Obviously idiotic and ignorant, but how is this criminal.
The unnamed 16-year-old student was charged with “ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, or race" for a Snapchat post where the teen displayed a picture of a black classmate and reportedly captioned it with a racial slur.
The student has also been charged with breach of the peace.
“Police in Fairfield, Connecticut, arrested the student on a state hate crime charge of ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race. The misdemeanor dating back to 1917 has been called an unconstitutional infringement on free speech rights by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and some law school professors…
While it is common for students to be disciplined by school officials for such comments, police and civil rights advocates said it is unusual for students to be arrested for what they say on social media if it does not involve threats, incitement or a pattern of harassment…
The racist posting comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether public schools can discipline students for things they say off campus on social media. The case involves a Pennsylvania high school freshman's swear-filled rant on Snapchat, posted while she was at a convenience store, over being kept on the junior varsity cheerleading squad for another year. She was suspended from the team for a year.”
Even the increasingly partisan, far-left ACLU has called the law used to go after the teen “unconstitutional”.
Emerson Sykes, a senior attorney with the organization tells ABC News, “having racist ideas or sharing racist ideas is something that we actually protect. Even if that viewpoint is offensive, even if it's deplorable, we don't want the government making the call about what's OK to say and think and what is not."
UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh adds that the inherently unconstitutional because it suppresses speech on the basis of content and viewpoint.