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The NYPD Hate Crime unit is investigating the latest in a series of incidents wherein Brooklyn sidewalks have been strewn with "Kill Jews" notes. The anti-Semitic notes previously appeared in Boerum Hill and Clinton Hill earlier this month; now they've turned up in Bay Ridge. Yesterday morning, residents along Third Avenue discovered the sidewalk littered with hundreds of two-inch pieces of paper with "Kill Jews" written in black marker.
But no one called 911 to report the incident, and by the time police canvassed the 19-block stretch leading up to 94th St. later in the day, the notes were gone. Local mother Liz Carlson tells the Daily News, "I don't expect to see messages to kill Jews as I walk to school in the morning. What scares me is that someone would take the time to hand write all the little signs and then cut them out individually. Whoever did this is obviously sick. This is how violence begins."
On the other hand, local electrician Eddie Quimby seemed to explain the locals' seeming reluctance to alert authorities about the notes: "It's morally disgusting. It's probably some little punk. We can make a big deal of it and let the idiots win. Or we can rip them up and throw them in the trash and ignore this stupidity." Maybe so, but it would probably be better if we could throw them in the trash and teach this "little punk" a lesson.
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Quimby 2010!
something doesn't add up in this story.
im not exactly sure why the hate crimes unit is investigating unless they are enforcing littering laws.
its not a crime to Hate. and if they were really supposedly investigating the last outbreak of messages and gothamist keeps putting up insinuations that its related to the WBC kooks, then the nypd would have been tailing those lunatics looking for anything from jaywalking to illegal parking.
is anybody familiar with legal precedent around these parts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio
government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless it is directed to inciting and likely to incite imminent lawless action.
kill jews speech is repugnant but unless hes sitting in a room goading a crowd then pointing to a guy in the front row for lynching then its permissible.
Oliver Wendell Holmes is one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices in history, particularly for his "clear and present danger" majority opinion in the 1919 case of Schenck v. United States.
->
Leaving notes on the sidewalk is not a clear and present danger, sorry.
Can you tell the difference between "I'm hungry" and "I'm eating?" Ok, now again consider the difference between "Hate Jews" and "Kill Jews" and you see why the hate crimes unit is investigating.
Although the Westboro pic is a funny and semi-relevant touch... they're good about their legal stuff and wouldn't have done this.
look i dont see that message as intent, imminence, and likelihood of harm. its already established legal fact that you can have free speech, even hateful speech.
if thats the case we should not be looking for the guy who left the notes, but the theoretical mental midgets who take action based on scibbled notes found on the sidewalk.
ever heard of this guy?
Westbrook Pegler
In 1965, referring to Robert F. Kennedy, Pegler wrote: "Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies"
perfectly legal, even though he was hateful of everyone.
& i understand the difference between the words hungry & eating, and hate & kill.
so please decribe the crime.
cite a specific law that is being violated in the content of the speech.
if i dont help an old lady carry her groceries because i hate the elderly its still not a crime to hate and no specific violation of law has occured, no matter how callous or immoral or selfish the action is.
just because you're using big words, that doesn't mean your arguments are smart or even coherent.
incitement to violence crosses the line, legally speaking. i would say that this is a pretty clear incitement to violence.
furthermore, if there were (god forbid) some kind of massacre in a synagogue or other hate crime, and it turned out that event were linked to this one, the police would be pilloried in the media for having ignored this obvious crime.
prudence demands an investigation of this incident. to suggest otherwise is pointlessly contrarian and irresponsible, in my view.
I saw a single paper like that blowing in the wind in Battery Park a few weeks ago.
This past winter I was walking down Atlantic, between Hoyt and Bond, and a youngish man walking about 30 paces in front of me dropped a small square of paper that said "Kill Jews". I couldn't tell what was going on there - he did it surreptitiously. I didn't make the connection to the recent incidents until I read that they were written on small scraps of paper.
if the people on this comment thread are honest in their reports of similar incidents, they should be reporting them to the relevant police department investigating the current incident.
it is your civic duty to report incidents related to ongoing investigations to the appropriate authorities.
There's a book I read a few years back called:
Hatred, The Psychological Decent into Violence By Willard Gaylin
This book should be mandatory reading in all high schools and universities. Pick it up, it'll change the way you think and speak, eg. using the word "hate" to describe something as small and insignificant as the crust on your sandwich or a person you dislike.
So have any jews been killed? ...I didn't think so.
just because you say its a crime or call it a clear incitement to violence deosnt mean it is.
if you read the relevant first ammendment free speech cases about regugnant ideas and unpopular opinions you would understand this.
if i wrote that vile message as my comment, i might get my gothamist acocunt suspended, but its not a crime kids.
civic duty
hello police, This past winter I was walking down Atlantic, between Hoyt and Bond, and a youngish man walking about 30 paces in front of me dropped a small square of paper that said "Kill Jews". I couldn't tell what was going on there - he did it surreptitiously
do you have a better description, name or vechicle, color clothing, brand of sneakers or what team baseball cap he was wearing?
NO,
ok thanks, youre a great help, your information will help us crack the case
it feels like you're defending these people. why can't you just agree that shit like this is wrong and something should be done about it. little things like this incite hatred and that is fact.
why do we even have to debate this? you can't possibly tell me that the people who write these signs and leave them everywhere are good people doing good things.
The inhabitants of a community have the right to feel safe in that community. It's bullshit that you feel the need to go out of your way to try and tell us that this doesn't require investigating if it is something that is clearly WRONG.
i didnt defend these people, they are not good people.
shit like this is wrong.
its wrong, not a crime and its certainly not directed at a specific person, home or school
clearly WRONG is not the same as a CRIME.