What Happened Tonight: Hanging a Noose on Someone's Door is Not a Crime

[FreeState]

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150288588520573&id=30608490

Tonight I arrived to unlock the office while Daniel was picking up scripts at Kinkos. There was a small noose hanging from the door handle. Being that we are an organization advocating for gay rights, I felt the message like a chill through my spine. This was intentional. At the encouragement of fellow activists, I called the Santa Ana Police Department and officers were sent out to our office.

...


When the police arrived, two officers spoke to Daniel and myself outside. The male officer dominated the conversation. There was nothing they could do, of course, there was no suspect and no crime had been committed. The officer said "what it is, is a string on a door." My vision got blurry, I was embarrased and felt stupid for making the call. I took a deep breath and said "Do you see any correlation between the fact that this is a gay office and there was a noose left on our door in the wake of all of these teen suicides?" The officer said, "Sometimes you just have to live with being a victim," and proceeded to mention that his car had been broken into before. As if that's the same. As if having your stereo stolen is anything like the message "You should kill yourself." As if random theft is anything like an act meant to convey hate and stir up fear in the heart of a minority group.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Call the FBI

Local cops won't do anything.

[Poll_Blind]

4. The more I think about it, the more I would recommend this as well.

The FBI wants to know about things like this and has better resources to help.

I don't think an FBI agent is going to say "This is a bit of string on a door".

PB

[intheflow]

5. I second this.

It's a hate crime. If the local cops don't recognize it as such you have to go further up the crime-fighting ladder.

[laughingliberal]

9. Yep. nt

[spanone]

2. sad state of america

evidence of a possible hate crime

[donco6]

3. Yeah - looks like string to me.

:sarcasm:

Just waiting for the cop apologists to come along . . .

[daleanime]

8. Why?

Just because he's a cop, doesn't mean he can't be an a@@hole too.:grr:

[donco6]

13. That's kinda the point.

I'm waiting for the usual cadre of police-department defenders to show up on this thread. Because it's not really a piece of string, it's a noose, and it's a threat. Is that clear enough?

[wtmusic]

6. I hope they got the officer's ID. This is a threat

and should be dealt with as such.

[Jamastiene]

7. I'm pretty sure a noose is communicating threats or

if not a threat of some sort, then at the very least vandalism or littering or something. Anything. That cop needs to be taught that his job is to fucking protect and serve. He needs to lose his job over this. The cops should not be picking and choosing who they will and will not protect and serve like that.

[dgibby]

10. Please call the FBI if you haven't already done so.

Also, send this to the Southern Poverty Law Center, as they are tracking these hate crimes all over the nation. I'd also recommend getting this on the local news, along with the officer's comments.

I'd like to send this to Rachel if it's ok with you.

[FreeState]

12. Im not the author of the article - just posted it n/t

[dgibby]

15. Oops! My bad!

Still, I hope the author pursues this. I'm going to forward the article to Rachel. Nothing like a little national exposure. Thanks for posting.

[lib_wit_it]

11. I'm sorry you had to experience both the noose and the cop's lack of empathy. It is so upsetting .

to me just to know people who would even think of such a despicable act. The fact that they actually carried it out? It's appalling and terrifying, but as long as they're not Muslims, no problem, right? Only Muslims can be extremists and terrorists.

[bullwinkle428]

14. He should have told police he saw a guy sneaking around the building

in "Muslim garb"!

K&R.

[FreeState]

16. LOL - that probably would have worked too! n/t

[slackmaster]

17. Making a criminal threat is a crime in California, but a suspect is required for charged to be filed

PENAL CODE
SECTION 422-422.4



422. Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which
will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with
the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or
by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a
threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out,
which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made,
is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to
convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an
immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes
that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own
safety or for his or her immediate family's safety, shall be punished
by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by
imprisonment in the state prison.
For the purposes of this section, "immediate family" means any
spouse, whether by marriage or not, parent, child, any person related
by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other
person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the
prior six months, regularly resided in the household.
"Electronic communication device" includes, but is not limited to,
telephones, cellular telephones, computers, video recorders, fax
machines, or pagers. "Electronic communication" has the same meaning
as the term defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of
the United States Code.



422.1. Every person who is convicted of a felony violation of
Section 148.1 or 11418.1, under circumstances in which the defendant
knew the underlying report was false, in addition to being ordered to
comply with all other applicable restitution requirements and fine
and fee provisions, shall also be ordered to pay full restitution to
each of the following:
(a) Any person, corporation, business trust, estate, trust,
partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental
subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or
commercial entity for any personnel, equipment, material, or clean up
costs, and for any property damage, caused by the violation
directly, or stemming from any emergency response to the violation or
its aftermath.
(b) Any public or private entity incurring any costs for actual
emergency response, for all costs of that response and for any clean
up costs, including any overtime paid to uninvolved personnel made
necessary by the allocation of resources to the emergency response
and clean up.
(c) Restitution for the costs of response by a government entity
under this section shall be determined in a hearing separate from the
determination of guilt. The court shall order restitution in an
amount no greater than the reasonable costs of the response. The
burden shall be on the people to prove the reasonable costs of the
response.
(d) In determining the restitution for the costs of response by a
government entity, the court shall consider the amount of restitution
to be paid to the direct victim, as defined in subdivision (k) of
Section 1202.4.



422.4. (a) Any person who publishes information describing or
depicting an academic researcher or his or her immediate family
member, or the location or locations where an academic researcher or
an immediate family member of an academic researcher may be found,
with the intent that another person imminently use the information to
commit a crime involving violence or a threat of violence against an
academic researcher or his or her immediate family member, and the
information is likely to produce the imminent commission of such a
crime, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a
county jail for not more than one year, a fine of not more than one
thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both a fine and imprisonment.
(b) For the purposes of this section, all of the following apply:
(1) "Publishes" means making the information available to another
person through any medium, including, but not limited to, the
Internet, the World Wide Web, or e-mail.
(2) "Academic researcher" has the same meaning as in Section
602.12.
(3) "Immediate family" means any spouse, whether by marriage or
not, domestic partner, parent, child, any person related by
consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other
person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the
prior six months, regularly resided in the household.
(4) "Information" includes, but is not limited to, an image,
film, filmstrip, photograph, negative, slide, photocopy, videotape,
video laser disc, or any other computer-generated image.
(c) Any academic researcher about whom information is published in
violation of subdivision (a) may seek a preliminary injunction
enjoining any further publication of that information. This
subdivision shall not apply to a person or entity protected pursuant
to Section 1070 of the Evidence Code.
(d) This section shall not apply to any person who is lawfully
engaged in labor union activities that are protected under state or
federal law.
(e) This section shall not preclude prosecution under any other
provision of law.

[saras]

18. Depends on where you are

I don't know what Santa Ana is like, but in some parts of the country, it's not even a crime if the noose has a dead liberal hanging in it.