You Can Still Be Arrested For Thought Crime, Apparently

Being arrested for harsh words is offense enough to the First Amendment. But being arrested for harsh words you never even said is a scandal which should concern every American. 

“I never thought I’d end up in handcuffs and a jail cell for something I didn’t say,” writes Lauren Noble, Founder and Executive Director of the Yale-based Buckley Institute, in a New York Post op-ed. Noble found herself in just such a nightmare after Gerno Allen, a New Haven parking attendant, alleged Noble “twice called him the N-word to his face,” according to the Yale Daily News. The events (or non-events, as the case may be) in question took place in July 2023. Allen later pressed charges. Noble says police officers refused to refer to the parking lot’s surveillance video, despite her request to do so. She claims she was then charged with disorderly conduct and three counts of breach of peace in the second degree – charges which were eventually dismissed in full. (RELATED: Liberals Get A Taste Of Their Own ‘January 6’ Medicine)

Well this is a horrifying story — a free speech advocate was arrested for saying something she never said, and was falsely accused of racism, until an out-of-control prosecutor finally admitted there was no support for the claim. https://t.co/OmN7KXe1NI

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 15, 2025

“The reasons we cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt are there is insufficient evidence to support — support the complaining witness claim; there are inconsistencies in the complaining witness’ statements; there are credibility issues; there are — there exists video evidence clearly contradicting the complaining witness’ statements,” the state’s prosecutor, Jacqueline Fitzgerald, told the court according to the Stamford Advocate.

“The case was a farce from the start: There were no threats, no violence — just a made-up accusation, rubber-stamped by a system that didn’t bother to check basic facts before putting someone’s life through a meat grinder,” writes Noble. 

Noble’s case reaches a resolution weeks after Minnesota’s Shiloh Hendrix went viral for a slur-related confrontation. Shiloh was captured on video using “the word which shall not be named” multiple times. Noble denies she ever used the word and is innocent in the eyes of the justice system. Indeed, Allen’s accusations are improbable. A Yale University graduate with a rather public facing role as a free speech advocate decided to risk her entire professional reputation over some parking trouble? (RELATED: Cancel Culture And Doxing Meet Their Final Boss)

Even if Noble had used the word, it shouldn’t be cause for arrest. It would be rude, no doubt. But Americans are not legally barred from being rude, short of sustained harassment or threatening real violence. To pre-empt the left’s objections: No word, not even that one, is so magical that merely pronouncing it counts as an act of violence. 

To add insult to injury, Noble claims she “got no apology. Not from the accuser, his employer or the police. Not from the prosecutor who entertained this blatantly unconstitutional charade, and not from the media outlets that treated an unproven allegation as fact.” 

It’s insane to go back and read the original coverage of the Lauren Noble racial slur charge now that we know there was exonerating video evidence available the whole time. You’d never know from this article that she was completely, demonstrably innocent: https://t.co/qHY05x7yoj https://t.co/gkSXb0hRTH

— Helen Andrews (@herandrews) May 16, 2025

She’s certainly owed an apology from Erskine McIntosh, the civil rights attorney who represented Noble’s accuser. “I was relieved that a warrant was issued for her arrest, I was not surprised by it,” McIntosh said in 2024, according to the Yale Daily News. “If there was any surprise, it was that she was not charged with the more serious crime of breaching peace, of the second degree.” McIntosh referred to a Connecticut Supreme Court Case which set the precedent for criminally prosecuting utterances of racial slurs in August 2020, a moment of peak post George Floyd hysteria. This is no less than a modern blasphemy law.

Some have suggested it is a tactical mistake to take up Hendrix as a cause célèbre. But Noble’s case demonstrates the necessity of stripping the media, and the criminal justice system, of their power to ruin someone’s life over alleged racial insensitivity. These incidents should, at most, be litigated in the court of public opinion. They should never result in jail time.

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatalieIrene03