Racist Shows Up To Harass Black Woman At Press Conference Announcing He Won’t Be Charged For Harassing Black Woman

There is some­thing about some of us Jamaicans, not all I have to admit. But there is a kind of fire which burns in our bel­lies. A fire which would cause us rather die on our feet than live on our knees.
Maybe it is that west African Coromantee, blood which flows through our veins, that which heats up when we hear about inci­dents like the fol­low­ing.
Incidents which in most cas­es draws not even a bit of care much less anger from others.

Imagine some­one harass­ing you to the point that you are forced to quit your job? Imagine that you have nev­er both­ered that person/​s?
You see, it is hard for me to fath­om because I was always of the opin­ion that no one, no man or woman, have a greater right to be on this plan­et than I do.
On that basis, I will not tread on your space but so help me God if you ever tread on my space.
After all, we all have just one life and what’s the point of liv­ing it if you can­not live it in peace?

At a press con­fer­ence, Monday, Vermont’s chief law enforce­ment offi­cer almost com­plet­ed one of the great­est per­for­mances of white­s­plain­ing in recent his­to­ry as he announced that he wouldn’t file charges against a white nation­al­ist who alleged­ly stalked, harassed and ter­ri­fied one of the state’s only black law­mak­ers.
As Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan described the volu­mi­nous evi­dence, he point­ed out that he didn’t have enough evi­dence. He explained how hate speech was a mat­ter of free speech. He explained that the harass­ment against the black fam­i­ly was bad, but that it wasn’t a crime. All the while, the woman was the tar­get of the inces­sant acts of hate stood beside him as he shucked and jived.

Then the racists showed up.
According to WNYT, On Monday, Vermont Attorney General T.J Donovan held a press con­fer­ence at the Congregation Beth El syn­a­gogue in Bennington, Vt. to announce that, instead of fil­ing charges, he would instead release a 10-page report on the racial harass­ment of for­mer State Rep. Kiah Morris, the state’s only black woman state rep­re­sen­ta­tive who resigned in September after alleged­ly being harangued by white suprema­cist Max Misch, who describes him­self the man who “be rep­re­sent­ing dem white muh­fuck­az of Bennington.”

Seven Days Vermont reports:

The press con­fer­ence went off the rails when Bennington res­i­dent Max Misch entered the room as Morris answered a tele­vi­sion reporter’s ques­tion about the AG’s probe. Misch had been sub­ject to a year­long pro­tec­tive order in 2016 pro­hibit­ing him from con­tact­ing Morris over a series of racist tweets, mes­sages and online com­ments he aimed at her.

Misch wore a black long-sleeve shirt bear­ing the image of alt-right icon Pepe the Frog. Many in the room began shout­ing “No, no, no!” and “Out!” when he arrived.

“This is not safe,” one per­son shout­ed. “Why is this ass­hole allowed to come in here?” some­one else in the crowd said.

“Because it’s America,” anoth­er attendee replied. “We have to lis­ten to every­one, whether we like it or not. But we don’t have to put up with it.”

Also in atten­dance was Kevin Hoyt, a failed Republican can­di­date who has accused Morris and her hus­band of incit­ing oth­ers to paint him as a Nazi. Hoyt says he is a vic­tim of reverse racism after his request for a stalk­ing order of pro­tec­tion against Morris’ hus­band was reject­ed by a judge. The hunt­ing expert and gun advo­cate has repeat­ed­ly insin­u­at­ed that Morris and her hus­band were fab­ri­cat­ing their claims to make Vermont look like a state that tol­er­ates racism.

“I call bull­shit on Ms. Morris!” yelled Hoyt. “As a polit­i­cal oppo­nent who was accused of being a Nazi, I think we’re hear­ing one side of the sto­ry … I was called a Nazi, I was called a white suprema­cist. Obviously, racism exists in Vermont … I ques­tion to what degree, though.”

After win­ning a House seat in the state leg­is­la­ture, Morris gave up her re-elec­tion bid before resign­ing in September, cit­ing her husband’s open-heart surgery com­bined with Hoyt and Misch’s con­tin­ued online cam­paign of harass­ment. Citing tweets that told her to “Go back to Africa, it’s the only place you’ll ever be safe,” The Attorney general’s report list­ed forty-eight sep­a­rate racial inci­dents where Morris had been threat­ened and attacked, including:

• A mes­sage to Morris’ hus­band inform­ing him that he should put his wife “in her place,” or the mes­sen­ger would do it for him;
  
• A tweet that read: “You will nev­er silence me. Every time you attend a polit­i­cal ral­ly at the Four Corners or anoth­er local venue and I’m aware of the event, I will troll the hell out of you and the oth­er sub­ver­sives there. Maybe I’ll bring a friend or three with me too;”
• Someone paint­balling Morris’ car and spray paint­ing a swasti­ka on a tree near Morris’ home;
• Another tweet said, “Stop push­ing ‘social jus­tice’ on your near­ly entire­ly White con­stituen­cy in Bennington, VT. Go back to Chicago if you want to engage in SJW [Social Justice Warrior] bull­shit. We will con­tin­ue to fight against your efforts to make our town/​state look more like your mon­grel son;”
• Multiple reports to police of strange men and sus­pi­cious vehi­cles in the ceme­tery behind Morris’ home;
• A break-in at the Morris home where Morris’ husband’s neck­ties were stolen and found in the ceme­tery (Police did not fin­ger­print or swab the crime scene);
• Morris’ child care provider report­ing a man sit­ting in a car out­side the home film­ing the Morris residence;

Donovan con­clud­ed that there was not enough evi­dence to charge Misch with any crimes, not­ing that there was a lack of evi­dence. “No Vermont court has specif­i­cal­ly con­sid­ered whether com­mu­ni­ca­tions like those sent to Ms. Morris could be con­strued as ‘true threats,’” Donovan’s find­ings read, adding:

In this case, the online com­mu­ni­ca­tions that were sent to Ms. Morris by Max Misch and oth­ers were clear­ly racist and extreme­ly offen­sive However, the First Amendment does not make speech sanc­tion­able mere­ly because its con­tent is objec­tion­able. The ques­tion here is whether the mes­sages, in con­text, were com­mu­ni­cat­ing a seri­ous expres­sion of an intent to harm Ms. Morris or her fam­i­ly. The fact that a num­ber of mes­sages were direct­ed at her role as an elect­ed offi­cial rais­es the issue of whether they were intend­ed to express polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion through the use of hyper­bole and insult, as not­ed in the case law above. Therefore, there appears to be insuf­fi­cient evi­dence to pur­sue crim­i­nal charges under Vermont law.

“Kiah Morris was a vic­tim of racial harass­ment. Relatively few Vermonters have had any of these expe­ri­ences, and very few have had these expe­ri­ences in the con­text of vicious racial harass­ment,” Donovan said, accord­ing to the Washington Post. But, he added, “the Constitution does not per­mit us to pros­e­cute racist speech because we find it offensive.”

Meanwhile, Morris stood in the face of her harassers and the attor­ney gen­er­al, not­ing that law enforce­ment offi­cers had shrugged off her claims.“For two years, we lived in my husband’s child­hood home, feel­ing unsafe, nev­er sleep­ing peace­ful­ly because we had to be vig­i­lant,” said Morris, “We did every­thing we were told to do. We report­ed as we should, held noth­ing back and trust­ed in a sys­tem that was insuf­fi­cient and inept at address­ing and repair­ing the harm done.” So there you have it. It was just polit­i­cal expres­sion and free speech, which is apt­ly expressed in the Vermont state motto:

Freedom and Unity.