What it Takes to Get Convicted for Inciting a Riot -- If Your Name's Not Trump
A couple months ago, I came across the case of Thomas Hirschi while doing research on wrongful convictions for my current novel project. He was a member of People United to Fight Police Brutality, convicted of inciting a riot after police killed an unarmed man of color—a Vietnam vet the Houston cops beat savagely, twice, then threw in the river—all the way back in 1978. Hirschi was convicted on the testimony of a pathological ‘jailhouse informant,’ although he’d been arrested and charged after simply calling for the killer police to be “brought to justice” before the infamous Moody Park Riots. The interesting part for me, thinking about my novel project, was the jailhouse snitch. But I filed Hirschi’s case away in the back of my brain. Interesting, I thought to myself. That’s all it takes to be charged with ‘inciting a riot?’ Some angry words, without a specific command to go do something violent? Well, as it turns out, yeah. That is all it takes—and sometimes muc...