Where is the ACLU on this one? Since when is a noose hanging from
your truck "intimidating"?
Apparently many people--including the feds--sup****t freedom of
expression only if it's not too repugnant. But that is exactly the
type of expression that most needs protection.
http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/NEWS01/80426002/1002
Teen in Jena noose incident pleads guilty to hate crime
Billy Gunn
Alexandria Town Talk
Jeremiah Munsen pleaded guilty Friday to a misdemeanor federal hate
crime for last year's effort to intimidate a group of "Jena Six" civil
rights marchers with hangman's nooses draped off the back of a truck.
U.S. District Judge Dee Drell set an Aug. 15 sentencing date for
Munsen, 19. He faces maximum penalties of one year in federal prison
and a fine of $100,000.
Munsen pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of hindering interstate
travel of marchers from Tennessee who waited in downtown Alexandria
for return-home buses after the massive Sept. 20 rally in Jena, where
tens of thousands of marchers protested the judicial treatment of six
black Jena youths.
Earlier on Sept. 20, Munsen and a teenaged accomplice had been
drinking beer and fa****oned nooses out of electrical extension cords.
In pleading to the lessor of the two charges he was indicted for in
January, Munsen will not face the felony hate crime charge of
conspiring to deprive the marchers of their civil rights by using a
noose - a deep-South symbol of hatred and murder by lynching - to
intimidate the crowd.
Munsen had faced 11 years in prison if convicted of both charges.
....
