Omar Thornton Case: "Displaying" a Noose, in Order "to Intimidate or Harass Minorities" was Already a Crime in Connecticut Since May, 2008
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A reader just gave me a link to the following June 6, 2008 article.
"The governors of Connecticut and New York last month approved new laws to punish those who display nooses to intimidate or harass minorities and others. While violators in Connecticut face up to a year in prison under the state' new statute, offenders in New York could serve up to four years."

Noose displays provoke new state penalties by John Gramlich, Stateline, June 6, 2008.

Given Supreme Court First Amendment precedent, in which burning the American flag is protected speech, and such laws' racial partisanship, which appears to me to violate the 14th Amendment, I think that they are facially unconstitutional, but no one has challenged them.

Even if the Connecticut law distinguished between an actual noose and a drawing of a noose, if Thornton had really found nooses drawn in the men' room stall at Hartford Distributors, as he claimed, he could have hit the jackpot. Then again, Thornton was a lying, thieving, black mass murderer, so I guess we'll have to take his word for it.

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