Connecticut teen charged after allegedly calling classmate racist slur on Snapchat (generation, illegal)
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This one seems to have flown under the radar around these parts, but definitely something that makes you wonder.
I'm not condoning such behavior, but why does a racially offensive social media post merit being arrested and charged?
If a social media post involved making clear hostile threats to a person regardless of it involving race or not, then yeah, I could see an individual getting in serious legal trouble. But only a racist post? Whatever happened to freedom of speech? The school could merit its own punishment but to involve law enforcement is ridiculous.
A Connecticut teenager was arrested and charged after allegedly posting a photo of a classmate with a racist slur to his social media earlier this month.
The 16-year-old, who was not identified because he is a minor, was charged with ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race, as well as second degree breach of peace, Fairfield Police confirmed to NBC News on Monday. The photo has not yet been independently verified by NBC News.
Neither the police nor the schools specified what slur was used in the post.
Connecticut’s hate crime law on ridiculing has been filed at least 40 times since 2012 and has resulted in about 10 convictions, according to state court records. Critics say it appears to be one of only a few such state laws in the country.
A bill that would have repealed the law died last year when the state legislature ended its session early because of the coronavirus pandemic. The bill was prompted by the arrests of two University of Connecticut students in 2019 on the ridicule charge for uttering a racial slur several times while walking in the parking lot of a dorm. The students entered a probation program that is expected to result in the charges being erased.
David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said he had not heard of any other cases in the state in which a public school student was arrested for a social media post. He said the hate crime law on ridiculing remains an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
This one seems to have flown under the radar around these parts, but definitely something that makes you wonder.
I'm not condoning such behavior, but why does a racially offensive social media post merit being arrested and charged?
If a social media post involved making clear hostile threats to a person regardless of it involving race or not, then yeah, I could see an individual getting in serious legal trouble. But only a racist post? Whatever happened to freedom of speech? The school could merit its own punishment but to involve law enforcement is ridiculous.
Teenagers saying mean things which hurts the feelings of other kids, is now illegal???? WTH will teens do now on Twitter. Saying mean things and bullying is all the rage on Twitter, Facebook, etc...
If google and Alexa saved all the stuff I randomly said and showed my employer id probably be fired... Funny thing is that wouldn't bother me that much. I could play the role of government parasite instead. Chuckle.
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