“Hey, are you a terrorist?”

It’s hardly the greatest infringement of free speech I’ve ever heard of, but this doesn’t sound right:

The manager of a North Chicago sandwich shop learned in a Lake County courtroom this week that the difference between a joke in poor taste and an inflammatory remark is about 75 bucks.

Arjunsinh Sindha, 64, said he feels as if he was treated unfairly when he was fined $75 after he was found guilty of disorderly conduct for asking a Pakistani-born customer if he was a terrorist.

…

Khan reported Sindha’s comment to North Chicago officials and Sindha was issued a ticket under a city ordinance for disorderly conduct.

I can’t tell from context if Sindha is a jerk or just a talkative guy who went a bit over the line, but either way I’m pretty sure this falls well within his right to freedom of speech. Cops have always stretched the definition of disorderly conduct to include whatever happens to piss them off, but speech restrictions like this are supposed to be based on time, place, and manner of speech — e.g. screaming your head off late at night in a hospital zone — not on the offensiveness of the words spoken.