Sunday, July 06, 2008

I'm watching you Bobby Jindal

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is on my watch list. HIs asinine approval of a bill supporting Intelligent design is what caught my attention. I like to be fair though. I will report the good with the bad. Jindal signed hate crime legislation. I'll count this as a step in the right direction.

House Bill 726, which makes intimidation in the form of a publicly displayed noose a crime punishable by a year in prison.

The bill stems from the Jena 6 uproar in which the hanging of a noose sparked a fight between white and black high school students. One of the black teens was held in jail, leading to a march and international attention.
Note to white supremacists: You can still hang your noose in the privacy of your own home. "Publicly" means hanging the noose where other people can see it; around your own necks would be a start.

I wonder if displaying a noose is a free speech issue? Any lawyers out there?

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3 comments:

Unknown said...

North Carolina is doing something similar, with the addition of cross-burning and making such hate crimes a felony. See http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/3144064/

I think there's a lot of room for abuse in this one, esp. as a felony.

vjack said...

Typo in the last sentence. You meant noose but said nose. If displaying a nose is a free speech issue, I'm screwed.

Mojoey said...

Fixed! thanks vjack.