Like clockwork, enter the NAACP

I write this article with a sad heart. As I mentioned earlier this week on this blog and over at our friends from the First Door on the Left, the controversy over the political cartoon on the New York Post last week will be fuel for those derive power from keeping the embers of racism alive. Enter the NAACP.

As mentioned in the prior article, Al Sharpton stepped forward saying, “The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys.” Today, we have NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous coming forward with the following statement:

There is consensus that if the Post does not … get rid of the journalists who are responsible for this bit of hate speech seeing the light of day, that we will move this from a local, regional issue to a very national issue.

Hate speech? The United States is prohibited by the First Amendment from regulating speech, including hate speech. What the country does have are laws that restrict speech that incites riots or is libel or slanderous. With that being said, there is no legal ground that would require the paper to fire the cartoonist from their staff. This bring us to our next quote provided by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond:

This was an invitation to assassination of the president of the United States and anyone who was not offended by it doesn’t have any sensibilities.

Threats against the President do fall under the legal jurisdiction of the Federal government. According to 18 U.S.C. § 871, threats against the President, Vice-President, or their successors (following an election) shall result in fines and/or imprisonment up to five years. Such threats would be investigated by the Secret Service. As I write this article, I cannot find any sources indicating the Secret Service has questioned the cartoonist or the paper, and there is a good reason why they shouldn’t.

As explained in the prior article, the subject that the monkey represents is not President Obama but the person(s) responsible for drafting the stimulus bill. The President signed the legislation, but he did not write it. That fell to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (and their staff). This brings me to the last quote, also from Mr. Bond:

This is tastelessness taken to the extreme.

Yes, he is correct. The fact that the cartoon displayed violence is in bad taste. The case of the chimpanzee attack is sad and unfortunate, and should not have been used to lampoon the stimulus bill. However, the cartoon is not racist and it is not a threat towards the President. While I would not expect the NAACP to retract their false accusations against the cartoonist, I do think that they should wait to see if the Secret Service does get involved before future demands against the newspaper are made.

I am troubled by this, and I hope you are too.

Related articles:
CNN – “NAACP calls for firing of N.Y. Post cartoonist”
Cornell University Law School – “§ 871. Threats against President and successors to the Presidency”
Rant Rave – “Rant: Dead Monkey Reaction Post to Siempre”
About.com - “Some Perspective on the New York Post Cartoon”