When posters appeared on the GW campus early last month bearing the message, “Hate Muslims? So Do We!”, some people laughed, others got offended, and the university got a ton of media coverage unrelated to its exorbitant tuition. Today the GW Hatchet reports that the students responsible for the posters have each received a $25 fine and probation.

As you all may recall, the posters were part of a campaign to mock Islamo-Facism Awareness Week, a set of events on college campuses nationwide sponsored by the conservative Young America’s Foundation. The posters, which bore the name of GW’s Young America’s Foundation chapter, featured an image of a Muslim man, along with tell-tale signs including “suicide vest,” “hidden AK-47” and “peg-leg for smuggling children and heroin.” Nine students were eventually implicated in poster-gate, including anti-war Iraq vet Adam Kokesh.

From the Hatchet’s article:

Graduate student Adam Kokesh, a prominent anti-war Iraq veteran, said the satirical posters were intended to be overtly racist, according to an SJS report. “It was act of civil disobedience,” Kokesh told The Hatchet Wednesday afternoon. “We knew we were violating postering policy and we were willing to take the consequences.”

Sergio Gor, YAF’s president, said he was unhappy with the outcome of the judicial proceedings. He added that the students unfairly attacked his group and should be suspended or expelled. “I think that’s absolutely unacceptable that, once again, we see the double standards that are being applied – because the punishment doesn’t fit the crime,” Gor said.

Beyond the debate as to whether the fine and probation are enough, the Hatchet relays an interesting tidbit that’s worth wondering about:

At a mediation meeting at Marvin Center several hours after the incident, UPD officers confronted Kokesh because he was a “possible suspect in posting hate material earlier that day,” a police report states. The officers threatened the use of pepper spray when Kokesh did not comply with orders to stop and identify himself, the report said. He was immediately released.

Pepper spray? Please. We all know that a taser is the best way to subdue a rowdy student.