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Confederate Flag Group Indicted for Confrontation With Black Partygoers

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The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/u...gia-indicted-clash-black-partygoers.html?_r=0

In an unusual legal maneuver, the district attorney in this suburb of Atlanta said Monday that he had won indictments against 15 supporters of the Confederate battle flag, accusing them of violating the state’s anti-street-gang statute during a confrontation with black partygoers in July.

Prosecutors say that members of the group, which calls itself Respect the Flag, threatened a group of blacks attending an outdoor birthday party on July 25. A cellphone video of part of the episode shows several white men driving away from the party in a convoy of pickup trucks with the Confederate battle flag and other banners, including American flags, fluttering from the truck beds.

Several criminal lawyers and legal scholars said Monday that they could not recall other instances in which a state anti-gang statute had been used to prosecute a Confederate heritage group in the Deep South. The first version of Georgia’s anti-gang law was passed in 1992 at the behest of Atlanta’s police chief at the time, Eldrin Bell.

The state’s General Assembly, in the law’s statement of intent, noted that citizens retained their rights to freedom of expression and association. But it also declared that Georgia was in a “state of crisis which has been caused by violent criminal street gangs whose members threaten, terrorize and commit a multitude of crimes against the peaceful citizens of their neighborhoods.”

The anti-gang law defines a “criminal street gang” as “any organization, association or group of three or more persons associated in fact, whether formal or informal,” that engages in or conspires to commit a defined set of serious criminal acts. The law gives prosecutors numerous ways to define the existence of a gang, including sharing signs, symbols, tattoos, graffiti or “common activities.”

Critics challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, but it was upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2009. Ronald L. Carlson, a law professor at the University of Georgia, said that Georgia’s law was generally “in line” with other state anti-gang statutes around the country.

But Mr. Carlson also said that he expected lawyers for the defendants to file pretrial motions to dismiss the counts and argue that the identification of their clients as gang members was a stretch.

LeeAnne Lynch, a public defender in DeKalb County, Ga., who was among the lawyers who unsuccessfully challenged the law’s constitutionality, said Monday that she continued to believe that the law was overly broad. She said small groups of people could be defined as a gang just because they were “wearing certain types of clothes or have a group motto that they share.”

Ms. Lynch said that the law had been used to prosecute members of rap groups who have some affiliation with criminal gangs, but are not gang members themselves. Prosecutors, she said, often use the statute to “load up” charges on defendants to pressure them to agree to a plea deal.

Good result. Somewhat sketchy law overall
 

Jeremy

Member
Trying to avoid this story because I can't imagine the comments or how people are going to lash back against it but I hope the family can remain safe and that these people will be locked up. Glad these insane outdated laws from the "gangsta rap" years is coming back to bite them in the ass.

interesting use of law, taking a system that is geared towards benefiting certain people and loopholing it to take them down.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
I'm sure it was just a group of state's rights activists proud of their heritage confronting a group of thugs. I bet somebody will come in and twist this story into something racist.
 
Oh yea the flag salesmen, who were tryin to raise money for those unfortunate souls who couldn't afford confederate flags

I remember this story
 

BriGuy

Member
That sounds like a pretty awful law truth be told. Good result notwithstanding, I don't know that I can agree with its application or intent. Way too much room for abuse.
 
I'm sure it was just a group of state's rights activists proud of their heritage confronting a group of thugs. I bet somebody will come in and twist this story into something racist.
Besides the birthday person was no angel anyway. Thank God we have these good folks here spreading freedom to everybody.
 

Madness

Member
The anti-gang law defines a “criminal street gang” as “any organization, association or group of three or more persons associated in fact, whether formal or informal,” that engages in or conspires to commit a defined set of serious criminal acts. The law gives prosecutors numerous ways to define the existence of a gang, including sharing signs, symbols, tattoos, graffiti or “common activities.”

What the heck kind of law is this? I mean the article brings up how it's being used currently to prosecute the confederate flag guys, but then also says how's it's been used to charge people who belong to a rap group who have gang ties but don't participate or are part of any gang themselves. Almost certainly this law, has been used to target other individuals unfairly (black, hispanics). We don't need zero tolerance, open ended laws like this. I mean under this, 3 or more people with the same tattoo could be seen as a gang here.
 

neurosyphilis

Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
I live in a state where Confederate flags are normal, shoot we even have the biggest confederate flag in the world flying over the interstate highway ! I'm able to tell who is doing it because they're really proud of their Southern heritage and those doing it out of spite. Like when I hear stories of people flying confederate flags when they're not even in the South or from it, they're doing it out of spite.
 

Herbs

Banned
I live in a state where Confederate flags are normal, shoot we even have the biggest confederate flag in the world flying over the interstate highway ! I'm able to tell who is doing it because they're really proud of their Southern heritage and those doing it out of spite. Like when I hear stories of people flying confederate flags when they're not even in the South or from it, they're doing it out of spite.

Meh, the heritage excuse is bullshit. Time to move on from their racist and oppressive heritage. They'll be better for it.
 
The south needs a new flag that represents the best thing you all ever produced: fried chicken. A flag with a drumstick sitting in a cast iron. That's something to rally around.
 
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