Is a using a racial slur free speech or a crime? CT Supreme Court reinstates conviction of man ...

[sl8]

From https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-supreme-court-racial-slur-20200887-20200827-j6ufxkysgjfslpt56pmsl5kft4-story.html

Is a using a racial slur free speech or a crime? Connecticut Supreme Court reinstates conviction of man who shouted slur at parking officer in a ‘Fighting Words’ case

By EDMUND H. MAHONY
HARTFORD COURANT
AUG 27, 2020 AT 6:05 PM

The state Supreme Court on Thursday weighed in on the thorny question of when using racist language is criminal, upholding a breach of the peace conviction against a man who directed a racial slur at a traffic enforcement officer who had just issued him a parking ticket.

In a unanimous opinion written by outgoing Justice Richard N. Palmer, the court said the slur, which was both racially insulting and obscene, amounted to “fighting words” — words that could provoke a violent response and that “by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”

[...]

[beachbumbob]

1. there is a price to be paid for words that come out of your mouth

[CurtEastPoint]

2. The lovely David G. Liebenguth

The parking ticket case grew out of the issuance of a $15 citation by a New Canaan traffic officer, who is Black, to David G. Liebenguth of Greenwich, who is white, in the summer of 2014. Liebenguth, according to a variety of accounts outlined in court records, became enraged. He told the officer to “remember Ferguson,” a reference to the shooting of a Black man by police in Missouri. Liebenguth was accused of muttering slurs and clearly uttering a slur as he drove out of the lot.

[Alacritous Crier]

4. Damn!

If someone said "picture in your mind an American Nazi" this is the exact image I would see.

[greymattermom]

3. I'm not sure about this.

What would prevent other words from being said?

[GemDigger]

5. If he had said that to a person who was not a cop, not a damn thing would have been done. nt