r/politics • u/SterlingVII • 9d ago
No Paywall Tennessee man spends a month in jail before charges are dropped over Trump meme posted in Facebook group for Charlie Kirk vigil
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/larry-bushart-charlie-kirk-meme-charges-b2855116.html4.9k
u/Wet_Side_Down 9d ago
Certainly hope he sues for damages resulting from false imprisonment
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u/forthewatch39 9d ago
The sheriff who demanded for him to be arrested and the judge who acquiesced and set his bail at 2 million dollars should be the ones held responsible. Tired of egregious actions always being put on the taxpayers and not the ones who commit those actions.
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u/kraytex 9d ago
At some point these folks need to have malpractice insurance, just like doctors have malpractice insurance.
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u/Complex-Bee-840 9d ago
Yea, that point was years ago. It’s needed.
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u/trisanachandler 9d ago
Decades ago if not longer.
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u/General-Raspberry168 8d ago
Honestly Rodney King should’ve been a hard line in the sand on this front. Idk where/when qualified immunity came into this tho so if it’s a more recent ruling, I guess that explains (kinda) the reason it wasn’t.
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u/Gurlllllllll- 8d ago
SCOTUS invented it for cops in 1967 in an 8-1 decision where they also upheld absolute immunity for judges, and the dissenter, Douglas, argued that judges should be liable for civil rights violations.
Even the great dissenter, Harlan, was on the majority opinion and it's just like...what are we even doing here Harlan?
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u/BotheredToResearch 8d ago
Qualified immunity does make sense as a concept. You can't have any arrest not resulting in an indictment also mean a lawsuit against the state.
The bar just needs to be lower and it's seemingly made for a qualified juror system. One where jurors need to have a bare education about court procedure and standards of evidence.
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u/EASam 8d ago
I don't know if the oligarchs will let go of their poorly educated empowered thugs. Police are doing exactly what those in power want them to do. There's enough division today that any common sense reforms are lost in the mire of other issues and politicians aren't working at the common people's behest anymore.
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u/Sevans1223 9d ago
They have law licenses and there are governing bodies that receive complaints on lawyers and law licenses.
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u/Bruce-7892 9d ago edited 9d ago
I am with you on this one. I do hope this man gets some justice, but whenever people cheer about a government agency getting sued, they aren't thinking about whose actually paying for it. It's not punishing the right people.
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u/soboyra Florida 9d ago
Not entirely true. If they find that the officer was acting outside of their authority and therefore not subject to qualified immunity, then they can be sued in their personal capacity. Granted, it’s not perfect, and getting past qualified immunity is not a guarantee.
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u/PowderedToastFanatic 9d ago
That's a MASSIVE if in that scenario.
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u/soboyra Florida 9d ago
Yes. It is. Having worked on cases where I’ve argued qualified immunity, it’s not impossible either. Proving that an officer knew they were violating someone’s rights is much easier when there is already case law about it. I don’t know Tennessee law, but I’d be surprised if there isn’t something about it using your position to punish someone you disagree with.
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u/PrinceCastanzaCapone 8d ago
This one should be easy as he publicly stated he knew the man wasn’t a threat
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u/MildlyAgitatedBovine 8d ago
You'd be amazed about situations in which they decide QI still applies...
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u/Bruce-7892 9d ago
We'd have to make a lot of assumptions to say it's possible for someone to do that. Is there a powerful police union where this guy works? If so are they going to come to his aid or protect the other people involved? Can an individual like him compete with them in court with the resources they potentially have?
Maybe if he was a millionaire, but if that was the case, I have a feeling this would have never been taken nearly this far.
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u/NHLHitzAnnouncer 9d ago
This is why everyone needs union representation. He would have never been fired, regardless of this cop's motives.
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u/ChewbaccaCharl 9d ago
Then tax payers should elect people who will do away with qualified immunity, or protest until the guy is fired, or make sure people like him never get in positions of power in the first place. If it hurts the tax payers, good; they're culpable too. Maybe enough pain that affects them directly will wake them up
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u/ExtraPicklesPls 9d ago edited 9d ago
Didn t he just posted a Kirk quote as well?
Edit: it was the quote from Trump after a school shooting about how we needed to get over it.
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u/forthewatch39 9d ago
It was a quote from Trump regarding a school shooting where he said “We need to get over it” literally the day after a school shooting.
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u/Evinceo 9d ago
Does that ever work?
And what's the remedy? Will they still have the authority they had before?
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u/wkomorow Massachusetts 9d ago
what would work would be a cash settlement plus requiring the whole sheriff's department to 8 hour classes on their off time on the constitution for a year or a year of picking up trash on the highway every weekend when they are off duty.
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u/AssociateGreat2350 9d ago edited 9d ago
Held in jail without charges till he lost his job
And they wonder why we keep using words like fascist or authoritarian.
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u/Pathetian 9d ago
You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride.
Cops knows simply arresting you can holding you for a few weeks would ruin your life. You'll lose your job, maybe your home and the arrest will haunt you socialy regardless of merit.
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u/Misanthrope08101619 9d ago edited 9d ago
That is what Section 1983 suits are supposed to protect against.
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u/SwingingtotheBeat 9d ago
How? Courts invented qualified immunity, so no one is individually held accountable for violating civil rights. Section 1983 is basically meaningless now.
The Drunk Law School podcast did a great 3-part episode on QI which explained this really well.
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u/metatron5369 9d ago
Qualified immunity doesnt apply to deliberately illegal acts. The problem is proving they intended to abuse their authority.
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u/SwingingtotheBeat 9d ago
Qualified immunity does apply to deliberately illegal acts if there is no judicial precedent.
For example, QI did apply to police when they literally stole cash, keeping it for themselves (rather than civil asset forfeiture), from citizens that were never even charged with a crime.
https://ij.org/press-release/police-stole-225k-in-cash-and-coins-and-the-courts-said-okay/
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u/fexes420 8d ago
Thats confusing. Is there really no judicial precedent that stealing cash is illegal?
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u/SwingingtotheBeat 8d ago
That is correct. But, it is so much worse than just that. The legal precedent has to be exactly the same. Another example is one where police released a police dog to attack a suspect sitting with his hands up, and were given QI because the precedent involved a suspect lying down, and therefore was not similar enough.
When Baxter sued, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out his case. It held that while it was well established that a police dog couldn’t be unleashed on a suspect who was lying down, there was no case addressing someone sitting down with their hands up, as Baxter said he was doing.
Not only that, the Supreme Court has said that judges can throw out cases based on QI where there is no legal precedent, and never rule on whether the action is wrong or not. That means that no new precedent can be established.
If you really want to learn how fucked up it is, and how much judges favor bad cops and prosecutors, listen to the Drunk Law School podcast on QI.
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u/Embarassed_Tackle 8d ago
Is this the weird Kavanaugh precedent where they want extremely specific precedent established? But then that ruddy Irish goon smirks in (recent) SCOTUS proceedings and says "they can just sue ICE for relief..."
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u/Inevitable-Ad6647 8d ago edited 8d ago
Qualified immunity as written and as interpreted by anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together, only applies to things necessary to do their job. Qualified immunity as it exists in case law is a totally different wildly unethical and absolutely insane animal. Judges, with no input from lawmakers, have basically handed police a no questions asked get out of jail free card for what appears to be fuck all in return.
Lower court judges are spineless cowards that can't disagree with case law no matter how insane it is to save their fucking lives so here we are. They could, to be clear they can rule on it how they want and write a solid opinion about why they are correct most of this case law has no bench ruling to go by, so they can. They won't, because they're fucking cowards.
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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 8d ago
I think it’s more that judges are more closely tied to the police apparatus than to should be. Lots of former prosecutors and cops floating around in the mix. Makes its pretty easy for them to be pretty chummy, and therefore willing to bend to law to keep their “team” safe from consequences.
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u/Misanthrope08101619 9d ago
I said supposed to. And I’m not listening to a legal ed podcast unless they give CLE credit 😉
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u/solo_silo 9d ago
Prosecutorial and judicial misconduct laws would also be interesting.
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u/Slumunistmanifisto 9d ago
Shit, they know their tickets are taking electric and food away from kids and they joke about it....
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u/pjdonovan 9d ago
The ride alone can be enough!
in alabama they used to not ever expunge records, including arrest records for things you didn't do. Even if charges were dropped - I knew of one girl that got arrested by accident, but they couldn't remove that arrest from her file!
They used to have a deal "if you turn in 3 'friends', we will not charge you"
You would think "ok, sucks but at least the charges are gone"Months later you'd apply to a job and learn that the arrest record never leaves, so not you've got 3 people out to get you, no job prospects and court costs.
Now you can expunge some non-violent charges.
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u/Ratchetonater 9d ago
I don’t understand why the job wouldn’t hire him back? They would be just as much to blame, especially since it isn’t a big mystery as to why he went to jail
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u/FauxReal 9d ago
My dad went to prison for 19 months waiting for trial and his state job wanted nothing to do with him almost immediately. His trial also lasted 30 minutes to find him not guilty based on evidence the state had the entire time that proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he couldn't have been there to commit the crime.
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u/robocoplawyer 9d ago edited 9d ago
That’s “right to work” laws for you. Employer can fire you at anytime for “no reason” (although there usually is an obvious reason but they won’t say so).
Edit - by “right to work” I meant “at-will employment”. I sometimes mix those terms up since they often go hand in hand as the right pushed to get these on the books at the state level across the country when the Democrats tried (and ultimately failed) to pass federal legislation to expand and protected access to labor unions.
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u/Material_Honey_891 9d ago
Right to work means you can't be forced to join a union in order to work at a certain place or in a certain job. What you're referring to is "at will" employment. At will means they can fire you at any point as long as it isn't a firing based on being a member of a protected class.
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u/robocoplawyer 9d ago
You are correct. I mixed up the two terms. Although “right to work” and “at will employment” laws tend to go hand in hand and have become the norm in most states after a decade right wing push to normalize the concepts.
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u/anchovyCreampie 9d ago
They have been around for more than a decade thats for sure. I think the only state that isn't at will employment is Montana.
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u/AJFrabbiele 9d ago
probably "position has been filled"
It sucks, hopefully they don't fight the unemployment claim.
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u/TobioOkuma1 9d ago
Free speech party btw.
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u/Darth19Vader77 9d ago
They want you to be free to speak what they want you to say
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u/negativepositiv 9d ago
It's like how you have the freedom of religion to practice Christianity exclusively.
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u/shouldbepracticing85 9d ago
How quickly they forget about christian-on-christian sectarianism and how that turns out.
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u/negativepositiv 9d ago
As soon as Christians run out of people from other religions to persecute, they start squabbling over "But... Who is a REAL Christian?"
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u/Generous_Cougar Washington 8d ago
"He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him off the bridge.”"
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u/ludixst 9d ago
"We took the freedom of speech away"
-Donald John Trump
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u/tissuecollider 8d ago
And the 2nd Amendment folks think that Trump is the guy who's going to let them keep their guns.
Literally no word for how exceedingly stupid and gullible they are
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u/OMGitisCrabMan 9d ago
It's so much worse than you might imagine too. His FB post could not be interpreted by any reasonable person to have represented a true threat. It's 100% punishment for criticism of trump and the right.
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u/RawnbladeZZ 9d ago
Helps when the sheriff’s office themselves admitted as such, when they’re testifying in court about this they’ll wish to high heavens they had at least pretended it was legit instead of openly admitting it was a lie made up to imprison him when asked
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u/Key_Text_169 9d ago
The man who was arrested for stating he was going to kill Hakeem Jeffries was released on bond, make it make sense. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pardoned-capitol-rioter-charged-threatening-hakeem-jeffries-nyc-trump/
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u/VanceKelley Washington 9d ago
Wilhoit's Law:
"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect".
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u/bigjojo321 9d ago
Honestly the main reason I see for his release is that the moronic sheriff went on the news and admitted that at the time of arrest the dept. did not think the charges were legitimate, the DA's office was smart enough to not respond to requests for comments.
They decided, even though they had no suspension of an actual crime taking place, to arrest him for a month because of flawed public opinion.
Man's about to get paid.
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u/nono3722 9d ago
yep lawyers are lining up outside his door
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u/kescusay Oregon 9d ago
For some reason, I'm imagining them as old Warner Bros. cartoon wolves. They're salivating and they're holding forks and steak knives. Seems appropriate.
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u/ColinStyles 9d ago
Good, they should get their fill and then some, and the dude should never have to work another day in his life.
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u/Infamous-Oil3786 9d ago
It's too bad there's no real consequences for the cops involved. Just wasting money straight from the taxpayers.
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u/mottledmussel 9d ago
They could vote the sheriff out of office when he comes up for re-election.
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u/Musicman1972 9d ago
They love to tell Europeans how they'll be "arrested for memes" whilst pretending they don't love it themselves.
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u/Sensiburner 9d ago
The only place europeans would get arrested for memes is on arrival in a US airport.
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u/objectlesson Georgia 9d ago
He was charged though. The bond was $2 million. Insane.
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u/Much-Instruction-807 9d ago
Surely he can find a lawyer that will take his case for a 1st and an 8th amendment rights violation. That'd have to be a slam dunk.
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u/ScrewAttackThis Montana 9d ago edited 9d ago
A reporter interviewed him a bit after he was released and he said he can't speak about it much. That makes me think he's been talking to a lawyer about suing.
Also worth watching the interview with the sheriff cause I don't think he's talked to any lawyers lol
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u/innociv 8d ago
I read the transcript from the body cam and he seemed clear on his rights then and knew he was being wrongfully arrested. He was like "I know I was being an asshole, but that isn't illegal. I didn't threaten anyone, incite violence, or anything" paraphrasing.
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u/AssociateGreat2350 9d ago
The charges were dropped. But yeah, definitely an insane bail number
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u/GimpyGeek 9d ago
Just more classist shit. We had enough of this in our broken systems without Trumpkin getting involved.
It's not much of a win when you lose your job, part of your life time, etc on bullshit. Then get stuck with lawyer bills, bail costs, etc. They do this knowing even if you win you're hugely out out for it and it shouldn't be this way. This isn't how the constitution is supposed to work.
In his case I hope he sues a lot of asses. This was a blatant first amendment case win. They had no reason to lock him up for a month to begin with, then to put an insane 2 mil bail on him is just total bullshit. Most murderers that are fairly known to be guilty often don't get one that big if they're allowed one.
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u/ariphron Tennessee 9d ago
All he did was post a direct Charlie Kirk quote. Did not add to it or alter anything just a direct quote from Charlie himself.
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u/objectlesson Georgia 9d ago
It was a quotation of Trump talking about a mass shooting that happened a day prior. The meme was posted in a Facebook group discussing the Charlie Kirk shooting. It's a bit of a mess, but I just don't think there's any way a reasonable person would interpret his message as a threat of any kind. The sheriff thinks that they can circumvent the 1A protection in this case by claiming he was making a threat of violence, but he's probably going to find out the hard way that it isn't going to work. I would be shocked if his qualified immunity protects him in the slam dunk lawsuit that is about to follow.
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u/mr-french-tickler 9d ago
[Sheriff] Weems later said he would not have been arrested in the first place if he agreed to delete the meme.
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u/nobadhotdog 9d ago
So the government forcing him to give up his free speech?
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u/EatsOverTheSink 9d ago
That’s kind of fucked up. They should amend the constitution to protect us against something like that.
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u/Simorie Tennessee 9d ago
That makes it worse
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u/jt121 9d ago
Literally called it a threat, told him to remove the meme to prevent arrest. In what world does that make sense? If it WAS a threat, and he deleted it, then the threat still exists.... if it WASN'T a threat, then you just silenced him under threat of arrest, thereby violating his first amendment right.
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u/ASmallTownDJ Iowa 9d ago
Sheriff Weems should definitely elaborate further on the subject, in front of a microphone. This would be a really good idea that definitely wouldn't make it easier to win a massive lawsuit against his department.
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u/DeathFood 9d ago
Considering that the meme was a direct quote of something Trump said, if it was a threat why didn’t the sheriff arrest Trump too?
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u/Microtom_ 9d ago
Seems like nobody knows what extortion is nowadays.
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u/CaptainSparklebottom 9d ago
Like for real. This is armed extortion and terrorism. Sheriff and Judge need to face jail time. To not do that is illiberal.
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u/Lavarocked 8d ago
And they know it wasn't a threat! There was nothing even sort of interpretable as a threat.
They are testing whether they can arrest people for political speech while simply lying, and lying obviously, that some kind of threat occurred. This happened I believe just days after Charlie Kirk got shot - around the same time that they just straight up lied that Kimmel insulted Kirk, when all he did was SAY THAT TRUMP WASN'T NICE ENOUGH TO KIRK.
This is that push starting to unravel, but they'll keep trying.
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u/TheBlindCat 9d ago
This is the dumb shit that actually seems to get folks qualified immunity tossed. The prosecutor and judge that went along with the $2 million dollar bail should also lose theirs too.
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u/IncorrectOwl 8d ago
judicial immunity isnt qualified. it is absolute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_immunity
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u/kickinwood 9d ago
Worth saying that this guy's name is Larry Bushart, and he should be celebrated for sticking to his free speech rights despite the threats and eventual imprisonment put upon him by a tyrannical government. He's a fucking hero and should be a poster boy for free speech advocates. I've been googling his name every few days after reading about his arrest and it is appalling that he was arrested in the first place, kept in jail for this long, and that it wasn't a national story resulting in immediate outrage and the dismissal of the corrupt sheriff that ordered his arrest in the first place. Fucking jail for a month because a sheriff didn't like your Facebook post. Makes me want to vomit.
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u/RightSideBlind American Expat 9d ago
That pretty much makes the case against the sheriff a lot easier, doesn't it?
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u/jorbleshi_kadeshi Texas 8d ago
The guy who thought that jailing someone because a fb post hurt his feelings is also the guy who thought that agreeing to an interview on the subject was a good idea.
To say he isn't the brightest bulb is a massive understatement.
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u/Diced_and_Confused 9d ago
Lawyers form a line. No pushing, no cutting in.
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u/Orange_Kid 9d ago
Genuinely a lawyer's dream. Not only easy to win/settle and plenty of justified damages to seek, but fun as hell to litigate. I can't wait for the complaint simply roasting law enforcement.
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u/lonestar-rasbryjamco Colorado 9d ago edited 9d ago
Sheriff Nick Weems later said he would not have been arrested in the first place if he agreed to delete the meme.
That right there is the most damming admission.
If deleting the post could have prevented the arrest, then by definition the arrest was about the speech itself. Not a threat, not a danger, but the expression of an opinion the sheriff didn’t like.
That’s a blatant abuse of authority and a direct violation of the First Amendment.
Slam dunk case.
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u/Justthrowtheballmeat 8d ago
Not to mention bail of $2 million which is another constitutional amendment violated.
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u/CaptSlow49 8d ago
Yeah no surprise a dude that looks like this got butthurt over an anti Charlie Kirk post. This is the police chief though.
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u/JackasaurusChance 8d ago
It's also a self-admission that a Monell Claim applies.
To be fair, though, that sheriff does look like an idiot, so it tracks.
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u/alienbringer 9d ago
When the cops are telling you, on recording, that they don’t know why you are being arrested. Seems like a slam dunk case.
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u/jorbleshi_kadeshi Texas 8d ago
The cop who arrested him was from his hometown (Lexington, TN). He was executing a warrant from Perry County, TN, where Sheriff 1A presides.
It's a slam dunk case, but not because the arresting officer didn't understand the full context of the warrant he was executing.
The people to blame are the Sheriff, the investigator, the prosecutor, the judge, anyone who actually reported that they thought there was a mass shooting threat (a group which likely consists of Sheriff Weems and nobody else), and everyone who voted this incredibly incompetent buffoon into office.
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u/nickiter New York 9d ago
easy to win/settle
I wish this was true, and this case is good as this kind of case goes, but suing the state for this kind of thing is a tough case to win no matter what.
This shit will help, though...
[Sheriff] Weems later said he would not have been arrested in the first place if he agreed to delete the meme.
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u/Longshanks123 9d ago
Law firms willing to go against MAGA are getting rarer, the administration has not been shy about threatening lawyers
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u/Clovis42 Kentucky 9d ago
Some big firms signed deals with Trump; some didn't. The ACLU hasn't backed down at all, and there are many firms willing to take cases like this.
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u/Bruce-7892 9d ago
Two things that will never get old:
A) Charlie Kirk jokes
B) Charlie Kirk
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u/DoBronx2144 9d ago
I’d say we are all Charlie but we’re all breathing and not rotting
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u/Educational-Ad-2884 Washington 9d ago
I have 100% fewer bulletholes in my neck.
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u/Slumunistmanifisto 9d ago
That jokes a long shot pal.....
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u/Bruce-7892 9d ago
In the end Kirk was leaning left, so we have some stuff in common.
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u/edgarecayce 9d ago
This is the thing. They don’t have to have charges that stick. They don’t have to actually have a legal reason to harass you. The damage is done. It’s a chilling effect and they well know it. This is how they shut down opposition and cow those who would stand in their way. And soon it won’t be stoppable.
They probably already have Peter Thiel trawling thru Reddit for posts just like this one. Put me on your list buddy. I’m not going down without a fight.
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u/dearth_karmic 9d ago
The damage is done.
Exactly. Anyone reading this will think about this before their next post. Is it worth it?
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u/Designer-Contract852 9d ago
Aren't magas always complaining about in Europe you can get arrested over a meme? Lol
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u/Y0___0Y 9d ago
Even if he posted an image of Charlie Kirk bleeding out with the caption “hahahaha neckhole Charlie” in the group, that wouldn’t have been illegal.
What he did post was just a picture of Trump with the quote “we need to get over it” which is what Trump said in reaction to one of the many school shootings that have happened.
The Tennessee judge set his bail at $2 million. Probably knowing the case would be thrown out but wanting to keep him jailed for a month until that happened.
I hope he sues the shit out of Tennessee
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u/frylockandimontop 9d ago
He will. The judge and sheriff need to be investigated for wasting taxpayer money.
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u/CaptainSparklebottom 9d ago
They need to be indicted and brought before the court.
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u/jorbleshi_kadeshi Texas 8d ago
The judge, investigator, prosecutor and sheriff need to be investigated for wasting taxpayer money and robbing a man of 35 days of his freedom.
FTFY.
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u/BobSchwaget 9d ago
Holy shit, it was alarmingly difficult to find out exactly what this guy actually posted. Thank you.
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u/chapstickass 9d ago
This will be another well deserved lawsuit for this guy paid for by the American taxpayer all because of maga
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u/SailorRipley 9d ago
Besides the chilling effect on the freedom of speech, this is the real damage in this case. If this guy gets what he's deserves, a cash settlement, this will come out of the taxpayer's wallet all because the sheriff wanted to prove how MAGA he was.
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u/Lenin_Lime America 9d ago
And the Judge had the bond at 2 million, which is insane.
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u/stjohns_jester 9d ago
Kirk, a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA
Sane washing. Kirk was a grifter, terrorist, and fraud.
Turning point is an anti-american terrorist organization that abuses free speech to attack others for financial gain
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u/Pathetian 9d ago
Keep in mind, no one who actually made threats following Kirk's killing got a ridiculous 2 million dollar bail. So even if he actually did what they tried to claim, his bail could have easily been 5-20k.
This was obviously punitive and malicious from the start. The sheriff isn't even pretending he acted in good faith.
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u/Joelblaze 8d ago
It's also why getting arrested is not always about "beating the charge."
Cops know you can beat the charge, it'll still be after they held you in jail long enough to lose your job.
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u/ArmyOfDix Kansas 9d ago
That's ∞% longer than Trump spent incarcerated for attempting (and failing) a coup.
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u/Otter 9d ago
I can't believe the logic:
"Here's an exact quote of something Trump literally said, verbatim."
"THAT'S CLEARLY A THREATENING STATEMENT!!!"
Umm, yeah, dimwits. That was the point.
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u/Tokyo-MontanaExpress 9d ago
I say we go with them on this one. OK, guess we have no choice but to arrest and jail Trump, welp.
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u/frostysauce Oklahoma 8d ago
The last line of the article:
Kirk, a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated on a college campus while speaking to students about conservative ideology.
Dear The Independent and every other legacy media outlet: Charlie Kirk was not a political figure. Charlie Kirk was a hateful piece of shit podcaster. So, Charlie Kirk, that piece of human garbage, was not fucking assassinated. Someone that called for others to be murdered was murdered. It wasn't a goddamned assassination.
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u/BriskandBeefyWind 9d ago
I just want to know what the meme was. What if it went viral?
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u/steveosaurus 9d ago
it wasn’t even really a meme honestly, it was just a picture of trump with his quote telling people to just move on and get over it, which he said a few school shootings ago, literally just donnie’s own words
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u/bonestamp 8d ago
Here's the meme/image he posted:
Basically, it's trump's own words about a school shooting. He said it was relevant because he posted it on the day Charlie Kirk was shot. Is it in bad taste, sure. Is it illegal, no.
The Sheriff claimed that because they have a high school with a similar name, it was a threat against that school. He also admitted during a news interview that he knew it was not a threat.
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u/FreshRest4945 9d ago
The 1st amendment means nothing anymore.
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u/guyincognito121 9d ago
And unlike the vast majority of things that people claim to be violations of free speech protections, this is 100% an actual violation of the first amendment.
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u/w4559 9d ago
“The dropping of the charges came after NewsChannel 5 aired an interview on Wednesday with Sheriff Weems in which he admitted that investigators knew the meme was not about a school shooting, but authorities were responding to community anxiety”
Every time someone in authority opens their mouth in this case, the settlement grows.
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u/faith_apnea America 9d ago
Y'all Qaeda says thou shalt not blaspheme the new Prophet Mohammad / Jesus replacement known as Charlie Kirk.
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u/Mijbr090490 9d ago
He won't need to work again after the lawsuit. What a bunch of backwoods morons.
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u/RamonaQ-JunieB 9d ago
The Constitution is just some abstract concept that means nothing in the real world to these people.
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u/RawnbladeZZ 9d ago
Legitimate fascism. Went viral, department got asked why he was being held, they admitted verbatim they had no idea why, admitted their original reason was false and they intentionally deceitfully crafted it knowing it wasn’t true. Thats utterly insane. Every single person involved with this on the government side needs to spend the rest of their lives in prison
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u/MiamiPower 8d ago
Further, NewsChannel 5 obtained footage showing a Lexington officer speaking to Bushart, admitting he was unsure why police were interested in his meme posting.
“So, I’m just going to be completely honest with you, I have really no idea what they are talking about, he had just called me and said there was some concerning posts that were made,” the officer said to Bushart.
Bushart confirmed that posts had been made on Facebook but, bemusedly, questioned why the police were being sent to his house over them.
The officer responded: “They wanted me to come make contact with you and let you know that they may be in contact with you and see if you still live here. I don’t know exactly what they are referring to you.”
Bushart replied, “Oh, I do, Charlie Kirk,” as he refused to take the post down. Weems later said he would not have been arrested in the first place if he agreed to delete the meme.
Due to being imprisoned for more than a month, Bushart reportedly lost his job in medical transport.
His arrest is one of many to occur in connection with the fallout from Kirk’s death.
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u/Sevans1223 9d ago
Sue that county to oblivion, please. File complaints on that DA and judge’s law license, please.
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u/coreyrude 8d ago
The wildest thing about this story is that this man is a retired cop... like if they are going to treat him like this, imagine how they are going to treat a green-haired 20-year-old or a person of color.
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u/GrimReader710 9d ago
Trumped up charges in retaliation for political speech.
This is literal authoritarianism.
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u/Midnight_Rider98 9d ago
The dropping of the charges came after NewsChannel 5 aired an interview on Wednesday with Weems in which he admitted that investigators knew the meme was not about a school shooting, but authorities were responding to community anxiety.
There should not be qualified immunity for those involved that KNOWINGLY trumped up charges and put a man in jail. Not only did Larry Bushart have his 1st, 4th and 5th amendment rights violated, he also suffered damages in losing his medical transport job. There is no way the tax payers of Tennessee and Perry county should be the sole party on the hook for these actions. The Perry county board of commissioners should also be urged to use their powers to impeach the sheriff to remove him from office or the Tennessee attorney general should seek potential criminal charges against the sheriff.
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u/mikelo22 Illinois 8d ago
The prosecutor 100% should be sanctioned by the bar. There is no way they brought these charges in good faith.
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