Northwestern Students Face Criminal Charges for Pro-Palestine College Newspaper Parody
theintercept.com
Northwestern students who made a prank pro-Palestine front page for the school newspaper face criminal charges under an obscure anti-KKK law.

Title says it all, really.

Following the investigation, local prosecutors brought charges against two students for theft of advertising services. The little-known statute appears to only exist in Illinois and California, where it was originally passed to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from distributing recruitment materials in newspapers. The statute makes it illegal to insert an “unauthorized advertisement in a newspaper or periodical.” The students, both of whom are Black, now face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

“I have never seen anyone charged with theft of advertising,” said Elaine Odeh, a lawyer who formerly supervised public defenders in Cook County, Illinois, which includes Evanston, where Northwestern is based.

I ask anyone who stands against the ongoing crackdown on the free speech of anti-genocide protestors, or against the disproportionate criminalization of Black people and their speech, or for the freedom of the press and the freedom to parody, to consider signing this student-led change.org petition.

  • spider@lemmy.nz
    0·
    9 months ago

    Cohen v. California comes to mind:

    The Court ultimately found that displaying a mere four-letter word was not sufficient justification for allowing states to restrict free speech and that free speech can be restricted only under severe circumstances beyond offensiveness.

    Hopefully the current case doesn’t make it to this U.S. Supreme Court, the majority of which has little to no respect for legal precedent.

    • cobra89@beehaw.org
      0·
      9 months ago

      Exactly my thought. This should never reach SCOTUS though because this is so objectively unconstitutional that every court should throw it out before it ever even comes to trial.

  • S_204@lemm.ee
    0·
    9 months ago

    Huh, too bad the colleges didn’t prepare these people for the real world.

    Maybe they’ll pick up some useful skills while in jail.

      • S_204@lemm.ee
        0·
        9 months ago

        Tastes like employment, retirement funds and financial security.

        Sent from my 5 star mexican resort LoL.

        • Fenrisulfir@lemmy.ca
          0·
          9 months ago

          I don’t know what league of legends has to do with anything but you’re on lemmy, most of us are wfh digital nomads. You’re a terrible troll. Git gud scrub

          • S_204@lemm.ee
            0·
            9 months ago

            Sad When faced with reality you’re unable to process things and revert to calling people trolls. I suppose that’s what being a pathetic loser does to the likes of you.

      • S_204@lemm.ee
        0·
        9 months ago

        Lol, “free thinking” while regurgitating literal terrorist propaganda, funded by Qatar. Yup, they sure learned how to think by foregoing all critical thinking.

        It’s at least nice to see industry saying the obvious out loud here, these people are unemployable.

        • spider@lemmy.nz
          0·
          9 months ago

          while regurgitating literal terrorist propaganda

          No, it’s satire, and intelligent people can tell the difference.

          Yup, they sure learned how to think by foregoing all critical thinking.

          …which would be regurgitating AIPAC propaganda, right?

          funded by Qatar

          …which has diplomatic relations with Israel. If they funded anti-Israel propaganda, they would not.

          (And the Mossad would know the difference.)

          these people are unemployable.

          That’s just your opinion, not the word of God.

          • S_204@lemm.ee
            0·
            9 months ago

            Are you claiming that the IRGC being a bad operator is Mossad actions? Or are you claiming the Houthis represent the will of the Yemeni people? Cuz either way that’s absolutely fucking retarded.