A Minnesota high school is making national headlines after a video surfaced in which a teen is seen spewing hateful and racist language, and at one point she encourages the subject of her video to kill herself. Law enforcement officials are reviewing the footage to determine if criminal charges could be filed. In today’s blog, we explore how hateful language and encouraging suicide can lead to criminal charges.
Hateful Language And Criminal Charges
The video in question is only 57 seconds in length, and it doesn’t take long for the teen featured in the video to start spewing hateful and vitriolic language. We’re not going to link to the video because we don’t want the view count to grow even higher, but we do want to use the video as an example of when free speech is no longer protected by the 1st Amendment. Even though the woman in the video uses colorful language and even uses the N-word, it’s unlikely that alone warrants enough for criminal charges. At this point, she’s an ass, not a criminal.
However, things begin to change when she tells the person she’s directing her hate at to “F**king kill yourself right this time.” At this point, a case could be made that the teen is in violation of Minnesota Statute 609.215, which states that anyone who intentionally “advises, encourages, or assists another in taking the other’s own life may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 15 years or to payment of a fine of not more than $30,000, or both.”
In order for police to pursue criminal charges under this statute, the statement needs to be directed at a specific person, and while the teen in the video never mentions who she is speaking about by name, she does give enough details that it’s obvious to those who are aware of the situation who the teen is referencing. In other words, it’s possible that police could seek charges for encouraging someone to commit suicide.
However, it seems a bit unlikely that police will pursue such severe charges given the fact that no physical harm came from the video. The teen who was the target of the malicious video has spoken out against it and did not self-harm, so if charges are pursued, it seems that they will most likely be of the disorderly conduct variety. Disorderly conduct has many definitions, but it includes anyone who “engages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others.” Needless to say, the language in this video meets that standard.
Disorderly conduct is considered a misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and fines up to $1,000. This type of charge seems more appropriate for the situation, and it’s more likely that they’d be able to earn a conviction as well. There has been no announcement of charges, but if law enforcement are going to pursue charges, we expect them to be of the disorderly conduct variety. Hopefully the teen in the video learns a lesson and makes some positive changes in her life.
