Replies

I am intrigued by this matter because the elements of racism have been scrubbed by the fact that the wearer of the KKK garb is himself black. Therefore, the councilman couches his denial of Hunt's free speech in a public forum, indeed at a place where he speaks out for the redress of grievances, as a matter, not of racism, but of "offense" and "disruption."

This recalls the recent T-shirt cases in the public schools where the child was admonished and prohibited from wearing a T-shirt I think having to do with Christianity. But clearly a public forum explicitly arranged to hear the free speech of our citizens for the redress of their grievances is an entirely different matter.

It has been the tactic of the left to elevate the subjective feelings of those seeking to squelch free speech to a level which justifies infringing on that precious right. The left has succeeded in doing so here in Europe where there is now a €3000 fine for flipping another driver the bird. You better not insult the police officer either.

In the school T-shirt case the authorities also cited "disruption" as a justification.

Of course, once we concede that speech can be controlled because it is offensive or disruptive, we have entirely ceded control of speech to those who can pretend to offense or raise an outcry. We have surrendered utterly to subjectivism and we have lost our objective Constitutional rights.