AFTER THE THOUSANDS of peace activists caravaned out of Jena, Louisiana yesterday afternoon, many of them attended a second rally in Downtown Alexandria.
Alexandria is not Jena, which is why event organizers shifted their peaceful demonstration to Alexandria, after symbolically marching in Jena earlier in the day. The event in Alexandria was attended by a delegation of political representatives, civil rights activists, and American citizens from all across the nation. Rev. Al Sharpton conducted his nationally-syndicated radio show from the steps of Alexandria City Hall. The event was orderly, the mood was positive, and there was not a single incident reported by the police.
That is, until around 9PM, when two teenagers who had driven in to Alexandria from another parish, a trip that probably took them an hour, drove around Downtown Alexandria with nooses strung from the back of their flatbed pick-up truck. Although most of the protesters had already left, there were around 200 people still left– a group from Nashville, Tennessee who had driven over 12 hours to join in the demonstration.
The teenagers, one of whom is a minor, were quickly arrested by the police, and the Mayor of Alexandria, Jacques Roy, drove back to Downtown to address the crowd. The story made national news this morning. One of the young men apparently branded himself with a Ku Klux Klan tattoo, and the other young man, Jeremiah Munson, is pictured on the right.
Americans have a right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and yesterday, American citizens celebrated these fundamental rights through a powerful expression right here in Alexandria. But those teenagers, one of whom was arrested for driving while intoxicated, had intended to disrupt this event by taunting peaceful protesters with a hateful symbol of a dark and evil chapter in America’s history.
And as the world’s attention descends upon Central Louisiana, people need to know that Alexandria is not the type of community that condones or tolerates hate. Nooses, whether draped from a tree or tied onto the back of a pickup truck, are a clear and blatant symbol of hatred; they represent the criminal and senseless murders of thousands of African-Americans and the shameful legacy of slavery.
Alexandria is a diverse and inclusive community, a community with a majority African-American population, and though we have struggled and continue to struggle with the vestiges of institutionalized racism, we are a city that celebrates its diversity. As witnessed yesterday, we are also a city that welcomes and encourages the fundamental rights of people to peacefully protest about an issue in which they believe. A peaceful protest, by definition, precludes individuals from engaging in taunts of physical violence, even when those taunts are contained in symbols. Such threats should be treated seriously, with the full force of the laws we have enacted to protect us.
Hopefully, we will not allow the isolated incident of two hateful people who are not members of our community to distract us, disturb us, or define us.
CenLamar 
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