threats are not protected speech, and the case states that he did it in order to threaten and intimidate his neighbors. I agree the sentence is way too fucking high, but jail time is deserved.
if man comes up to me and says "I'm going to fucking kill you", or leaves a sign in view of my house that says "you are going to fucking die", I sure as hell hope the cops would take that man to jail. It would be much more expedient than waiting for the incident to occur and then having to defend myself in court for shooting him.
Except this guy didn't say he was going to kill anyone. He burned a cross on his own lawn. You translating that into a death threat does not mean he said it. What if my idea of a death threat is your dog shitting on my lawn? Should you do prison time over my personal interpretation of an ambiguous act?
In order to legally be considered a threat there has to be a specificity that is lacking here- time/place/method, something. Burning a cross is known as an anti-black statement, and contains an implicit threat of violence, but if it wasn't for "mUh hATe cRiMe" he probably wouldn't have been charged with anything.
threats are not protected speech, and the case states that he did it in order to threaten and intimidate his neighbors. I agree the sentence is way too fucking high, but jail time is deserved.
Nah, jail time isn't deserved. Community service at most.
His "neighbors" shot his dog. They should be thankful that he did was peaceful protesting.
"Fiery, but mostly peaceful"
Why do you deserve jail time for threats? I could see escalating to that if other forms of punishment don't work.
if man comes up to me and says "I'm going to fucking kill you", or leaves a sign in view of my house that says "you are going to fucking die", I sure as hell hope the cops would take that man to jail. It would be much more expedient than waiting for the incident to occur and then having to defend myself in court for shooting him.
Except this guy didn't say he was going to kill anyone. He burned a cross on his own lawn. You translating that into a death threat does not mean he said it. What if my idea of a death threat is your dog shitting on my lawn? Should you do prison time over my personal interpretation of an ambiguous act?
In order to legally be considered a threat there has to be a specificity that is lacking here- time/place/method, something. Burning a cross is known as an anti-black statement, and contains an implicit threat of violence, but if it wasn't for "mUh hATe cRiMe" he probably wouldn't have been charged with anything.