12 months in prison for putting a noose under a carport

US News & Politics Law and Order
1

This happened eight years ago but I think it’s kind of outrageous.

Man gets 12 months for a noose
Posted: November 5, 2010

MONROE, La. - United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley and Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez announced today that Robert Jackson, 37, of Ruston, Louisiana, was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for placing a hangman’s noose under the carport of the home of a Honduran immigrant who moved to Ruston from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Jackson was also sentenced to one year of supervised release upon his release from prison and ordered to attend anger management and culture diversity programs. ​

He was charged with “violating the Fair Housing Act by intimidating and interfering with another’s housing rights because of race”.

The link to the original article no longer works but there are some sources here:
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/neworleans/press-releases/2010/no062410c.htm
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/neworleans/press-releases/2010/no110510a.htm

First I have some questions about whether this is even Constitutionally appropriate. Isn’t the state supposed to handle these type of matters? So why is a federal court prosecuting him for what is basically a domestic dispute?

It’s not like this man even “broke and entered” either, he just stepped onto his neighbor’s property and tied a little piece of rope under an open car shelter. Seems more like the federal government trying to go after people for racism.

a more recent related story:

A University of Illinois student was charged with “a hate crime” on Tuesday for “allegedly placing a noose in a campus residence hall” .

Andrew Smith, a 19-year-old sophomore, was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and committing a hate crime, which is a felony, after students found a noose hanging inside an elevator over the weekend, according to university police.​

ABC News Illinois college student charged hate crime placing noose

2

Well your first post looks like a one year old story and now an eight year old story? What’s up bro???

3

So we should just ignore any story that’s not less than 6 months old?
If we did that, there would be a whole lot of political issues that we would be ignoring.
This story is still “current” because these type of things are still happening.

The second story actually happened less than 2 months ago, but I wasn’t able to provide a link for it because this site apparently has a 2 link limit in a post for new members. (It wouldn’t allow me to post this topic if there were 3 different links in the post)

4

Based just on the title of the thread, I thought the guy put it under his own carport. And I would be outraged at such a ruling if that had been the case.

But he did it to the victim’s carport. That makes it vandalism at a minimum. And given the meaning of a noose to a person of color, it becomes a threat at some level, and an explosive statement.

Bad form. Way MORE than bad form. It’s like joking about a bomb in your luggage at the airport ticket counter. It’s something only an idiot would do, and it’s guaranteed to draw the law against you.

Doesn’t matter to me whether it was handled at the State or Federal level. And I’ll leave the sentencing to the jurisdiction that tried the case.

Stupidity should hurt. Stupidity that violates the law (and this act did!) should draw the penalties that the law dictates.

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I disagree; it’s not vandalism. No actual physical damage was done.
Are you somehow claiming that because that guy had to untie a simple little knot and remove the noose that that constituted vandalism?

Is it vandalism if someone tapes a piece of paper saying something mean to the door of someone else’s house? A piece of paper that can easily be removed with barely any effort?

I think the reasoning you’re using is absurd.

I think these type of stories (and your stated approval of it) demonstrate the fascist totalitarianism of those on the Progressive Left.

6

No, they get covered fresh here daily.

7

Lol, I’ll have to agree with the gov on this one and he’s far from the progressive left.

8

I addressed that when I said this:

“Bad form. Way MORE than bad form. It’s like joking about a bomb in your luggage at the airport ticket counter. It’s something only an idiot would do, and it’s guaranteed to draw the law against you.”

Your choice to downplay what that noose means can be taken to say that you are one such idiot. But I really hope you’re just playing devil’s advocate here.

9

Now we’re talking about arresting people for symbols.

That sounds like something that would take place in fascist totalitarian countries.

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If some of those on the Left can’t see why this is a problem, maybe try imagining this scenario:
A guy puts out a sign in support of Trump on his front lawn. Someone else takes a piece of paper and writes “F*ck Trump & his supporters. May you die an untimely death!” and attaches the paper with a single little piece of tape to the sign. The police end up catching the guy who taped the piece of paper, and he gets sent to prison for a whole year and another year of probation after that.

You wouldn’t have any problem with that? Honestly?

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That would depend on what the note said. If the note were a death threat then whoever posted it would face criminal charges. In this case, one can easily make the connection between a noose and a death threat.

Personally, I would love to see every single illegal in this country lined up in the street and executed. But that’s not going to happen and so doing stupid shit like this doesn’t help the cause to get rid of these pieces of shit.

Welcome.

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I entirely disagree. The connection between a noose and a death threat is far from clear cut.

This illustrates another legal problem with the type of things that can be “construed” to be “threats”.

It’s just ridiculous and completely absurd when people can be sentenced to serious prison time for nooses with a little piece of string.

13

Do you have any concept of what private property is?

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14

Clearly you do.

Shrug.

15

Hint: Disagreeing with you on this issue does not make someone “on the left”.