But that didn’t stop the local prosecutor from going bonkers over the beating. Instead of charging the black kids with assault, or a variation of assault, he decided this was a crime that should result in these kids going to jail for many, many years. Inexplicably, this district attorney decided that the sneakers these punks used as part of the beating should be considered deadly weapons and that the charge should be nothing less than attempted murder.

Attempted murder for a brawl so minor that the victim wasn’t even admitted to the hospital.

Listen, there is no doubt that the black teens who ganged up on the white boy needed to be punished. And they likely are nothing close to being angelic members of the church choir. It’s been pointed out with some enthusiasm that some other acts of criminality have preceded this incident.

But to put all of this mess in context, it would be impossible to ignore or forget what started everything: a black teen, a little more than a child, wondering why he can’t sit under a tree to cool off like the white kids do.

I don’t like Al Sharpton. And I don’t pretend that black racism directed towards whites doesn’t exist. I’m as ashamed of “Miss Black America” or Black Entertainment Television as I am anything a white racist can do.

But none of that changes what has happened in Jena, Louisiana. Two wrongs never make a right. All of us, white, black, Hispanic, whatever, should be mortified that a “white tree” ever existed in 2007 America (thankfully, the tree has since been cut down). And any white kid who thinks that hanging a noose from a tree in order to send a signal to black kids needs some serious enlightenment.

May everyone learn a valuable lesson from “The Jena Six” affair.