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Aug. 27, 2025 - Lionel Nation
23:26
Woman Charged After Calling Black Child the N-Word

Woman Charged After Calling Black Child the N-Word

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I want to discuss, my friends, with you on this, the waning days of August 26.
And again, thank you for all of your kind, kind birthday wishes and support.
It was just truly heartwarming.
But I want to talk to you about a Rochester, Minnesota woman, who was charged after calling a black child the N word, a charge apparently ostensibly with disturbing the peace.
And how, in my humble opinion, there's nothing disturbing about it in terms of the statute.
It is completely within the realm of legal.
It might be rude, it might be horrible, it might be something that we just find disgusting and disgusting.
It is not against the law.
It is speech that is protected.
It is speech that you may not like.
It is speech that is rude, that is discourteous.
I will give you that.
It's something that I would never say.
Maybe, maybe, maybe you wouldn't say.
I don't know.
But it's one of those things which is really problematic.
And I want you to hear this.
And it's important that we always, we don't let the N word and hate crime and this stuff get out of control because that's always what happens.
Whenever the N word, the same thing with anti Semitism, the same thing with anything along those lines, for some particular reason, when we hear this for the first time, we go berserk and we lose all sense of reality.
And it's critical that we in a robust and a kind of a tough, kind of a give and take world that we live in, we have to understand this.
So this is a case.
against Shiloh Hendrix.
This is ugly words versus actual crimes.
Keep in mind what we are doing.
And let me see if I can present this to you.
The case of Shiloh Hendrix, this is a Rochester, Minnesota woman, now apparently facing charges for hurling a racial slur against a young black child in a city park.
has stirred outrage, national headlines, intense debate about the boundaries of free speech.
And she is now being threatened and she must leave.
And at the first blush, it looks like the case.
of the kind of a case where prosecutors love to showcase video evidence, a viral firestorm, community pressure demanding accountability.
But step away from the anger and emotion and what you're going to find yourself in the thicket of American constitutional law, protected speech, the First Amendment, fighting words, and the narrow reach of disorderly conduct statutes.
Now the heart of the matter is this under New York law and by analogy by to to Minnesota's own statutes and then basically.
case law.
The facts only do not support criminal liability.
Hendrix may have been rude, offensive, even despicable in her choice of language, but being a jerk isn't a crime, and the constitution protects even the speech we most despise.
What happened?
The story begins earlier this year in a Rochester playground.
According to police reports and the viral video itself, Hendrix was present with her own child or toddler when she believed another child, a young black boy, had actually did it or not remains unclear.
What matters is that Hendrix, feeling invaded or disrespected, lashed out.
Her outburst was caught on video.
She called the child the N word.
The clip quickly spread online, igniting the fury of this of society.
Strangers from across the country condemned her.
Hendrix received threats.
An online fundraiser she launched drew hundreds of thousands of dollars from sympathetic supporters, allowing her to relocate.
And meanwhile, the local NAACP demanded justice and the city officials began searching for ways to hold her accountable.
So eventually the Rochester City Attorney filed a draft complaint against Hendrix citing three cases of disorderly conduct, each case carrying a potential penalty of up to ninety days.
that means that's the maximum.
The difficulty, and this is the problem, the difficulty is the statute.
The difficulty is the statute.
So what we need to do is we always look, let's go and say, What is the particular Rochester, Minnesota statute that would apply?
using its language and the facts of its prohibitions because it's very simple you just go online chat GPT it look and see what see what the law is now what you think it is under Minnesota section 609.72 subdivision I parent or paragraph 3 A person is guilty of misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
They in public or private, in public or private, knowingly or with reasonable grounds to know, engage in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous,
or noisy conduct, or in offense, in rather offensive, obscene, or abusive language, tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment.
Oh, dear God.
It's unreal.
The incident happened at the Roy Sutherland playground in Soldiers Field Park, which is undoubtedly a public place.
Hendrix clearly knew or reasonably knew have known that her conduct and language would provoke a reaction.
She persisted in repeating the racial slur even when confronted.
The language used was undeniably offensive and abusive, involving a powerful racial slur repeated several times directed at an autistic black child.
I don't know if she knew the child was autistic, who knows.
She also used obscene gestures flipping off the camera, reinforcing the abusive nature of the kind.
The context clearly supports this element.
The bystander filming, who confronted her, responded.
The video went viral.
The community erupted and local leaders went nuts.
Hendricks didn't accidentally utter the slur.
She repeated it, rather intentionally, knowing that the child of the bystander who challenged her was standing by.
by.
Here is the thing.
She reacted.
reacted.
She reacted.
Now the defenses are, first of all, free speech.
The statute criminalizes offensive, obscene, or abusive language, tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others.
Anger?
That is too broad.
Courts have repeatedly warned this is over.
absolutely overbought.
I could talk to you about politics, the Yankees, whether I like Tiramisu, if it arouses alarm, what degree of alarm?
I don't know.
The case state against Hensel, this is a Minnesota case, the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down part of the disorderly conduct law as unconstitutional for vagueness and over-breadth.
A similar challenge could argue that punishing Hendrix's words alone violates the First Amendment.
To strip speech of First Amendment protection, it must rise to the level of fighting words.
By the way, these are insults so direct and inflammatory they would involve They would invoke an average person.
But for the most part, fighting words don't apply.
The slurs here directed at a child, not an adult, likely to retaliate, that doesn't work.
There's no public disturbance.
There's nothing in this other than saying something mean.
Johnny Jolaine says, video is not prima facie evidence.
Oh, it is.
The video is probably the best evidence.
Prima facie, oh no, it is.
I disagree.
It is probably the best evidence there is.
But the point is, think about what we say on a regular basis.
Think about what happens.
Think about how this works in our society.
The fighting words provocation defense doesn't apply anymore.
This is something which is important.
Fighting words were this idea that you could...
The old fighting words still exist on paper but not in practice.
I think in other courts they pretty much got rid of it.
But here's the bottom line.
How are we in society supposed to react?
How are we supposed to react when what we say could arouse?
And she's reacting...
If she hates black people, she's in the park.
Some kid, she believes, perhaps incorrectly, is rifling through a diaper bag.
She didn't go up to this person and say, Hey, what are you doing with that N kid?
Hey, is that an N?
What are you doing with that N kid?
that n at home you why don't you and your Now, I submit to you, even that, I'm sorry.
So what?
This is life.
You deal with jerks.
We're going to weaponize this because how do we look at the type of stuff that is said?
How do we weigh it?
How do we say, well, it's okay in this instance, but not in that?
I don't.
I'm sorry.
I'm very, very sorry.
This frightens the hell out of me.
You don't.
This is life.
How many times have you had somebody in a parking lot?
Hey, asshole!
Fuck you!
This is life!
It's wrong.
It's rude.
It's obstreparous.
It's horrible.
It's consumacious.
It's provocative.
It's crude.
It's bo with me on this?
They're missing the point.
I'm not saying whether it's okay.
It's not.
But we're living in a world that makes no sense.
And I can go through it.
I can look at what the particular facts of the case are.
That's okay.
We'll look at the statue.
But I thought New York's was bad.
This is, this, if this were in our city, our state, What I say on the radio according to this?
What I'm saying to you now?
According to in public or private in private a private conversation.
Husbands and wives could charge each other.
This is ladies and gentlemen, we are who's with me on this one?
I do not use that word.
Now, as you get to know me, I don't think that's anything to be proud of.
I think it's a given.
Of course I don't use that word.
It's a horrible word.
It's a terrible word.
Of course I don't use that word.
Of course I don't use that word.
Okay.
All right.
I don't use a lot of words.
I don't say like every five minutes.
I don't say like I was so like.
I don't say that either.
I don't want an award for this.
I don't want it.
What I'm saying, and what is really, really critical, and this is the most important part about what I'm saying is that this is something that is so monumentally scary.
We live in a world right now.
know as we speak we live in a world where people are telling me that I am always having to they they want to take my speech away and my speech means to me the ability to say horrible terrible things as long as I am not doing anything that is oh what's the word as long as I'm not doing anything the old
theater in a crowded fire or I'm not saying but hate words absolutely need to be explained this is the most important I should be able to say anything I want do you hear what I'm saying anything I want and this is the part which I I I am going to say this forever and ever and
ever we live in a world where we are absolutely losing our mind let me also tell you something they want to take they want to sanctify I am so tired of this n word lunacy I am so sick of the sanctification this this heraldic uh uh this this dare I say this apotheosis of this word this word that I'm hearing
all the time in songs I hear it all that time and snoop and chapelle and n n n n n n n n n n n n n n okay if you want if you want to say it fine go ahead I don't care but don't demonize it for certain applications.
There is no such thing as a law that says you cannot use the N-word unless you're black.
Or as my friend one time said crudely, you can't use the N-word unless you're an N. It doesn't make any sense.
It's stupid.
We're living in a world right now where every bit of our sensibilities are being destroyed, being destroyed by virtue of this, of everything from this cracker barrel stuff, which thank God you heard about.
They've completely reversed.
Everybody's taking their...
their credit for this everybody is president Trump everybody but it's the most in credit.
I've never seen anything like that.
This is the part that gets me crazy.
This is the thing which just absolutely drives me nuts.
There is this complaint.
I was reading this April 2025 in the city of Rochester.
I'll let you read it and I'll let you read the facts of the case, but I got to tell you something which is the most important.
I live in a world where to me one of the most important and most critical things which I mean to tell you is the most, how do I say this?
It is the most important thing of my life and that is freedom of speech.
It's a buggaboo of mine.
I recognize the fact that I go crazy.
I go berserk.
I'm sorry.
I plead guilty.
I have...
I'm a child of the time when we talked about George Carlin, when we all wanted to know the seven dirty words, when I realize and I recognize the fact that there's this part there's this part of me that respects the fact that I want to live in a world where we learn to toughen up.
We learn to get to butch up, to shut up, to grow a pear and just take it.
Just take it, just do us a favor and just shut up and take it stop complaining stop getting upset stop with your stupid hate crimes and your bias crimes so what stop saying that in this that that that i live in a word a world where the n word is impermissible for certain people i can't believe
this certain people certain people think about what i'm telling you it it should it should It should just, certain people cannot use the N-word.
Certain people.
There's no such thing as, you can't call a woman this unless you're a woman, unless you're a white woman, unless you're a black woman, unless you're a young woman or an old woman or a rich woman.
I mean, this doesn't make any sense.
Can you think of anything like this?
Where a speech prohibition is limited to who you are or prohibited against some people but not everybody.
I can understand if there's exceptions for law enforcement, things like that.
I can kind of dig that.
I get it.
Listen to what I'm saying to you.
Do not think I'm exaggerating.
Listen carefully and listen.
with everything in your being, our ability to speak, our ability to opine, our ability to be different and angry and rude and crude our ability to be who we are because remember who this is this would have never been charged against a black woman it would have never been charged had there been any other circumstances it would have never occurred do you hear me
i ask you dear friends to follow me later on into the into the world of uh wabc i'm going to be doing this very very soon at 1 a.m eastern time I ask you specifically to join me and listen to what people say.
I know this is Rochester, Minnesota.
I know you don't care about this.
I know you don't live there.
You can say it doesn't matter.
Most of the time people say it doesn't matter.
It's happening everywhere.
The fact that this could occur in any state, in any city or hamlet indicates to me, we've lost our mind.
We are constantly being told, whether it's TDS, whether it's whatever, that certain people can see certain things in certain ways.
That is so patently unconstitutional.
It's not funny.
So my friends, I say to Johnny Gillane, thank you for your kindness.
And thank you again, my friends.
We are slipping now into August the 27th.
It's about 11:57 p.m.
Let me also tell you that you are, again, you have been so kind to me yesterday.
I'm going to be leaving very shortly.
I'm going to be going across town.
I'll be manning the microphones at WABC, 77 WABC., make sure you listen and we're going to continue this And listen to the tenor of this applied to the tenor of what is talk radio.
Because talk radio is alive and well.
And it's coming back with a fury, with this bombastic, in your face, loud and obstreperous verve that I so greatly love, dear friends.
All right.
Everybody clear?
You have a great day today.
Thank you for listening to me.
God bless America.
God bless the Constitution.
And God bless our ability to say what we want, when we want, without exception.
And if I can't say it, nobody can say it.
It's that simple.
What's good for the goose, baby?
What's good for the goose?
All right, my friends, have a great and glorious day.
Thank you so much for being a part of us.
And until we meet again, remember the monkeys dead.
Show's over, Suya.
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