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?
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?