# WV black lawmaker gets email with KKK graphic and anti-abortion message...also sues. Is this right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 21, 2022, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wv-black-lawmaker-gets-email-with-kkk-graphic-and-anti-abortion-message-also-sues-is-this-right/959845 "2022-02-21T00:09:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 61
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2022, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wv-black-lawmaker-gets-email-with-kkk-graphic-and-anti-abortion-message-also-sues-is-this-right/959845/61 "2022-03-03T05:21:04Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > It’s irrelevant whether the victim of an alleged threat is reasonable in feeling threatened. No, it is relevant, because: > [@Max\_S](#): > > if Ms. Walker received an threat but _didn’t_ feel scared by it (maybe she decides to mock it on social media), that shouldn’t stop the prosecutors from building a case. _What_ prosecutors? This is a _civil_ case. It’s _her_ attorneys bringing the case. If she didn’t feel threatened, presumably she would not have. > [@Max\_S](#): > > The important question is whether the sender is likely to have deliberately sent the email with the specific intent of threatening the recipient with violence. The important question is whether merely “intimidating” a Black person with racist imagery can reasonably be considered a threat of violence by that Black person, given the history of racial violence in the US (the answer is “Yes”) Or, what puzzlegal said: > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Then, um, do you believe that the person sending the image might have reasonably predicted it would feel threatening to her? And if so, how it that not an intentional threat. There’s your _mens rea_. Not actual intention to commit violence, but actual intention to create the perception of such. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wv-black-lawmaker-gets-email-with-kkk-graphic-and-anti-abortion-message-also-sues-is-this-right/959845)._