once i mailed a fish head to my friend when i was mad at her.

Ten years seems a tad harsh, doesn't it? What would have happened if he'd sent the whole racoon?

"Charged with mailing a raccoon head?"

This is illegal?

Oh look, another idiot on strike.

GET ANOTHER JOB!

I don't get it. Why would a raccoon turn it into a hate crime?

"He told police he found the dead raccoon while jogging."

~ So you're out jogging, you see a dead raccoon and think to yourself, "Gee, I think I'll pull it's head off and take it home with me." (?)

Oooook, then.

Congrats to the Jury for having common sense and not letting this turn into another Jesse Jackson media event!!!

cubmistress beat me to it. the one person is white and the other is black, and you know the pastors said using a raccoon turns it in to a hate crime, and you know pastors are always right

If he had sent it FedEx, it would be legal. It's illegal to mail dead things through the US Mail.

This guy at my college got busted for keeping a racoon head in his freezer. One day the dorm lost power, and there was this terrible smell coming from his room. That's how they found the head. The explanation: he was planning to give it to a girl. Very scary.

Fuzzy and CubMis...
it the south there is a racial epithet(spelling)'coon' that is along the same lines as the "N" word....

OOOOOOOh, now i get it.

We'll make em pay. especially for that purple monkey dishwasher remark..

Random notes.

- Some white supremacists used to call blacks "'coons". Hence, the racial angle.

- This bugger may have seen "The Godfather" once. However, it wasn't a disturbing message because it was the head of a dead animal; it was a disturbing message (in the film) because it was the victim's prize horse, and the message was "Play along or we can and will destroy everything you cherish", essentially. Unless this was the principal's prized champion raccoon, um, no comparison.

- Unless it was preserved and packaged well, it's sending a rather nasty, maybe diseased object through the mail which isn't a good thing to try.

Thanks, the word "coons" must have been before my time, cause I live in the south and I never heard it before.

Those silly band geeks.

"It's these raccoons! He hates these raccoons!"

"cause I live in the south and I never heard it before."

Are you trying to tell us that there are parts of the South that dont have Klan rallies every weekend? /sarcasm

Seriously tho, I'd chalk that up to "a good thing."

Sorry for not being able to find the quote, but there is that scene in Forrest Gump:

Big dumb looking student: "They're gonna let coons take classes with us"
Forrest: "Coons?!? Whenever raccoons come around our house, mama'd just chase em off the porch with a broom"
Student: "Not raccoons, ya idjit...(filter on) attractive and successful African-Americans"

Get your filthy paws off of me, you damn dirty raccoons!

Sullivan is white and Houchins is black, and several pastors said using a raccoon made it a racial hate crime.


Oh, come on!

Is there a chart somewhere that I can use to determine what animals' heads are used for which crimes? I don't want to try to demonstrate my disapporval of a policy only to have it misinterpreted as a racial slur.

I mean, what if he'd mailed her a squirrel's head--would he have been accused of committing adultery? What about a chipmunk--is that the symbol for robbing a bank?

Who's categorizing these heads in the mail, anyway?

Or maybe it's just

Got to love the unions.

It figures that this happened in Cleveland. Clevlanders are a bunch of yahoos with absolutely no class.

Jerkstore, I could not have said it better if I tried.

Felonies, eh? Seems like nothin' is a misdemeanor any more.

Damn them! They won't sign our contract! Well, I know what will change their mind: A racoon head! Once I mail that to them, they are sure to give us what we want!

Dumbass. I don't understand what runs through the heads of these idiots.

Damn, just the head? When I first read the headline I pictured a whole, live raccoon, it's a much funnier thought!

I thought the funny part was that the band was allowed to play a concert without the conductor. We could barely play with the band director.

At first glance I thought the Fark headline read "Teacher charged with Nailing raccoon head to school official during strike"...

Now THAT would have been newsworthy!

Negroes don't look like raccoons.

Go ahead and mock the Raccoon Head, but deep down inside y'all want one. Jealous.