Free or Felonious Speech?

[XLFD]

On May 8th, a black maintenance worker was preparing a vacant unit of an apartment complex down in Grand Haven for residency and left the building shortly for supplies.  When he came back he found the following the wall of that apartment.

 

The blurred word, unblurred when it was fresh, was the n-word.  Not much was known about who did it, but the area's Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance met this Wednesday to discuss what happened. 

 

Thursday night, a suspect was taken into custody for the felony of ethnic intimidation, and malicious destruction of property under $200, a misdemeanor.  Kenneth Ray Schmidt was arraigned earlier today.

 

Now, Kenneth has a criminal history (DWUI twice, last in 1985, misdemeanor domestic violence, 2000, misdemeanor drug possession charge, 2010) and has previously left a note on another black man's door who lived in the complex allegedly saying "N******, if you come up to my door again, somebody is going to get hurt." 

This time he will have to face a felony, ethnic intimidation charges, because he wrote on the wall in red marker, even though the words are less threatening.  The reason is because the law says:

 

(1) A person is guilty of ethnic intimidation if that person maliciously, and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person's race, color, religion, gender, or national origin, does any of the following:

(a) Causes physical contact with another person.

(b) Damages, destroys, or defaces any real or personal property of another person.

(c) Threatens, by word or act, to do an act described in subdivision (a) or (b), if there is reasonable cause to believe that an act described in subdivision (a) or (b) will occur.

MCL 750.147b Ethnic Intimidation

 

Since the wall was defaced with the marker, he has violated section (b), and can now be charged up to $5000, and go to jail for two years just on the ethnic intimidation charge.  This aspect was missing on the previous note.  I think both charges are questionable since he did not 'destroy' any property, and think the defense could succeed in showing that the defaced wall did not belong to the person he was allegedly intimidating.  But I suspect he will plea bargain and get some jail time.

What do you think:  does the punishment fit the crime, and is the law a violation of free speech rights, when utilized like it is?

[Willy]

I think your giving me to much credit because that's a point I never thought of. The fact that the owner of the property is possibly the offended party [by law] and he may be white. I wrongly assumed the black man was connected to the building by ownership or by occupying the unit because I didn't read the post properly. This brings up another question. Is it still ethnic intimidation if someone  only sees the word. The word could be on any wall, sidewalk, freight car, ect. If that person knows and can prove who wrote it do they then become an aggrieved party just by the act of observing that word? What if the maintenance man was also part owner of the building and could not read? Would he still have a claim regarding ethnic intimidation.

[XLFD]

I think we both mutually expand each other's way of thinking, Willy.  Because your new points aren't where I had been before, but they make sense.  Maybe we should go on a tour of college campuses and talk of metaphysical things to the students.  Bet it would be a bit of a change from most of their professors.

[Willy]

Yeah, we could go as dumb and dumber. By the way did you hear the loud horns blasting last night down at the Badger docks. A couple from Minn. have a small semi with large horns Which came off different Great Lake freighters and I guess they had borrowed a couple of the Badgers horns as well. He blasted them a couple of times and I thought the dead would wake up they were so loud. They were waiting for the Badger so they could give a salute, something they do a couple of times a year, but it never showed because it got caught in the sand over at Wisconsin due to one of it's engines going on the fritz.

[XLFD]

I think we should market it as dumbest and dumbester.  I just so happened to be down at the Stearn Park Lakeshore around 8PM when I heard those horns and figured the Badger was still in, though it did sound as if the SS Badger had a bit of a problem with its horn. 

It just so happens, the SS Badger happened to be having its own bigger problems over in Wisconsin.  I wish those Maple-Leaf-sniffing Canadians could dredge their harbors better with them Euro dollars they have.

[Willy]

I had so many quesions I was asking him about the setup he had on his truck that he decided to start her up and sound a couple of salutes to demonstrate how it worked and how loud it was. You definitely need ear plugs when standing next to his truck. Of course I had to take some photos. I have noticed on the several occasions that I have been at the Wisconsin side of the Badger tour that their river is very silty. It looks bad when that dirty water meets the blue water of Lake Michigan.