LIVERPOOL, UNITED KINGDOM — A UK teenager has been charged with a hate crime for posting "grossly offensive" rap lyrics to Instagram.
Last year Liverpudlian Chelsea Russell posted lyrics "kill a snitch n**** and rob a rich n****" from "I'm Trippin" by Snap Dogg being to her Instagram. Last week that got her charged with a hate crime. The 19-year-old said it was a tribute to Frankie Murphy, a 13-year-old who was killed last year in a car accident.
Russell told the court, many youngsters in Liverpool use the N-word to greet each other. An anonymous screengrab of her post with the racy lyrics was sent to the police's hate crime unit.
Officer Dominique Walker, a black woman who works within the hate crime unit, saw the post containing the racy Snapp Dogg lyrics, according to a news release from the Crown Prosecution Service. She told the court the Snap Dogg lyrics containing the N-word were grossly offensive and asked it not be repeated in court.
Officer Walker is the sister of Anthony Walker, a British teen who was killed in a Liverpool race hate murder in 2005. According to the Liverpool Echo, Russell told the court she copied the lyrics from a friends Insta, and that they were shared by thousands of people.
The judge found her guilty of sending a grossly offensive communication, under section 127 of the UK Communications Act 203
Sentencing Russell, the judge handed down the equivalent of a US$700 fine as well as an 8-week community order curfew, during which she has to wear an ankle monitor, reports The Liverpool Echo.
