Emil is in court today appealing their conviction for swearing at a white supremacist during a protest in Pittsboro, NC.

The white supremacists had been calling Emil the n-word and other racial slurs, then physically attacked them.

I will tweet some updates from their trial.

Investigator Fontville testifies that he was surveilling the demonstrations in plainclothes. He refers to white supremacists like League of the South simply as "the group that wanted to keep the statue up."

Investigator says there were "street brawls" with "flags torn down."

He's vague about who was doing the alleged brawling, because the truth is the racists physically attacked anti-racists in both instances of physical violence that day.

Don't recall anyone tearing flags.

State is going to play videos. The essence of the case is they are trying to blame Emil for the Confederates' assault on them by arguing Emil (and 4 other anti-racists) crossed a street and Emil swore at the racists.

The video shows that after we crossed the street, we stood some distance away from the racists. The racists then approached us and got in our faces.

Fontville testifies Emil was cursing at violent white supremacist Allan Hall, saying "do something, bitch" and that Geraldine Hall (another racist) started the fight by punching a different anti-racist.

The state played additional video taken by another plainclothes cop in the crowd showing Emil speaking into a megaphone & confirming a racist started everything by hitting a different anti-racist.

In cross, the cops says Emil had crossed the street "several times" that day and cops told them to go back.

That's not true. I had crossed the street earlier and other anti-racists (but not Emil because they weren't there yet) crossed to help me when the racists surrounded me.

Defense cross-examines about the question of imminence. I believe he is trying to prove that Emil's language did not imminently produce violence. Asks about timing of various events.

Another cop claims Emil spat blood on him.

Emil has said before they didn't do that. They were bleeding because a white supremacist punched them in the face and a cop threw them on a cop car.

Now this cop is trying to portray Emil as "aggressive" and "going after cops" by insulting his wedding ring, etc. Then claims Emil was trying to get cops to fight them.

WTF? They were handcuffed.

On cross exam, defense asks if anyone offered Emil medical care while they were bleeding from the mouth.

Cop says "not that I recall."

Emil is testifying now. Defense lawyer Greg Doucette asks Emil to explain their prior history protesting Confederate monuments

Emil testifies they went to Pittsboro that day to support a friend and fellow anti-racist who earlier had been chocked by a Confederate and then arrested.

When Emil got there, Confeds immediately called them racial and homophobic slurs.

Emil talks about crossing the street because the Confederates were blowing a train whistle to mock the death of my brother (who was killed in a train accident).

But they didn't go directly up to the confeds because they knew that would antagonize them.

Emil says they were upset while under arrest because their lip was bleeding. Rusty Alphin had punched them, but their lip actually split open when a cop threw them on a car.

We're in a ten minute recess right now, which gives everyone time to reflect on how fucked up the case was. It's very clear the racists both incited and directly started the violence.

And it shouldn't be illegal for a Black person to swear at racists or be mean to cops.

Doucette (defense) makes closing arguments. He discusses that under the fighting words doctrine, "abusive language" must be intended to cause immediate breach of peace.

Fighting words doctrine has remained very narrow, &most cases tried under didn't result in conviction

The time factor is significant in fighting words. Must cause immediate breach of peace, which is a shorter time frame than imminent. Words have to be so hurtful that breach is immediate.

Emil repeated words several times for minutes w/o incident.

Doucette says profanity is protected under first amendment. "Do something" is just an insult, and a punch being thrown minutes later doesn't qualify as immediate violence.

The fact that Emil wasn't arrested when they first said it proves cops didn't consider it fighting words.

Finally, the violence was directed toward someone else. Allan Hall was the subject of the insults and didn't do anything. Geraldine started a fight with someone else.

State makes closing arguments. Says Emil crossed street to antagonize racists.

Says that violence only has to be likely but not imminent. And is still arguing that Emil wanted cops to hit them, which is so fucked up I don't have words for it.

Judge Allen Baddour asks if it's a requirement of conviction that language is directed to a specific person. He seems to think they don't have to be.

Judge Baddour asks if it's appropriate to look at totally of the circumstances.

Defense says something can't become fighting words just because they're repeated. Prosecution disagrees and again blames Emil for crossing a street.

Judge Baddour asks if an acting in concert theory can apply. Defense says that is too broad and would mean everyone who crossed the street should be convicted. Judge again seems to disagree.

Judge Baddour finds Emil guilty of disorderly conduct under the "abusive language" bullshit

Judge Baddour says the conduct has "disturbing elements" but understands why it may have "felt appropriate to behave that way."

Nevertheless says it was "illegal" and "criminal" (to swear at a racist.)

Unsupervised probation for 12 months and court costs.

Reminder that Allen Baddour - who just convicted Emil of "abusive language" against racists who had been calling them the n-word - is an elected official.