Police: Students Hang Noose At School

[Smash255]

What an invasion of free speech, hate speech is still free speech.  This is one of those instances when it hard to stand up for free speech but you must do it.

Yes, I agree, we must defend everyone's right to impede the education and the ability to feel safe at school of black people.  Clearly there is nothing more important.

It begs the question is when is free speech no longer free speech, but it not right to dismiss all hate speech as not protected.  If a specific threat was being made there is a difference, but hanging a noose does not represent a direct threat to an individual.

A direct threat against a group is better?

The threat is not direct at all, the noose is simply a symbol.  A direct threat is "Hey little black boy get over here I'm gonna kick your ass."

Yes, it's a symbol of the statement "I want to lynch ns".

Well-said.

^^^^^

[Smash255]

What an invasion of free speech, hate speech is still free speech.  This is one of those instances when it hard to stand up for free speech but you must do it.

Yes, I agree, we must defend everyone's right to impede the education and the ability to feel safe at school of black people.  Clearly there is nothing more important.

It begs the question is when is free speech no longer free speech, but it not right to dismiss all hate speech as not protected.  If a specific threat was being made there is a difference, but hanging a noose does not represent a direct threat to an individual.

A direct threat against a group is better?

The threat is not direct at all, the noose is simply a symbol.  A direct threat is "Hey little black boy get over here I'm gonna kick your ass."

Yes, it's a symbol of the statement "I want to lynch ns".

I would be willing to venture the guess that these kids were nothing more than copycats who did not even understand the ramificiatin of what they were doing, and you'd be hard-pressed to prove me wrong

So if a few 15 year olds went on a plane in, say, October 2001 and yelled that I have a bomb, would they be just copycats who didn't know what they were doing? In that scenario, the kids would clearly know what their actions would imply. I won't believe they would be so ignorant as to not know what a noose means in historical context, and one simply has to be responsible for their actions when they age. Making jokes like hanging a noose at school or yelling you have a bomb on a plane isn't responsible, and must be punished.

Yelling "I have a bomb" on an airplane represents a clear and present danger, very similar to you can't fire in a crowded theater.  I fail to see where these nooses present a clear and present danger.  It is the same as someone burning a flag and me feeling threatened as an American.

burning a flag doesn't equate to killing people, a noose does.