Connecticut Criminalizes Nooses As Threats

WFSB Channel 3 ^

[P.O.E.]

Sporting gang tatoos still ok?

[mkjessup]

This bill is really going to tie the courts up in knots.

[wardaddy]

How do you determine it a death threat?

That’s pretty subjective.....a noose on a rear view mirror?

or a gang in the front yard with torches and a real noose?

what’s next....Confederate Battle Flag?

what about black symbols I find threatening?

braids?

baggy pants and pocket pool?

AK-47 t-shirts?

X hats?

It’s selective prosecution based on race and who’s the victim.

I have a problem with it and I’m tired of it. I’m tired of living in a culture where for me as a white middle aged man I have to fear black neighborhoods and black thug kulture and the perils of black government overtaking my locale and driving it in the ground.

and yet folks think some silly noose is the problem.

Have you ever examined black on white crime stats?

that’s the real problem in this country with regards to race...not symbols which are a deflection from the real problems folks are too cowardly to address.

[Trailerpark Badass]

What are the penalties for displaying a noose in a fraudulent "hate crime?"

Or is noose-hanging something only whites can be punished for?

[old-and-old]

I don’t think the Supreme Court will reverse this, but if a swastika is legal this should be too. (If they’re both displayed in the same fashion: no riot is likely to occur if they show it)

[Smokin' Joe]

Cue the image of the conspirators on the gallows after Lincoln's assasination.

"Symbol of Racism and bigotry?"

Sheesh!

[SpaceBar]

...a deflection from the real problems folks are too cowardly to address.

Well stated.

[Alter Kaker]

How do you determine it a death threat?

Police and the courts mkae just that kind of deterimination every day. Believe it or not, you tell the difference between a threat of physical violence ("I'm going to come over and shoot your horse!") and a joke ("I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!"). People have brains, something the law depends on.

[apillar]

...which makes it a crime to display a noose as a way of harassing or threatening someone. But you can still display a guillotine, a bloody Axe, or any other threatening or intimidating item to harass or threaten someone... I smell a loophole....

[rlmorel]

[Alright_on_the_LeftCoast]

“to intimidate anyone because of their race or any other characteristic is a repugnant and cowardly act.”

Really? How about the characteristic of stupidity, which defines every lawmaker who voted for this.......

[Cobra64]

I suspect more nooses will begin to appear as a consequence of this asinine Bill.

[Cobra64]

What’s next? A law banning pictures of Buckwheat.

[Cobra64]

how about a knot. that could be construed as a threat.

A noose is also known as "the hangman's knot."

[Cobra64]

[Jack Black]

A few other intimidation hate symbols they need to ban:

What about it? I'm sure many more whites have been killed by black thugs inspired by the images above in Connecticut than blacks hung by whites. Did Connecticut ever have a lynching? It certainly has the typical epidemic of black-on-white hate crimes, including robbery, simple assault, car-jacking and of course, rape.

I lived there for several years (Hartford) Like many American cities "hardworking white people" lived in fear of the thuggish black gangs that dominated the city streets after dark. Honest black people had even MORE to fear from them, and did.

This culture is an ideology too. Why are we worried about the symbols of a defunct, discredited ideology of the last century while ignoring the hate-criminals and the symbols they use TODAY??

[mrhansen]

Voltaire never said that. It was a quote falsely attributed to him from ‘the friends of Voltaire.’

[Madame Dufarge]

You'll never take me alive, copper.

[preacher]

You are probably correct. From:
http://www.classroomtools.com/voltaire.htm

Along the line that the quote may be spuriously attributed to Voltaire (thus explaining why none of the above attribute it to a specific work or date), is the following found at http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/cyc/l/liberty.htm
Beatrice Hall

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
— The Friends of Voltaire, 1906

The phrase “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is widely attributed to Voltaire, but cannot be found in his writings. With good reason. The phrase was invented by a later author as an epitome of his attitude. It appeared in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall under the pseudonym S[tephen] G. Tallentyre. ...

Hall wrote:

...The men who had hated [the book], and had not particularly loved Helvétius, flocked round him now. Voltaire forgave him all injuries, intentional or unintentional. ‘What a fuss about an omelette!’ he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that! ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,’ was his attitude now.
...

Hall herself claimed later that she had been paraphrasing Voltaire’s words in his Essay on Tolerance: “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.” — http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/V02.html

I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to mis-attribute this quote to Voltaire.
— Avram Grumer, rec.arts.sf.written, May 2000

My Comment:
Except for exceptions such as libel & slander, disclosing state secrets, immediate calls to violence & panic (falsly yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre), I believe in freedom of speech. If someone says something foolish, they will be exposed as a fool in open debate.