Staging a KKK cross-burning as a faux hate crime to influence the Colorado Springs mayoral race is protected free speech, claims one of the suspects involved in a scheme to elect Yemi Mobolade.
Just to be clear, the mayor is Black and KKK cross burnings have historically been lit to send warnings of violence against Black Americans since 1865.
Protected free speech, it most certainly is not.
A lawyer representing Ashley Blackcloud is asking the charges against her be dismissed arguing the racial slur scrawled across Mobolade’s campaign sign along with the burning cross was a faked threat.
“What makes this cross burning a fake threat is not that the activity, i.e. the cross burning, was never going to happen,” attorney Britt Cobb wrote in the motion. “It is a fake threat because it was not intended as a threat. It was staged as a political publicity stunt. It was not directed as a true threat to (Mobolade), or to anyone.”
But if the threat was fake and no violence was forthcoming, that would have to mean Mobolade was in on the hoax, right?
Despite repeated conversation with the suspect who allegedly masterminded this campaign caper, before and after, Mobolade maintains he had no knowledge of this election effort.
But if the target didn’t know it was fake, then how could it be fake?
That’s like saying a bank robbery suspect brandishing a gun never intended to rob the bank, because he was just faking it.
Another suspect in the case Deanna West, has already pled guilty. The alleged mastermind of the plot is Derrick Bernard Jr., who is presently serving a life sentence in prison on a murder charge for a death that was not faked. His lawyer has requested an extension for pre-trial motions.
The judge’s ruling on whether hate speech is protected free speech is expected this week.