the streets of Jena, La., Monday, expressing disdain for the holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as for six black Jena teenagers charged with beating a white classmate.

The group, which included two men who came armed, was followed closely for a while by about 100 counterprotesters who exchanged barbed comments with the group. They later backed off at police request.

"No to King! No the Jena Six!" shouted the group members, who belong to the Nationalist Movement.

Counterprotesters responded, "Down with the Klan!" to which Nationalist Movement spokesman Richard Barrett said, "Up with America!"

Nationalists also shouted, "The streets belong to us, not MLK!"

The two armed men showed up for the rally and parade, and as a result, the LaSalle Parish Sheriff's Office began separating supporters of the Nationalist group from the counterprotesters. The sheriff's office said anyone refusing to separate would be arrested.

The movement by law enforcement came about an hour after the arrival of the New Black Panther Party at the courthouse, where it planned to march.

Close to 100 people opposing the Nationalist Movement's presence arrived at just before 11 a.m. at the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, shouting "No more nooses! We want justice!" as law enforcement tried to route them to behind the courthouse.

As the counterprotesters attempted to march toward the front of the courthouse, they were met by a line of law enforcement officers who physically tried to hold them back. At the same time, supporters of the Nationalists who had assembled in front of the courthouse waved their Confederate flags in the direction of the marchers.

"We ain't stopping! We ain't stopping!" the counterprotesters shouted as law enforcement threatened to arrest them if they did not go to the back of the courthouse.

"We're under threat of arrest if we keep marching. What do you want to do?" one of the counter-protesters shouted to that group with a megaphone. "Keep marching!" shouted the crowd. The crowd backed down once police asked.

Tensions began to rise once law enforcement officials confronted David Dupre of Tioga, La., and his son, David Dupre Jr., who said they came to Jena armed for their personal protection. They each brought a .357 Magnum handgun, a .22- caliber revolver and a sawed-off shotgun that they called a "street sweeper" because when fired it could take out 10 people.

"We're tired of these coons getting away with whatever they want," Dupre Jr. said when asked why he came to Jena.

The two men, each wearing a holstered gun on his hip, were confronted by law enforcement and told to leave the shotguns in their vehicle, and they complied. Law enforcement officials told the men they could not march with the guns.

The Dupres said it was unfair and unconsitutional that they could not march with their guns.

The protest was organized by the Nationalist Movement of Learned, Miss., which describes itself as "pro-majority" but is widely reported to be a white supremacy organization.

Barrett, the Nationalist Movement spokesman, had said group members would not be armed during the protest and requested that supporters do likewise.

The group vowed to come to Jena soon after at least 20,000 people from around the country marched through the streets of the small community on Sept. 20 in support of the black teens, who became known as the "Jena Six" and have drawn national attention.

Six black students were charged with beating a white student outside Jena High School on Dec. 4, 2006, after a series of racially charged incidents, which included white students hanging nooses from a tree at the school.

The white students were not charged in any of the incidents while the six black teens all were initially charged with attempted murder for the beating. Those charges have since been reduced to battery.

Early Monday morning, the Nationalists' group was far outnumbered by the number of media and law enforcement. Among the members of the Nationalists' group were three young men and a young woman from West Monroe, La., with a Confederate flag bearing the message "White Power/Ku Klux Klan."

The young man carrying the flag, Michael Brown, said, "We're here just supporting our white brothers. We're proud to be white."

Another man in the group, Phillip Hampton of Tuscaloosa, Ala., said he was a member of the National Knights, which he said was the oldest Ku Klux Klan group in the nation.

"This is a hate crime against whites," Hampton said when asked why he had come to Jena. "There's no justice for the white man anymore."

USA Today

This is some new fangled ignorance. There isn't even any reason to speak on this. Just use it as a reminder that this ain't no time to rest and no reason to get comfortable.