No charges will be filed against a high school wrestling team who posed for a photo that appears to depict a lynching, as there was no criminal wrongdoing involved.
The photograph surfaced online in February and shows seven white teenagers wearing their Phillipsburg High school wrestling kit, with the sweatshirt hoods of two members raised into Ku Klux Klan-esque points, and a black wrestling dummy wearing the rival Paulsboro high school kit hanging from a noose in a locker room.
The picture may be offensive, but the First Amendment of the US constitution protects such imagery as free speech, and the Warren County prosecutors office found that none of the boys had broken the law.However, they referred the case back to Phillipsburg High school authorities to take whatever action they deem appropriate.
