Over 60,000 expected at Thursday's "Jena 6" rally

September 18, 2007

ATLANTA, GA (NBC) - Louisiana is getting ready for one of the largest rallies that state has ever seen.

It all involves the case of the "Jena 6" - six black teenagers who were charged as adults in the alleged attack on a white teenager.

More than 60,000 people - including a group from Benedict in South Carolina - are expected to converge on the tiny town of Jena Thursday in support of the teens.

Rallies at college campuses all over the country have been going on for the past weeks, but they're nothing in comparison to what's expected in Jena.

Now the state police have been called in to help keep order. Colonel Stanley Griffin says, "With mutual respect that's between the event participants and the police officers, this event will be secure and it will be uneventful. The police is here to assist and to ensure that public order is kept and that everyone has the right to exercise his or her Constitutional rights. That is the reason why law enforcement is here. This is not an adversarial gathering. We going to do everything possible that this goes out uneventful and that Louisiana will have a proud day."

The Reverend Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King, III, are expected to be among the leaders of the Thursday rally.

Posted by Chantelle Janelle

Source: WIS-TV

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