Orwell would be proud
(NY Times) The University of Mississippi said Friday that students could face criminal charges for placing a noose on a statue honoring the college’s first black student, and a fraternity announced that it had expelled three men because of the incident.
If you continue reading the article you’ll see how this bit of assholery spawned a massive, deep investigation, all sorts of law enforcement, then
It was also unclear Friday what charges the men could face, but the F.B.I., which has been assisting the university, said earlier this week that the vandalism could bring federal charges.
Look, actions have consequences, but vandalism charges? These kids were assholes, and did the dumb crap college kids do. The statue was not destroyed or damaged. Take the noose off and it’s fine. I’m not defending their actions. They were caught, and should possibly face some punishment. But actual criminal charges, and possible federal charges? The FBI involved? Overkill. Was anyone harmed? Other than feelings? Any property destroyed?
Blacks have been on a crusade to do physical harm to whites in a random manner, yet, no word from our great leader. A few students do something stupid that harms no one, and it is a major deal. Do you think that we are being made to bend a knee for the actions or perceived actions of a minor number of people many years ago? I am sick of this racist junk and feel that blacks are going to see a big push back.
But of course in the lib constitution there’s a right not to have your feelings hurt, correct?
The state is trying to limit the white students’ speech. Clearly, if they had put a jockstrap on the statue or a funny hat or a paper moustache they would have been reprimanded but it would have been a minor incident.
But just because these white boys advocate resuming the lynching of Black men the state decides to trample on their 1st Amendment rights. What’s next – charge them with littering for leaving the Georgia state flag? I may be wrong, but I’m unaware of any law preventing white boys from Georgia advocating (in the abstract) that Black men should be dragged to a tree, a noose put around their neck and they be hanged until they suffocate or their neck is broken. If that was against the law all the white boys in Georgia would be in jail!
In Brandenburg v Ohio (1969) the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government cannot constitutionally punish abstract advocacy of force or law violation. In 1964, Brandenburg, a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader was convicted of advocating violence at a KKK meeting calling for “revengeance” [sic] against “niggers,” and “Jews”, and another speech claimed that “our President, our Congress, our Supreme Court, continues to suppress the white, Caucasian race.” The Supreme Court reversed the conviction. The white boys’ advocacy (in the abstract) of lynching Blacks appears to be protected speech.
The state may claim that the white boys’ actions violate “fighting words” statutes, but the state would have to show that the white boys’ put the noose around the statue of Mr. Meredith with Black men around who might be incited. I suspect the white boys were brave, but not brave enough to put a noose around the neck of a Black cultural icon in front of a group of Black men. Unless the white Georgia boys were carrying, in which case they could stand their ground. History tells us that white boys advocating lynching typically prefer to have a sizable numerical advantage over the Black men they want to lynch.
Black men seem to be quite sensitive to the idea of a group of white boys dragging them off and hanging them from a tree by a rope wrapped around their necks. As far as we know, The KKK hasn’t lynched a black man since 1981. That’s over 30 years ago! A white KKK boy, Henry Hays, was convicted and executed for the lynching, the only KKK member ever executed for lynching a Black man. One of Hays’ white accomplices got life in prison for bravely ratting out Hays. So the lynchings of thousands of Black men by mobs of Southern white boys ended in 1981 with a white KKK member being the first white boy to be executed for it and the Black men are still whining about it, trying to limit the 1st Amendment rights of patriotic white boys from Georgia. Get over it, already. It’s been over 30 years.