Diversity vs. Freedom (contd.)

By Peter Brimelow

You won’t find this on the Washington Times website because, well, who cares? But on April 12, Page C2, the paper carried this short item:

Man given 10 years for burning cross

A man involved in a 1997 cross burning at Bowie [Md.] High School was sentenced to 10 years in prison without parole yesterday.

“This sentence sends out a clear message: There is no place for hate crime in the 21^st century,” said Lynne A. Battaglia, U.S. attorney for Maryland.

Brian Swetnam, 22, had pleaded guilty to federal hate-crime conspiracy charges.

Federal prosecutors said Swetnam and three other men were angry about an assault on a white student at the school. They discussed ways to threaten black students, including hiring a killer. In the end, they opted for a cross burning, which was carried out June 13, 1997….

VDARE comments:

[1] Ten years? Without parole?

[2] For a crime committed when he was 19 – a high school kid?

[3] In which no-one was hurt?

[4] Why is this a federal case?

[5] What happened to whoever assaulted the white student?

[6] What was the assailant’s race (unspecified as usual)?

[7] What if Brian Swetnam had burned a U.S. flag?

[8] What happened to O.J. Simpson?

[9] What was it, exactly, that there was no place for in the 21^st century?