Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson indicated this week that they are “pursuing” an investigation into whether comments made by Michael Brown’s stepfather Louis Head (shown here in the white cap) should be charged for his inciting a riot for his response to the news that there would be no indictment of Officer Darren White. While I certainly do not condone the language, I have long been a critic of such “violent speech” prosecutions and I believe that such charges would violate his free speech rights and ignore the mitigating factor of a family member in a highly emotional position that night. Warning: profane words are contained in the story below and the videotape.
After the news of the grand jury decision, Head started to scream “Burn this motherfucker down! Burn this bitch down!” Looting and arson broke out soon after the decision of the grand jury.
In addition to police chief, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder told Fox News that it sounds like Head was trying to incite a riot.
After the grand jury’s decision was announced, 12 commercial buildings in Ferguson were destroyed by fire and there were well over 100 arrests at St. Louis-area.
I do not believe that Head’s comments would satisfy the standard established by the Supreme Court in 1969 in Brandenburg v. Ohio as advocating imminent violence. Violent speech is protected under the Constitution absent such a threat of imminent violence. I have previously written about the dangerous line of criminalizing speech. I currently have a case going before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on this issue in United States v. Al-Timimi.
Adding to the constitutional concerns raised by the threatened prosecution of Head is that fact that he was a grieving family member expressing widely shared anger at the news of the decision. He had just jumped up to hold his wife who was sobbing after the news. I doubt anyone seriously believes that it was Head who triggered the rioting, looting, and arson. Those crimes occurred at the time of the incident and were widely anticipated by law enforcement personnel. Head has apologized for his outburst and said that he was wrong to call for violence.
Source: CBS
Isn’t he in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Without the television coverage of Brown’s mother in grief and the step father in rage, how much influence would that guy have had?
What JMRJ said.
When Michael Brown’s killer and his accomplices get criminally charged and when the killer and his accomplices in the New York Stranglehold case get criminally charged, then maybe we can talk about charging the step father. How many black men have to be killed by the police before this country admits it still has a racial problem? What about the 12 year old in Cleveland? When black people’s lives are officially undervalued by a society, what do you expect to happen?
rafflaw
You know, I agreed with your position, even when you criticized me for spelling your avatar name wrong as my keyboard is going out, until after the grand jury decision came back. I no longer understand why you are upset. There is no evidence to support a trial. He was not shot in the back. He attacked officer Wilson. The town lied for him. I don’t hear you saying anything about 20-year old DeAndre Joshua who was shot and murdered right were Michael Brown was murdered. The first of the “truther ” victims as he testified truthfully in the grand jury. Are you saying he lied?
http://beforeitsnews.com/protests-demonstrations/2014/11/ferguson-grand-jury-witness-killed-ferguson-secrets-revealed-a-beta-test-for-civil-war-in-america-2455024.html
I don’t think its disgusting that Louis Head is under investigation. I think that Louis Head is disgusting as well as Lesley McSpadden and their T Shirt Stand they sat up last October and ripped off themselves for 1400 dollars. Apparently Michael Brown did not have much of a chance. Here is the police report and the screaming family fight I could not cut out
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/brown-family-fight.
Why should these people be encouraged to act like animals? Just because of the color of their skin? They are not unfortunate. Lesley McSpadden works at the premier Grocery Store in St. Louis right by Clayton – Straubs long known as a specialty store. The United States has long been known as the land of opportunity and any color since the Civil Rights act of 1964 can have the same opportunities.
If it’s a little tough out there because some are bullies, I would have to say that Michael Brown bullied the Store Manager. Are you sorry for the store manager? Is it okay Michael Brown attacked Darren Wilson and there were multiple witnesses and there was graffitti around town saying “Snitches get Stitches”
That is gang mentality. There is no excuse for that except too much time on their hands. The sense of entitlement to do these things is horrifying. I don’t care what color they are.
I know many African American people that are very special and loving and a blessing to our community. Thank God for them. We have many at our Amen Center that take in the Homeless children as well as many at the High School that are extremely talented musically and are headed to be Doctors and Lawyers. It is up to their Parents to set them on the right road. Not society……..
BTW. Women still don’t have equal rights. The ball was dropped in the Senate because it didn’t make it through the states in 1974…….. Not that I am complaining.
You cant yell fire, when there isnt one. And it is sure as hell illegal to yell fire resulting in causing some.
People say a lot of things when their mad. Your a white cop and you see a black man assaulting someone, If you confront him and he comes at you if you shoot him you lose your job. So you just turn away and let him beat the crap out of the victim. With all these civil rights investigations Eric Holder’s bringing why risk the confrontation?
When the U.S. Supreme Court rules on constitutionality they are essentially drawing the extreme boundaries for thousands of future cases that can last for several decades or longer. Be very careful giving up speech rights.
On this level, this ruling is not about a single case at all but the longterm legal precedent that governs all future court cases at the federal, state and local levels. Courts are required to follow these precedents.
Charge him?
Heck, Obama might knight him.
Unlike many pundits and bloggers who were using fiery language to describe police and their treatment of the poor and minorities in this country, Michael Brown’s stepfather went over the top with fighting words. Saying burn it down goes beyond words into trying to compel action
Charge him.
Yes. Just like the “The Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman.
He inspired the WTC 1993 bombing and many acts of violence, including the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were killed.
One more thing. Role play. You’re physically, a medium build police officer, male or female. A 6’4”, 280 pound male is coming at you & doesn’t comply. What to do?
Same problem in NYC with the Eric Garner case. Eric is a big man. Before the cop does a choke hold, Eric is mouthing off, swinging his arms and twisting and turning his big body.
Hand to hand combat…… Roll the video.
The short and quite obvious answer to the question posed is no, of course he shouldn’t be prosecuted.
Lots of things can be prosecuted – because too many laws, for one thing – and aren’t. That’s as it should be, and if there was ever one such it is this one.
Sadly, I don’t have a lot of confidence that the prosecutor’s office in Ferguson has the minimal judgment required to make the easy call.
Not even the First Amendment. This man incited that riot. And on top of that I would take it one step further and say he was on the crack pipe when he was doing it.
What??? An emotional hateful crowd of people incited by the President of the United States and Holder and Sharptongue and then someone is supposed to have the freedom of speech to say burn it down and people are supposed to know better?????? suuuuurrrreeee. In your dreams.
Burn, Baby, Burn! does not rest on a prong of the First Amendment.
Oh, there are some distinctions between protest, free speech, petitioning your government for redress of grievances and : Burn Baby Burn!
I am bringing my Ferguson buds to George Washington University and we are headed to the Theatre. We are going to wait for the crowd to fill and be seated and then Yell Fire! Yell Fire in a Crowded Theatre. Get it. Then, we are going to amass some guys from the slums of DC and pay em some money and get em drunk and have AL Qaeda Sharptone on a video screen ramp them up and then say GO Burn The Bitch Down and of course point to the George Washington University.
Coming to a theatre near you JT.
But first my gang is going to NYC to deal with Big AL Qaeda Sharptone’s neighborhood. Burn, Baby Burn!
Agree with your conclusion.
The cops have been (still are?) pretty heavy handed – I doubt that a prosecution of Mr. Head will do much to improve the public’s perception of the Ferguson police.
Just as other fishing expeditions by irate citizens bring the law, constitution, or other sacred but necessarily flexible institutions into the picture, if Mike Brown’s father contributed to inciting the riots, rampaging, and looting that went on in Ferguson, then the issue should be brought before the people’s decision making instruments.
The issue of free speech is something society gives to its individuals, as well as something its individuals take. If the law interpreters decide that his was the spark that set the fires then he should be held accountable. If it’s found that his ranting was merely some of much ranting and raving then that was all it was. The difference between someone yelling fire in a crowded theatre and someone yelling burn baby burn should be revisited from time to time.
As serious as the inequities are that exist in this country, frustration arising from those inequities should be focused on the cause of those inequities not on unrelated events such as a police officer shooting a person who robbed a store, pushed a clerk aside, attacked the police officer, and then posed a threat to the police officer, most of which is supported by solid evidence.
On the other hand, it is important to note that the very people that were responsible in the greatest way for the actions of Michael Brown on the evening of his death, his parents, are the ones adding fuel to the fire. When this is written about and takes center stage in this affair, then perhaps some justice will have taken place.
That should be stepfather, not father in law and no he shouldn’t be prosecuted.
He should be charged. This wasn’t an emotional rant, this was with forethought and malice.
There may be some prominent talk radio hosts that should be concerned about penalizing the “speaker” instead of the “listener” that acts illegally.