Unless there was a real threat, all this person was guilty of is being a dummy. This sounds like a stupid college prank. No more, no less. Now if there was a note with a noose saying "I'm gonna you", than that's a different story.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071125/LANSING01/711250332/1221/lansing

Noose incident is example of long debate

By CHRIS ANDREWS

LANSING -- The noose was a big deal -- both to Lansing City Council President Harold Leeman and to the man who threw it.

When Darnell Oldham Sr. tossed the noose - a symbol charged with racial meaning - in front of the council last month, he says, he was standing up for the right to be heard.

"I used the noose as an example because it stated that the Lansing City Council had been strangling and choking free speech," Oldham said last week. "And that Harold Leeman, the president, was lynching minority speakers." ...

I think it was MichiganMessenger, but maybe one of the other l-sphere blogs, that reported this before anyone came forward and tried to blow it up.

There was a key fact that I pointed out in the comments section of that blog at the time.

KEY FACT ALERT.

The "nooses" were made of rubber chemical hosing - hardly the type of noose you equate with a southern-style lynching.  I mean - when you see bland rubber-tubing forming an ad hoc noose, that's far different than seeing a hangman's noose made of natural fibers.  It's also much more "Halloween"-like - especially given that this story broke at - guess when.  Halloween.

That said, the WOOD article quotes this funny passage:

"If I get a speeding ticket, I'm guilty of that until I go to court and they get me pretty speedily," said Rev. Charles Williams II of the National Council for Community Empowerment. "The same thing needs to apply here."

Rev. Williams, are you reading the same Constitution I've read?  If you or I get a speeding ticket, we are innocent until proven guilty.  We go to court, and have our chance to defend ourselves, or, at worst, simply force the police officer to prove his case (usually, by showing up).  You can actually beat speeding tickets in this country; although its immensely hard because even if the police make a mistake or the law is on your side, the municipalities and judges enforcing them often rule against you no matter what because they treat tickets like a form of tax and necessary revenue for the city (so I sympathize with your point, but your application here of the guilt until proven innocence idea is misplaced) and very few people have the legal knowledge to know what to do in that situation.

When you curbstomp someone to death - you get 50 years in prison.  WHen you do it because you hate them, you get an extra 20 years.