The only problem is that his efforts are focused entirely on the county's small black population -- the same small black population that brought an internationally recognized fight to the local white power structure, exposing discriminatory law enforcement practices in the case of Jena 6.

According to one informant, Franklin launched "Operation Third Option," a massive drug sweep complete with SWAT teams and helicopter backup that ended in the arrest of 12 people in July 2009. Officers also entered the homes of relatives charged in the Jena 6 incident. No drugs were taken from those homes, according to a published report.

Four people arrested have entered guilty pleas. The three hit with drug-distribution charges received sentences, ranging from 10 to 25 years.

It's tough to defend a drug dealer under any circumstance, but the sentences seem a bit extreme, especially since one of those sentenced had no previous record.

This looks like a case of small-town justice doing its thing. It's the kind of situation that attorneys from the NAACP or the SCLC should look into to determine whether the court system is being used to persecute black people. It might not be hard to make that case.

Franklin told The Jena Times (the newspaper owned by his family) that the drug raids were planned in November of 2007, weeks after the Jena 6 protests began, which drew more than 50,000 people to the tiny town to protest a pattern of discriminatory prosecution against blacks in the town.

In the Jena 6 case, Mychal Bell, a black Jena teen, and five black friends had been charged in the beating of a white schoolmate. Though he was 16 at the time of the crime, Bell was charged as an adult with attempted murder by local prosecutors. Charges were eventually dropped to second-degree battery.

Three months prior to that event, white youths had been accused of hanging nooses on a tree at the local high school. Though they were suspended from school, police and prosecutors took no action in that matter.

There is probably enough bad blood in Jena to last a lifetime, but if people there are going to forge a new path, it's going to take work on both sides. Black people are going to have to pool their resources and agitate for respect. If the Sheriff is in fact wasting public resources in a racially biased drug raid, the word must be spread. The same national reporters who flooded the town three years ago must be invited back. It's time to grab the attention of state and federal authorities about the raids. In short, a little hell ought to be raised.

The well-meaning folks in Jena also have a role to play. Aren't they even a little mad to see massive amounts of scarce tax dollars spent on penny-ante drug busts?

Everyone in Jena has a job to do if the people are going to stop Sheriff Franklin and his biased view of law enforcement.