Sunday, May 27, 2007

Handing out Fliers at a School is "Disorderly Conduct"?

I guess not tucking your shirt in is disorderly but is it disorderly conduct in the legal sense? The only reason such a charge has been trumped up against two schoolgirls is that the fliers they handed out were critical of homosexuality. That is the REAL offence. But since it is not yet illegal to criticize homosexuality, some other charge had to be dreamed up.

I have commented on this matter before -- on 18th. -- but the case has now become particularly obnoxious with one of the girls being held in jail for her non-crime. Even murderers get bail before trial but not this girl -- that's how important homosexuals are.

"Two 16-year-old girls face hate crime charges after distributing a flier at their northern Illinois high school that officials say contained hateful statements about gays. Both girls have been charged with committing a hate crime and disorderly conduct, according to the McHenry County state's attorney's office....

The girls were arrested this month after allegedly handing out fliers in the parking lot of Crystal Lake South High School that contain hateful language about gays and depict a male student kissing another boy. The victim of the alleged hate crime is a neighbor of one girl, according to court testimony.

One girl has been ordered to remain in juvenile custody until her trial later this month. Judge Michael Chmiel noted that the girl has had about 12 other brushes with police in recent years.

Source

A crime is only a hate crime if it is a crime to start with and the girl's action would appear to be protected as free speech so is not a crime of any sort. At worst it is a breach of school rules.

There are more extensive comments about this obnoxious case on STACLU and there is another good comment here.