That Fucking Elf...

[Termite]

I found the law online. It's pretty broadly written, I assume to give the "victim" leeway in "well, he didn't say anything threatening, but I FELT threatened, in order to up the chances of a conviction. The penalty is pretty weak, though.

I wonder what brilliant Louisiana state Rep or state Sen got that one passed.

Probably somebody from the N'awlins "mom-n-dem" crowd...

[PawPaw]

Turns out it's a federal hate crime as well. Ask Jeremiah Munsen of Colfax, LA. Jeremiah "all-starred' in stupidity when he drove his pickup truck past civil rights demonstrators while the pickup was festooned with nooses.

The defendant admitted today that he displayed two large nooses from the back of his pickup truck with the intent to frighten and intimidate the demonstrators. He and the other person with him hung the nooses in a manner so as to be clearly visible to the gathered demonstrators, and Munsen then drove past the group two or three times while the other person glared out the window at the demonstrators. Munsen further admitted that he and the other person had previously discussed the Ku Klux Klan and how they thought the Klan would have responded to the rally in Jena, and he acknowledged that the Jena Six rally followed extensive public discussion regarding, among other things, the history of racial lynchings in the United States and the perception that a noose, when displayed in a racial context, constituted a symbol of racial violence.

Jeremiah got four months in the federal pokey for displaying his knowledge of basic ropecraft.

[Aesop]

Then his lawyer was a jackass, or the judge was. Probably both.

Such a law, and sentence, is prima facie contrary to the opinion in Texas v. Johnson.
It should be rather obvious why one can burn a flag, and be protected, thus unimaginable that waving a noose is somehow a sanctioned thought crime, however imaginary the pretended offense.
It doesn't pass the common sense test or the Kitty Litter Box Smell Test: a turd of a law is a turd is a turd. You can't gold-plate it, and there's no clean end that can safely be picked up.
And when you have Mr. Justice Scalia in the majority opinion alongside the likes of Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, you've totally jumped the shark trying to prosecute "hate crimes", or any other class of imaginary offenses.

Next they'll sanction murder charges for dirty looks, and as I stated previously, if I'm going to be hung as a murderer anyways, I'm going to do my damnedest to live up to the charge, and heaven help the slow and clumsy.

[Steamforger]

I found the law online. It's pretty broadly written, I assume to give the "victim" leeway in "well, he didn't say anything threatening, but I FELT threatened, in order to up the chances of a conviction. The penalty is pretty weak, though.

I wonder what brilliant Louisiana state Rep or state Sen got that one passed.

Probably somebody from the N'awlins "mom-n-dem" crowd...

I'm pretty sure the noose thing and the crime of being masked in public went hand in hand.

[Rich Jordan]

Somewhere packed away in a box my parents have such an elf that they've had for decades. I guess that makes it a returning fad.

I prefer a passel of sacrificial monkeys

[Yogimus]

Look, you go around pretending that "hangin a nigger" is a pastime you partake in, you just might get the stupid slapped out of you by the legal system. And yes, THAT is the implication, whether you agree or not.

[SoupOrMan]

Just put it in a little gray overcoat and it can be the Stasi on the Shelf.

[First Shirt]

Look, you go around pretending that "hangin a nigger" is a pastime you partake in, you just might get the stupid slapped out of you by the legal system. And yes, THAT is the implication, whether you agree or not.

So now we condone prosecuting thought crimes?

[Netpackrat]

You might as well make planting a tree or installing a lamp post a hate crime.

[skb12172]

True. According to every lawyer I've discussed it with, off the record of course, hate crime laws are simply thought crime laws. Therefore, they are Unconstitutional and bullshit, regardless of what some judge with an agenda thinks.