A young man has been charged under hate crime statutes for displaying a noose on the back bumper of his pickup truck.  The incident took place in Alexandria, a few miles down the road from Jena, in the immediate wake of the September 20th march on Jena.  I learned about the incident from a breathless CNN producer who was in town to cover the march.  He wanted my reaction. 

I told him I’d have to think about it.  Four months have passed and I’m still thinking.

Yesterday, while my wife and I walked the dog, I said, “What do you think of charging the guy with the noose on his truck as a hate criminal?”

US Attorney Donald Washington announced the prosecution hours after dozens of lost souls wandered the streets of Jena with nooses dangling from their belts–one protester used a noose as a leash for his dog.  No charges were filed.

Nancy was silent for a moment.  When she started talking, I realized she had more to say on the subject than I did, and that she’d say it a lot better than I could.

Nancy Bean has been the heart and soul of Friends of Justice since our inception in 2000.  She opened our home to the defendants and their families every Sunday night.  She recruited and organized a bus trip of 50 people, mostly children, to march on Austin in the fall of 2000.  She was a teacher at Tulia High School at the height of the drug sting controversy where she was aggressively shunned by other teachers.  She organized a series of camps and college visits for poor students of Tulia who had never dreamed of going to school. “Hello Ms. Bean,” kids of all ages would say as we walked our dog through the poor neighborhoods of Tulia.  Regularly we’d open our door to a band of children inquiring about the next outing. After they graduated, Nancy’s students continued to drop in to her classroom or to our home for help filling out a job application or to play a game of pool. 

After we took in three young children who had been orphaned by Tulia’s drug sting, Nancy received furtive requests from high school students wanting to come home with her.  When her latest orphan graduated high school and left for college after two years with us, Nancy told her parents and God: “I’m not taking anyone else in. Well, not unless they arrive on the doorstep and tell me that God sent them.”

Nancy is now a Special Education Counselor in two Arlington schools.

So, what does Nancy think about charging a white kid in Louisiana with a hate crime?  Read on . . .

Hate sucks. And directed against God’s creatures, hate is shameful and anathema to the law of God which is love.  But making hate a crime is a dangerous thing in a free society. When we give the power of punishing motives to the government, whether in the name of a terrifying war on terror or in the name of protecting the civil rights of minorities, we open up a floodgate assault against free speech and dissent.

I hear and agree with the well-intentioned arguments for hate crime enhancement as disincentive for intimidation of ethnic minorities. But since when can we entrust government with powers over our intentions? Since when can we entrust government with powers over our free speech? Since Salem? Since the Sedition Acts? Since McCarthyism? Since Homeland Security?

A noose is an unmitigated symbol of hatefulness and a reminder of our societal shame. So is a swastica. Such symbols are not allowed in public schools. Items of clothing or drawings boasting such are confiscated and kids in possession are given detention or suspension.  That’s because students are required to be in school and the school is acting in loco parentis. Sorry, but you can’t show your boobs or your butt in school, either. It’s not about freedom of speech; it’s about the training and supervision of our children.

School administrators are known to go overboard in their parental role and do nasty things such as suspicionless drug testing under parental protest. Our family knows that first hand. But no one is going to prison because confederate flag t-shirts are not allowed on campus. And the administrators at Jena High School could have saved everyone a whole load of trouble if they had responded to nooses hanging on school grounds with firm in-school discipline for the perpetrators and in-class education and counseling sessions for students and staff.  

A kid stupid enough to drive through town with a noose on display should be charged with a stupid crime that he is no doubt committing. Like driving dangerously or under the influence. Or somebody should call his mother. Or if she is already in prison, somebody should call his grandmother. We have more than enough laws to prosecute and to send two million people to prison.

We don’t need to make more criminals; we need to make more citizens. We need to teach real history to our kids: the real ugly and courageous stories that make us who we are. We need to teach dissent to our children: how to live respectful, empowered, dissenting lives.

The New Black Panthers joined the September 20th throng in Jena. Dressed in military fatigues and black barets as symbols of racial warfare, they employed physical intimidation to get their message to the crowds. They barred organizers like my husband, Alan, from some proceedings. Should they be charged with hate crimes? As distasteful as I find the symbols of war, I don’t think so.

People go to prison or disappear to torture camps in Syria when the government is given the right to censure our speech and to interpret our motives. I want to live with my freedom of speech and dissent. And that means people I disagree with and people full of hate get to keep theirs, too.

Nancy Bean