IS THIS BULLSHIT OR APPROPRIATE?

[HairOfTheDog]

In February of last year, Graeme Harris Phillips and a couple of his winner friends tied a noose and the old Georgian confederate flag around the neck of James Meredith’s statue (pictured above) on the Ole Miss campus; James Meredith was the first black student to attend the university back in 1962.

Phillips is a Georgia white boy and was a 19-year-old student at Ole Miss in Mississippi at the time of the incident. He was expelled.

Reportedly, local law enforcement refused to file vandalism charges against Phillips and his cohorts because the statue wasn't damaged in any way.

Enter U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the US Justice Department:
The now 20-year-old was just indicted by a federal grand jury on two civil rights violation charges -- one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students because of their race or color. He is out on bond until his federal trial.

In announcing the indictment, AG Holder stated:
"This shameful and ignorant act is an insult to all Americans and a violation of our most strongly-held values. No one should ever be made to feel threatened or intimidated because of what they look like or who they are. By taking appropriate action to hold wrongdoers accountable, the Department of Justice is sending a clear message that flagrant infringements of our historic civil rights will not go unnoticed or unpunished."

Graeme Harris Phillips sounds like an idiot, racist, frat boy and I personally don't blame the university for expelling his ass. I also agree with Holder that Harris' actions were shameful and ignorant. I think vandalism charges might have been appropriate too.

But, civil rights violations charges -- is that bullshit federal overreach or appropriate?