Amid turmoil, Jena approves race relations panel

JENA, La. — Jena’s mayor will appoint an interracial committee to study race relations and how they might be improved in the small central Louisiana town where a civil rights march drew 20,000 people.

“We felt this was a positive move,” Councilman Tommy Sandifer said after the city council voted 5-0 last Wednesday for Mayor Murphy McMillin’s proposal.

Jena has not set a deadline for forming its committee.

The vote came as two universities dealt with incidents related to the events in Jena, where white students were suspended from high school for hanging a noose in a tree and black students were charged with attempted murder in a white classmate’s beating.

At historically black Grambling State University, President Horace Judson said he will seek sanctions against five teachers who participated in a lesson on race relations that included placing a noose around the neck of a child at a predominantly black, on-campus elementary school.

“We have a strong understanding of what happened and are taking swift steps to ensure nothing of this nature occurs again,” Judson said in a statement.

Committees will consider a range of possible sanctions, including dismissal, leave without pay or a written reprimand.

Another school, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, attended by at least two white youths involved in an online “reenactment” of the beating in Jena, will bring in speakers and offer more time — including class time — to discuss racial sensitivity, President James Cofer said last week.

The Sept. 20 march was organized by the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Marchers say the white students who hung the noose should have been charged with a hate crime and the black students face charges stronger than they should for the beating.

Four who were 17 and legally adult at the time and Mychal Bell, who was 16, were initially charged as adults with attempted murder. The charge has been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery.

Bell was convicted, but the conviction was overturned and his case returned to juvenile court.

Jena needs to restore its reputation, Sandifer said.

“We’re not like what you’ve heard,” he said.

Arkansas alderman drops proposed ban on baggy pants

PINE BLUFF, Ark. — A city alderman has dropped his plans for an ordinance that would outlaw baggy pants and other apparel that reveal underclothes, saying the measure didn’t have enough support from fellow city council members and the mayor.

Alderman Derwood Smith made the announcement at a council meeting last Monday before the panel had a chance to vote on the measure. Many in the meeting room applauded and cheered.

The Arkansas American Civil Liberties Union had warned that the proposal wasn’t likely to withstand a constitutional challenge because it is written too broadly.

Smith’s proposed ordinance banned residents from showing “men’s briefs, long johns, boxers, women’s panties, briefs and thongs.” Bras, however, were acceptable.

His proposal said exposing undergarments creates an unnecessary distraction and a spectacle that offends others. It also said that those who wear the style risk personal injury from tripping over their clothes. Violators could be fined $200.

At a meeting earlier, Alderman Irene Holcomb asked Smith to pull the proposal. State Rep. Earnest Brown, D-Pine Bluff, also attended the meeting in support of the ACLU’s position.
“I feel like there are more pressing issues the city can focus on,” Brown, who is a lawyer, said. “I don’t want to see the city sued again.”

Dorothy Oliver, president of the Pine Bluff branch of the NAACP, said an argument could be made that the proposal was racially motivated because it targeted a style of dress primarily worn by young black men.

Atlanta and the Louisiana cities of Alexandria and Shreveport have considered similar proposals.

Wounded officer charged with making up attack story

JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — A village police officer whose claim he was knifed in a local cemetery launched a nationwide manhunt has been charged with fabricating the attack.

Johnson City Police Officer Matthew Romano was charged last Wednesday in Broome County Court with one count of first-degree offering a false report for filing, a felony that carries a penalty of up to four years in prison. He also was charged with third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor.

Romano, 30, of Owego, a six-year veteran, pleaded innocent and was released on his own recognizance.

Police found Romano bleeding from two critical stomach wounds last December in Calvary Cemetery. Romano told police a young black man with matted dreadlocks and a diamond stud earring stabbed him while he was investigating a suspicious vehicle. The assailant, the officer said, fled in a white Acura with no license plates.

Johnson City Police Chief Douglas Potts would not say whether Romano stabbed himself, but he said police are no longer looking for an assailant.

“It is very strange,” Potts said. “We can only speculate on his motives.”

Romano’s account launched a massive manhunt involving every police agency in the county, the state police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At one point, the Johnson City Police Association offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the attacker.

Romano remained on the department payroll and on disability as of last week. Potts said he would pursue “all action that is allowed by civil service,” which could include up to 30 days of unpaid leave for Romano.