This recent editorial from Washington Informer publisher Denise Rolark Barnes is worth reposting here. Truly, unless we have justice, there will be no peace. In fact, we have to transform our very ideas about what justice is and how to achieve it in order to create a reality of true safety and peace — in our communities, the nation and the world at large!! Young people must be at the forefront of this fight. Let’s check our movement history. We just might find they always have. – Johonna

Let’s Talk Justice For All
By Denise Rolark Barnes
WI Publisher
Thursday, September 27, 2007

It’s time for young Black people to get their props. They deserve it.
Under the banner of non-violence and unity, nearly 50,000 of them gathered in Jena, La. to say “Enough is Enough” and to remind the nation that until there is justice for all, there won’t be peace for any.

And, it wasn’t only in Jena where the voices and the presence of young people were strong. Right here in the nation’s capital, on Capitol Hill, on school yards and in churches, throngs of young people gathered in order to have their say.

Young people are fully aware of the dual enforcement of the criminal justice system. A close listen to the messages in the much maligned rap music they play reveals a consciousness of a system that has notoriously been unfair to them because they are Black.

I asked a young friend of mine if he and his friends knew and understood the reason behind the outcry for the Jena Six.

“No doubt,” he clearly answered.

He happens to live adjacent to Condon Terrace, the neighborhood where 14-year old DeOnte Rawlings was shot and killed last week by an off-duty Metropolitan police officer, who believed that Rawlings had stolen a minibike from his home.

According to reports, when the officer confronted Rawlings, a shot was fired at him [the officer.] The officer returned fire, killing Rawlings and igniting a huge investigation in which the FBI is now involved.

“Do you or your friends see any connection between what happened to DeOnte Rawlings and Mychal Bell (one of the Jena Six who still sits in prison for the school yard fight with a White student?)” I asked my friend.

“Not really,” he said. “Those people were White; these folks were Black.”

Graced by a remarkable teaching moment, I said, “The races of the people may be different, but it is still the same justice or injustice system.”

Young people often but unexpectedly give us these opportune moments to share stories and offer perspectives that they may not otherwise listen to. When I get those opportunities, I jump in quick and jump out hoping that we have each shared something worth thinking about.

Over the years, large numbers of young Black teens have been caught doing some of the stupidest stuff you can imagine, including my own, and including the one who was standing in front of me.

I probed into this young man’s background which included three arrests, one for a stolen car when he was 14, and one that resulted in a charge and conviction as an adult. In each case, he was arrested, sentenced and served time in jail, released to a halfway house and placed on parole.

Today, thank God, at age 20, he has put the dumb stuff behind him and is working on becoming a responsible man. I applaud him.

But I asked him, “Do you think the consequences for the crimes you committed were fair?”

He hesitated and then said, “Basically, yeah.”

He then proceeded to educate me on how the justice system works for juveniles and for adults, a system, sadly to say, that he and many of his peers have become intimately familiar with.

And, then I asked him, “Do you think you would have faced the same consequences if you were…?”

“White?” he answered. “Oh, hardly. At most I would have gotten a tap on the hand or probation.”

So, together we pondered over why Mychal Bell is still in jail, and what the punishment will be for the rest of the Jena Six. We talked about whether death was the proper punishment for DeOnte Rawlings; and whether Michael Vick should be punished more.

And, what about the New Jersey student involved in the shooting at Delaware State, how much time will he see behind bars? And why isn’t the system fair when it comes to Black people? And what will it take to make a difference? And how can we keep our children from going to jail?

And…finally, we agreed, there is a connection between Mychal Bell and DeOnte Rawlings and every Black child who faces the criminal justice system.

Until there is justice for all, there won’t be peace for any.