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Wyant's behavior was repellent, but it never degenerated into violence. If the law places extra penalties on his threats because they were racist, isn't it edging closer toward punishing offensive speech by itself? "The drafters of ((the law)) may have had in mind marauding Klan members or skinheads," says Susan Gellman, an Ohio public defender who filed a brief in Wyant's appeal opposing her state's hate-crime law. "But what they're getting is Archie Bunker." Then again, Archie Bunker didn't usually threaten to shoot anyone.