The FBI investigates THIS?!

[SomeKid]

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_117473.asp

Police Check Report Of White Man Hanging Noose
posted November 21, 2007

Authorities are checking a report of a white man hanging a noose at a construction site in North Chattanooga.

Early Wedenesday morning, police were called to 104 Tremont St. at Conversions Salon and Boutique on a call of a noose hanging from a building under construction.

Police talked with a witness who stated she observed a white male hang a noose from the third floor at the construction site where new condos are being built.

Chattanooga Police and the Chattanooga field office of the FBI will be doing a joint investigation of the incident.





Oh the horror! The HORROR! Instead of checking out terrorists, or looking for actual criminals, we are sending the FBI to investigate this stuff. Tomorrow, at Thanksgiving, I will remember to thank my Dad for giving me this country as an inheritance.

[Thor]

It could be worse, you could be an African native.......

[wooderson]

I believe this is fairly standard for potential race issues in the South. There is some history involved...

[Perd Hapley]

I believe this is fairly standard for potential race issues in the South. There is some history involved...

True.  But as you say, it's history. 

[Boomhauer]

Of course. Its a HATE CRIME! Its a HATE CRIME!

I believe this is fairly standard for potential race issues in the South. There is some history involved...

Its a bunch of bullshit these days. But it presists

[geronimotwo]

i believe that to some people it has the same meaning as a swastika does to others.

[El Tejon]

It's not ancient history and your racial problems never end. 

You all just had a little thing at Jena, LA that has everyone one upset.  Given the presistent nature of Southern racism, I would think there would be political pressure for the feds to investigate up appearances politically and to keep racial tensions cool down there.

Given the history of the Civil War, 1866 Civil Rights Act, the 14th Amendment, Reconstruction and the de jure oppression of African Americans for over a century, isn't this what the federal government SHOULD be doing???

[Perd Hapley]

Why?  Let the local or state handle it.  There is no reason for the FBI to be involved. 

[Boomhauer]

It's not ancient history and your racial problems never end. 

You all just had a little thing at Jena, LA that has everyone one upset.  Given the presistent nature of Southern racism, I would think there would be political pressure for the feds to investigate up appearances politically and to keep racial tensions cool down there.

Given the history of the Civil War, 1866 Civil Rights Act, the 14th Amendment, Reconstruction and the de jure oppression of African Americans for over a century, isn't this what the federal government SHOULD be doing???

Let me guess, you believe that Blacks can't hate or show prejudice, either, do you?

African Americans

Not African-Americans unless they were from Africa. I know...2 actual African Americans.

keep racial tensions cool down there

The only ones that are heating up racial tensions are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and their ilk.

[El Tejon]

Avenger, regarding African American racism, not at all, I have lived in Chicago and D.C.  I know that is not true (and that's just from observing the politicians).

African American?  Well, that's what many blacks wish to be called, so I call them that.

I have no doubt that Jesse and Al are stirring the pot regardless of federal action.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

"Given the presistent nature of Southern racism, I would think there would be political pressure for the feds to investigate up appearances politically and to keep racial tensions cool down there."

as opposed to the insidious underhanded northern racism?   spoken as only a yankee could

[Nitrogen]

i believe that to some people it has the same meaning as a swastika does to others.

Sure.  It's offensive, disgusting, and in poor taste.
But it's not illegal.
Or it shouldn't be.

As a member of the ACLU, I'll support a racists' right to free speech, by hanging a noose, or a neo nazi's right to paint a swastika.  (And yes, I find the swastika to be reprehensible and personally offensive.)
I don't have to like it (And I'll utilize my rights to tell those doing these things they are morons, and honestly, I'll probably react very angrily) but that's the price you pay for having freedom of speech; you sometimes get exposed to speech you don't like.

I was listening to a talk show host earlier in the week talking about how hanging a noose is a hate crime.  I don't understand how it can be a crime, as it doesn't hurt anyone.

If the act is part of a campaign of harrassment, harassment could be the crime, if it's provable.  But the act of hanging a noose in and of itself isn't a crime.

[SomeKid]

I am in agreement with fistful, cdaddy, and Nitrogen. The world has ended.

Seriously though, I am mulling over walking around town hanging nooses purely as speech. My speech? Nooses are harmless, and people should not whine about them being hung all over the place.

[wooderson]

Why?  Let the local or state handle it.  There is no reason for the FBI to be involved.

Until very recently, "local and state" couldn't handle it themselves. Well, they could 'handle' it - but that meant protecting the perpetrators rather than enforcing the law or protecting anyone.

That's why the FBI remains involved in these cases.

[wooderson]

As a member of the ACLU, I'll support a racists' right to free speech, by hanging a noose, or a neo nazi's right to paint a swastika.

Red herring - authorities (be they feds or locals) investigate to determine why a noose was hung or a swastika was painted.

Hanging a noose in a location in order to intimidate minorities - to make them fearful, to get them to move - is, in fact, a federal crime (cf. US Attorney's statements on the Jena noose hanging) - a clear situation where the racists' 'right to free speech' begin to conflict with the rights of the people they're choosing to attack.

[Perd Hapley]

Why?  Let the local or state handle it.  There is no reason for the FBI to be involved.

Until very recently, "local and state" couldn't handle it themselves. Well, they could 'handle' it - but that meant protecting the perpetrators rather than enforcing the law or protecting anyone.

That's why the FBI remains involved in these cases. 

Well, I'm aware of the history, but let me rephrase.  No good reason for the FBI to be involved.  Better? 

[geronimotwo]

Let the local or state handle it.  There is no reason for the FBI to be involved.

i know it was a movie, but i believe "Mississippi Burning" was based on actual events. in that case i believe an outside agency wqas needed.

on a sideline, i recall reading that legisltion was in the works to make the use of some symbols (such as a noose, or swastika) an act of terrorism. it slips my mind where i read this.

[Typhoon]

I have no doubt that Jesse and Al are stirring the pot regardless of federal action.

I am amazed that these guys have any influence (let alone credibility) left at all.  Particularly Sharpton. 

Couple of months ago, this African American teenaged girl acted up in a Palmdale, California high school lunchroom.  She had to be restrained by a white security guard.

She claimed that the guard used excessive force and broke her wrist.  The implication was that he beat up on her because she was African American. 

In rides Sharpton into town.  He held a press conference, saying that what happened to this girl and her broke wrist was in ways more egregious than what happened in Jena.

When the non-Los Angeles Times local media reported that the girl was exaggerating her injuries and her wrist was not broke, when witnesses came forth and said that the security guard acted appropriately, Sharpton quietly went away&

Havent really heard from him since&

Hello?  Hello?  Rev. Sharpton?  Hello? 

[Firethorn]

Not African-Americans unless they were from Africa. I know...2 actual African Americans.

Given that Immigration was going on strong even after the civil war, I wonder if you figured an 'average' immigration time for European descended Americans if it wouldn't be later than the civil war.

IE the majority of 'White' Americans had their ancestors immigrate here after the civil war.

[SomeKid]

Fire, a true point. A lot of whites came post War of Northern Aggression.

I am proud of my ancestors who were here before the attack, and fought for the south...not so proud of the yankee ancestors who fought for the North.

[wooderson]

Not African-Americans unless they were from Africa. I know...2 actual African Americans.

Good god.

African-American is an ethnic identifier - someone 'born in America' of 'African' descent. This is the way it is used with every single ethnic group extant - Irish, Chinese, Arab, etc.. Because many African-Americans don't know to which people specifically they belong, or because we have historically been incapable of anything but treating the entire continent of Africa as a monolithic identity, it doesn't become divided into Igbo-Americans and Yoruba-American.

To whine that one can't be "African-American" if they weren't born in Africa is to remain willfully ignorant (or obtuse) about how the language works.

[Gewehr98]

I am proud of my ancestors who were here before the attack, and fought for the south...not so proud of the yankee ancestors who fought for the North.

People, we don't need to go there with this thread.  Cutesy little script or not, the Civil War was over almost 143 years ago, and even though people from all over the US have since served side-by-side in the two intervening World Wars, it appears some folks haven't gotten over it, slinging slurs like "Yankee" (I'm sure he didn't mean the ball team) in a derogatory fashion while flying rebel flags from their pickup trucks and shouting "The South Shall Rise Again".  Feh.  We're Americans here in 2007, and even if you wear gray uniforms and launch anvils on weekends, or stand for "Dixie" at ball games, it doesn't mean you can waltz into this diverse group of folks here and start stirring up fecal matter.  This particular Yankee served with and flew combat with many folks of different origins, and was proud to call members from South of the Mason-Dixon line my friends. I was willing to lay my life on the line for them, and I'd like to believe they'd do the same for me. Believe it or not, we have transcended the Civil War - hell, I spent 10 years of my career in the Deepest South, eating grits and saying "y'all".  I know that's a hard pill for some to choke down, but there it is.

Posts like Somekid's above really reduce the level of discourse on this forum, and I'm not so sure the forum owner (himself a transplant to this country) would sit still for such things. Let me state that while this isn't a pro-Union website, this also isn't a Confederate website, period. Members come here from a variety of backgrounds, and therefore one should consider engaging one's brain before putting their mouth in gear. In particular, I don't want APS to look or smell like this place:

http://www.confederatestatesofamerica.org/

Lest we forget, we're all adults here, or at the very least I'd like to credit that particular attribute to the ArmedPoliteSociety forum population.  Do not prove me wrong on that assumption. 

Jeebus. It's very much like the descendants of tobacco plantation slaves, who are currently demanding retribution from the tobacco companies now.  They need to get over themselves, because nobody from several generations ago is alive today to extract that pound of flesh from.   

[jeepmor]

Pretty apparent none of you LIVE in the south.  This stuff will NOT go away, accept it and move on.  As for FBI, no, I don't think it's warranted.

Get this, it's not about you YOU feel about the matter, it's about how THEY (bigots, racists and Southern Yokel trailer trash in my book) feel about the matter.  Some backwoods cultures never die, even though it has been 140+ years. 

Don't think you have any racist inkling yourself?  How do you feel about Middle Easterners then?  C'mon, be honest, you get nervous when you see a young, twitchy guy from the Middle East don't you? 

[Perd Hapley]

jeepmor,

There is nothing rural about racism; it is just as common in urban settings in America as in rural.  Perhaps more so.  And there is nothing racist about having suspicions about the twitchy Middle-Easterner you describe. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

"Pretty apparent none of you LIVE in the south.  "

really?  i was in the south last nite when i went to bed   did they move it?



"Don't think you have any racist inkling yourself?  How do you feel about Middle Easterners then?  C'mon, be honest, you get nervous when you see a young, twitchy guy from the Middle East don't you?   


i freely aknowledge my own racism as well as believe almost all adults are racist to some degree. 
perhaps you'd care to share the depths of yoour experience with racism as a white guy in oregon

my experience apparenty don't mirror yours. i've experienced the worst racism in new england then my perspective is different from yours