[StBernard] [LANDRIEU] Landrieu Urges La. Legislation to Prosecute Racial Intimidation

[Westley Annis]

Landrieu Urges La. Legislation
to Prosecute Racial Intimidation
In wake of Jena 6 incident, sends state congressional 

report outlining approach of other states to racial symbols

 

WASHINGTON - Noting that Jena, La., officials were precluded from
prosecuting students who hung nooses in a school tree because the state
lacks any law criminalizing the act, U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La.,
today urged state leaders to enact broader racial intimidation legislation.
She also released a report prepared at her request by the Congressional
Research Service (CRS) outlining statutory approaches in other states to
criminalizing such displays.  Sen. Landrieu chairs the Legislative Branch
Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees CRS.

"There is literally no law on the books that a responsible district attorney
might have used to prosecute the obvious threat that the students [in Jena]
hanging the nooses were expressing," Sen. Landrieu wrote in a letter today
to Governor Kathleen Blanco, the leadership of the Louisiana House of
Representatives and Senate and each of the candidates running for Governor.

"It is my hope the [CRS] report will help you and your legislative team
identify and share with the incoming administration new legislation that
reaffirms Louisiana's commitment to justice for all of her citizens.  I
believe such a step would send the proper message to citizens of our state,
the American people and visitors from around the globe that Louisiana does
not condone racism, tacitly or otherwise.  It will also present us with the
opportunity to create something positive out of the pain that the Jena 6
situation has caused."

The United States Senate this week passed the Commerce-Justice-Science
Appropriations bill, which includes a Landrieu provision requiring the
hiring of at least three new community conciliators for the Louisiana
region. The Department of Justice's Community Relations Service works with
local leaders and community groups to facilitate reconciliation during
periods of racial or ethnic tension. The Service will now be directed to
spend $2 million on the expansion of this and other regional offices.

The Service did not arrive in Jena until nine months after the hanging of a
noose in a tree on the grounds of Jena High School and six months after the
charging of six African-American students. Region 6 - which includes
Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas - currently only employs
three people, but the Landrieu amendment doubles their manpower. 

 

The students responsible for hanging the nooses in September 2006 could not
be prosecuted by the LaSalle Parish District Attorney because state law
prohibits only cross-burning.  Sen. Landrieu's letter urges a much broader
statute that could incorporate similarly-intended symbols such as nooses,
swastikas and other emblems of intimidation.

"Louisiana has no criminal statute that would cover the sort of intimidation
that the display of nooses on school property was intended to convey," Sen.
Landrieu wrote.   

Last month, Sen. Landrieu wrote to the Department of Justice asking for a
thorough review of what happed in Jena to establish a comprehensive public
record of the facts. 

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