ALEXANDRIA, La. — A white man accused of driving past a group of black civil rights activists with two nooses dangling from the back of his pickup has been indicted on federal hate-crime and conspiracy charges, prosecutors said Thursday.

Jeremiah Munsen, 18, was arrested in September after driving past a crowd of people who had attended a civil rights march in Jena, about 40 miles northeast of Alexandria, police have said. The Jena march drew an estimated 20,000 protesters, and many stayed in surrounding cities, including Alexandria.

The indictment accuses Munsen of conspiring to threaten and intimidate the marchers and of committing a federal hate crime.

"It is a violation of federal law to intimidate, oppress, injure or threaten people because of their race and because those people are exercising and enjoying rights guaranteed and protected by the laws and Constitution of the United States," said Donald W. Washington, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana.

Of course, the idea that one teenager ("man") could intimidate 20,000 marchers is preposterous. What we have here is a political comment on the Jena hoax, arguably brutal but the Romans probably didn't like Christian crosses either, being repressed by a totalitarian bureaucracy. {Hat-tip RC]

Another correspondent sends me this extraordinary story about Brandeis University Professor Donald Hindley, who has reportedly been disciplined for explaining to his class the origins of the term "wetback". It seems you are not allowed to mention the term at all.

As we keep pointing out at VDARE.COM, diversity is strength! It's also...is this a free country or what?