>> How is this any different from the kid who hung (with a noose) Sara Palin in effigy from his bedroom window in CA last Halloween?
In principle, the sign over the water fountain isn’t any different. As I said at the time — it was a tasteless and obnoxious display (as is the water fountain display). The sign about the rental property is different only to the extent that she violated the Fair Housing Act.
>> I don’t believe he was questioned by the police and I’m thinking it wound up being a question of “Free Speech,” not racism simply because he hung a white woman in effigy.
Free speech can protect the tasteless and obnoxious, so long as no other law is violated (such as the fair housing act).
>> I’m guessing it would have been a whole different story had the effigy been Obama’s. He took it down after the media played the story out on the air and in print. The kid appeared to be Hispanic, non-white.
Probably. The media is hardly the model of consistency that we should emulate. My reaction here is exactly as it was to the Palin display ... the displays are obnoxious, and the displayer should be questioned to the extent that some other law was violated. I thought the Palin-effigy schmuck deserved a Secret Service visit.
SnakeDoc