A white couple
have been handed heavy prison sentences in Georgia for shouting slurs and death
threats at guests at a black child's birthday party.
In July 2015,
the couple were part of a group riding in pickup trucks draped with the
Confederate flag, the South's flag in the Civil War and today considered a
symbol of racism by many Americans.
After
harassing African-American drivers, the convoy stopped in front of the home of
a black family in Douglasville who were celebrating the birthday of an
eight-year-old child.
One
member of the group, which calls itself Respect the Flag, brandished a shotgun,
while others hurled insults and threatened to kill the partygoers.
The display of
the controversial flag was not at issue in the case as it is protected by the
US Constitution's free speech guarantee, said Brian Fortner, the Douglas County
prosecutor.
"Instead,
this case was about a group of people riding around our community, drinking
alcohol, harassing and intimidating our citizens because of the color of their
skin," he said in a statement.
"They
used racial slurs and threatened to kill some of the partygoers. They even
threatened to kill children at the party."
A
Georgia state court sentenced the two, Joel Torres and Kayla Norton, a
respective 20 years and 15 years in prison on Monday.
Torres
and Norton's sentencing came less than two months after a federal judge in
South Carolina sentenced white supremacist Dylann Roof to death over the
killing of nine black churchgoers in June 2015.
credit: AFP
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