On April 11, 2007, a student at Lewiston Middle School placed a bag containing leftover ham on the cafeteria table where Somali Muslim students were sitting for lunch. The Somali students reported the incident to Bill Brochu, a Lewiston police officer stationed at the school. After an investigation of the incident, the middle school’s assistant principal suspended the offending student for ten school days, a decision in which the principal concurred. The assistant principal classified the incident as “Hate Crime/Bias” in the school’s computer system, and Brochu filed a police report under the direction of his superior officer, characterizing the incident as “Crime: Harassment/Hate Bias.” Levesque was informed of the suspension and endorsed the decision.
Hate crimes are bullshit, and this is a good example. Also, there is no right “not to be offended” in a free country.
Why bullshit? Under what definition of crime would you charge placing a piece of ham on a table if the supposed “hate” aspect did not exist?
And why is the expression supposedly implicit in the placing of the piece of ham not itself protected as expression under the First Amendment?
When everything is a crime, no man is free.
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