It was just highschool BS that happens all the time. Prank gone bad, police should've never gotten involved. Get over yourselves.

When I think of a noose I think of old cowboy movies, not black folk. Get over yourselves and quit crying, it was a stupid prank.

Although everyone makes good points regarding the story, this is 2007. Excepting for the original scuffle between the two, no one was hurt or hung. The story says alleged noose. I tend to agree with John61, Eboy, Winstrv, Remy and Wowzer. If there was a previous fight, then both should have been disciplined by the school, unless there was a ?bully factor? present. Kids, teens, students, young people and even old farts do pranks and do dumb stuff. We did it growing up and learned differently, hopefully, and so there should be no surprise over dumb pranks now. It seems ?hate crimes? and ?public bathroom stings? are the current law enforcement and news media thing. Last night on Boston Legal Denny Crane could not even go to a public courthouse bathroom to take a crap, hum and tap his feet to the beat without being arrested by the bathroom sting team for male prostitution.

As I have previously read on a post: ?I recently saw Senator Jim Webb on a talk show. He pointed out that the United States has some 2-3 million citizens in jail, about the highest ratio of incarcerated citizens in the world.? May I add what is wrong with our system? We Americans live by more laws (federal, state, local) and threats of fines, arrest and incarceration than the citizens of all Communist countries combined. Tell the prankster to not do that, give them a slap, and I don't want to see that behavior again. Get on with life . . . . .

PeeGee5-0, I hope that name doesn't substitute for a current employment title. FYI, blacks were hung publically as late as the early 1960's and probably a few today being officially ruled as a suicide. Within my own family, we have pictures of relatives that were hung in the 20's and 30's. The reason for the hangings....they were UPPITY and were too smart for their own good. I guess no one like a well educated black man back in those days.

Nooses have become popular because of the media attention that they've been given. And it's not that they google it to learn how to tie a noose...it's obviously a family tradition that is learned through the generations. I'd say that the Klan falls in the same catagory as the Bloods, Crips, MS-13, and so on. They all use symbols to itimidate others. I'd have to admit that I'm not too familiar with the terror that the whites inflicted upon the blacks in the early 1900's, I wasn't alive then. But, what is the statistical numbers of blacks being hanged verse others like native americans, or witches, or cowboys, or jews.

John61,

Direct me to one documented instance where a person was dragged out of their home and spray painted for being black (or any race). The two (noose and graffiti) are NOT the same. I know that gangs are violent, but much of that violence is directed at other gangs. Gangs haven't even come close to inflicting the kind of terror that whites inflicted from the early 1900s to the late 1960s. Nooses are for KILLING and graffiti is used to mark turf. So lets review... Nooses are used to string people up and graffiti is used to mark turf. I'd say that the two are different

etchAsketch, obviously you do not read about gangs in this area or other parts of the country. True, the meaning of the noose is very distictive in it's meaning but, the Gang symbol is the modern day noose, and yes people are taken from there homes almost weekly and beaten, robbed and killed because of the gang symbol. If you do not agree with those flying there colors, the group using that symbol can and will attack you and/your family. Most street robberies in the area along with most kidnappings are gang related. Obviously you are one of those with there heads burried in the sand that are always saying "we don't have gangs in my neighborhood" The symbols have been changing off and on for along time, I'm sure the Jews thought of the Nazi symbol in the same manner as the noose, how many millions died under that symbol, but only hundreds or thousands were murdered under the symbol of the noose. So don't tell me a symbol doesn't have the same meaning. I will bet that if you were to walk in an alley and started seeing gang symbols, you wouldn't turn around and start walking the other way, then start watching your back, and I bet you would be looking for blacks and hispanics to be following you. What this kid did was completely wrong but, signs of any murderous group are put up to intimidate and tell people to get the hell out.....oh yeah, I don't feel your a bafoon, just undereducated about the world....Go out on these daily gang calls and tell me people aren't dying because of a symbol....

The boy who set up the noose was stupid. Like the kids who paint swastikas on temples. They have this notion it will make someone mad but have NO idea of the pain associated with those symbols.

John61,

You must put this into historical perspective. For a long period in this country's history, justice was dispensed at the end of ropes by drunken mobs (blacks being targeted the most). The noose is a terrible symbol of that horrific period. Stop comparing apples to oranges. No one was ever snatched out of their home (from the clutches of screaming loved ones) in the middle of the night and spray painted with graffiti. The two are not the same and you?re a complete buffoon to think that they are. I'm not even black and I understand what the noose symbolizes. Anyone who dismisses noose hanging as a prank knows that it isn?t. They just say that because they?re secretly OK with (and enjoy) the emotions that it still conjures up.

All though I must say, I absolutely do not condone this idiots behavior, why is it that we will arrest for this and get all worked up over this stupid prank, but if a black person comes to my house and paints gang grafitti on my house, fence or sidewalk in order to intimidate me and my family, no one cares? Folks, gang grafitti is the same as the noose. It is placed in an area to intimidate people. How about we start taking it serious. A skin head or Klansman is the same as the Crips and the Bloods, so lets treat them equally.

This guy is a moron. Be a man and talk to the person you have a disagreement with. Too many people getting killed over stupid crap.

kids are way more advanced than we were as kids especially with all they're exposed to on the internet and tv these days. All you have to do is GOOGLE something and it will give you directions, the recipe or instructions on how to do it.

How have these nooses become so popular with kids? I don't even know how to tie one much less have any desire to put one on someone's door.

I just don't get it.