Our First Amendment free speech rights aren't there to protect speech we all agree with, it's to protect the speech we don't. A classic, liberal free speech position is that you respect the right to free speech, especially when that speech reflects views you despise. That's what the principle means, it means upholding the right to free speech for your opponents, not just for those with views you are allied with.
But a new case in Minnesota appears to have violated the free speech rights of a mom who said a bad word. There are no hate speech laws in the United States. Saying mean words is absolutely not a criminal offense. Other nations have hate speech laws, but they have absolutely no place in these United States.
This Minnesota court has come up with a workaround. And the jury deliberated for over nine hours. In his closing arguments, her attorney Brian Karalus said, "The state of Minnesota has decided to prosecute Ms. Hendrix for language," and that's exactly what happened. We can all oppose calling people the n-word, but that doesn't make the speech a crime.
In April 2025, an autistic 8-year-old Somali child wearing a GPS tracker courtesy of the police department stole from her at a park. She verbally lashed out at the child, calling him the n-word, which isn't nice, but it's not a crime. Neither is calling an adult the n-word a crime, but that's what the Minnesota mom was convicted of.
Then a Somali man came up to her and began filming her, taunting her, demanding that she call him the n-word. She obliged. Now she's been prosecuted and convicted of a misdemeanor—not for the altercation with the child but with the TikToker who filmed her. It was for this interaction that she was sentenced to community service, a $1,000 fine, and a suspended sentence that reverts if she breaks her parole.
The video went up on his TikTok, under the account @dahab.soomaale, though the man's name is Sharmake Beyle Omar. Once the child's father, Shire Jimale, saw the video, he took it to the NAACP, which told him to contact police and then launched a fundraiser. Jimale spoke to police twice, only claiming he was afraid the woman would "rumble" with his son during the second interview.
The fundraiser said the boy was 5-years-old even though he was 8, and the cameraman against whom Hendrix was accused of using "fighting words" was not even called to testify at the trial. Jimale spoke through a Somali translator when he spoke from the witness stand at trial.
The video from the April 2025 playground incident is still up. Here's how it went down: Omar said she was guilty of "hate speech." "You can be recorded for that," he said. "We'll see what the internet has to say about you." He confronted her, he harassed her.
"You call him a n*ggr, a child?" Omar asks in accented English. "Did you call the child the n-word?" Omar used the word Hendrix was convicted for using, and he used it multiple times. He followed her around the playground as she tried to walk away with her son on her hip.
"The f*ck you talking about," Hendrix replies. "Mind your f*cking business."
"It is my business. Did you call him that?" Omar asks. He continued to harass her even as she tried to get away from him, but she was the one that a court determined had used "fighting words."
Hendrix flips him off, yet he taunts her to say it again. She calls him the n-word, at his urging, and explains that the other child "took [her] son's stuff."
Omar continues to get in her face, asking her if that's reason to engage in name-calling. "If he acts like one then he’s going to be called one," Hendrix says. She never engaged with him yet he kept coming at her. He even followed her to her car, as she noted in her fundraiser which went viral.
She didn't ask to speak with this man, she told him to stop talking to her, yet he persisted and now she's the one facing a sentence for calling him a name he demanded to be called, which he did entirely with the plan of posting it on social media. Hendrix was doxed, she has since had to move from the area.
Omar was previously charged along with another man of with raping a 16-year-old runaway. He was charged with 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct–penetration of person under 18 years old–uses coercion and 5th-degree criminal sexual conduct–nonconsensual penetration. Court documents reveal that "in the interest of justice" the charges were dropped, which doesn't mean that he didn't do it, but more likely means the court found the 16-year-old girl to be at fault for her own rape by the then-30-year-old man. The men took the girl's shoes so she couldn't run away.
Hendrix's attorney has vowed to appeal, saying that the conviction was egregious. Anyone who opposes hate speech laws on the grounds that it would be a violation of the First Amendment should hope the conviction is overturned on appeal—even as they encourage women like Hendrix to hold their tongues in playgrounds.
But a new case in Minnesota appears to have violated the free speech rights of a mom who said a bad word. There are no hate speech laws in the United States. Saying mean words is absolutely not a criminal offense. Other nations have hate speech laws, but they have absolutely no place in these United States.
This Minnesota court has come up with a workaround. And the jury deliberated for over nine hours. In his closing arguments, her attorney Brian Karalus said, "The state of Minnesota has decided to prosecute Ms. Hendrix for language," and that's exactly what happened. We can all oppose calling people the n-word, but that doesn't make the speech a crime.
In April 2025, an autistic 8-year-old Somali child wearing a GPS tracker courtesy of the police department stole from her at a park. She verbally lashed out at the child, calling him the n-word, which isn't nice, but it's not a crime. Neither is calling an adult the n-word a crime, but that's what the Minnesota mom was convicted of.
Then a Somali man came up to her and began filming her, taunting her, demanding that she call him the n-word. She obliged. Now she's been prosecuted and convicted of a misdemeanor—not for the altercation with the child but with the TikToker who filmed her. It was for this interaction that she was sentenced to community service, a $1,000 fine, and a suspended sentence that reverts if she breaks her parole.
The video went up on his TikTok, under the account @dahab.soomaale, though the man's name is Sharmake Beyle Omar. Once the child's father, Shire Jimale, saw the video, he took it to the NAACP, which told him to contact police and then launched a fundraiser. Jimale spoke to police twice, only claiming he was afraid the woman would "rumble" with his son during the second interview.
The fundraiser said the boy was 5-years-old even though he was 8, and the cameraman against whom Hendrix was accused of using "fighting words" was not even called to testify at the trial. Jimale spoke through a Somali translator when he spoke from the witness stand at trial.
The video from the April 2025 playground incident is still up. Here's how it went down: Omar said she was guilty of "hate speech." "You can be recorded for that," he said. "We'll see what the internet has to say about you." He confronted her, he harassed her.
"You call him a n*ggr, a child?" Omar asks in accented English. "Did you call the child the n-word?" Omar used the word Hendrix was convicted for using, and he used it multiple times. He followed her around the playground as she tried to walk away with her son on her hip.
"The f*ck you talking about," Hendrix replies. "Mind your f*cking business."
"It is my business. Did you call him that?" Omar asks. He continued to harass her even as she tried to get away from him, but she was the one that a court determined had used "fighting words."
Hendrix flips him off, yet he taunts her to say it again. She calls him the n-word, at his urging, and explains that the other child "took [her] son's stuff."
Omar continues to get in her face, asking her if that's reason to engage in name-calling. "If he acts like one then he’s going to be called one," Hendrix says. She never engaged with him yet he kept coming at her. He even followed her to her car, as she noted in her fundraiser which went viral.
She didn't ask to speak with this man, she told him to stop talking to her, yet he persisted and now she's the one facing a sentence for calling him a name he demanded to be called, which he did entirely with the plan of posting it on social media. Hendrix was doxed, she has since had to move from the area.
Omar was previously charged along with another man of with raping a 16-year-old runaway. He was charged with 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct–penetration of person under 18 years old–uses coercion and 5th-degree criminal sexual conduct–nonconsensual penetration. Court documents reveal that "in the interest of justice" the charges were dropped, which doesn't mean that he didn't do it, but more likely means the court found the 16-year-old girl to be at fault for her own rape by the then-30-year-old man. The men took the girl's shoes so she couldn't run away.
Hendrix's attorney has vowed to appeal, saying that the conviction was egregious. Anyone who opposes hate speech laws on the grounds that it would be a violation of the First Amendment should hope the conviction is overturned on appeal—even as they encourage women like Hendrix to hold their tongues in playgrounds.
