Display a noose .. go to jail
May 16, 2008 by Henry E. Powderly II
In response to a string of hate crimes that affected New York and Long Island, Gov. David Paterson signed a law today that makes it a felony to display a noose as a threat.
Anyone convicted of the offense could be made to spend up to four years in prison.
From the Associated Press story:
“It is sad that in these modern times there remains a need to address the problem of individuals who use nooses as a means of threat and intimidation,” he said in a statement. “But it is a reality, and if we ignore it we would be derelict in our duty.”
Nooses were found last year on a black professor’s door at Columbia University, outside a post office near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in Manhattan, and on Long Island.
They also have shown up in a black Coast Guard cadet’s bag aboard a cutter and on a Maryland college campus. One of the more prominent cases involved black teenagers charged with beating a white student after nooses were hung from a tree at a Louisiana high school.
Conduct already covered by the law includes the display of swastikas on property without the permission of the property owner, as well as the burning of crosses.
“A felony to display a noose”?
The law, itself, is an act of tyranny!
It is now a crime to drive while using your cell phone, texting, not using a seat belt…a license is required for almost every activity that earns a wage or fee…companies are regulated in all manners conceivable, such that almost every company is in violation of the law at any moment in time…to smoke in a restaurant or bar…permission is required for almost every change to private property, even to cut down a tree, in many jurisdictions…the list goes on, infinitum.
The Founders are rolling in their graves…what is Liberty?
Who is John Galt?
This is completely ridiculous. A felony? Are you kidding me? Whatever happened to ignoring people that annoy you? Sticks and stones? What a joke. This country is going to hell in a politically correct object carrying aparatus.
Does this mean I can go to jail for my Halloween decorations?
Scott, basically they are making sure to enact laws to cover anything that seems “not politically correct”. Pretty soon you will be able to get jail accomodations for passing gas in public.