Sheriff loses fight with man he jailed for 37 days for posting a Trump meme on Facebook.
See full article...
See full article...
Man wins $835K after sheriff jailed him for a month over Charlie Kirk post
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
This is just a sad loss, the taxpayers of that county have to fund this, and it doesn’t seem strong enough to dissuade this type of abuse of power in the future. For situations this egregious, It seems to me that the sheriff should be held criminally accountable.
Upvote
387
(387
/
0)
infernal666
Ars Praefectus
This is what happens when the stupidest bullies you knew in high school end up as law enforcement.
Upvote
357
(357
/
0)
There's GOT to be some sort of punishment for the county sheriff. To be illegally incarcerated by a man abusing his power needs consequence. I have yet to see this happen.
Upvote
437
(437
/
0)
The judge that kept him locked up should be fired and disbarred. Its not just the cop.
Upvote
420
(422
/
-2)
Is there standing for citizens who can't pay for education and firefighters to sue vindictive cops for wasting their money on trying to thug out retired law enforcement officers from posting on Facebook?
Upvote
115
(115
/
0)
Canterrain
Ars Scholae Palatinae
I can't blame the guy for settling, not for an instant.
But sadly, this will ultimately be treated like a line item, to be ignored. No one will learn anything, and the Sheriff gets off without so much as having to admit wrong doing.
We need a system that both compensates the victim like this AND punishes the wrongdoer.
But sadly, this will ultimately be treated like a line item, to be ignored. No one will learn anything, and the Sheriff gets off without so much as having to admit wrong doing.
We need a system that both compensates the victim like this AND punishes the wrongdoer.
Upvote
189
(189
/
0)
It's not just the Sheriff that is at fault. He probably got an arrest warrant from a judge, he probably got a prosecutor to present charges in court. A judge forced him to remain in jail until he made bond.
There were a lot of people at fault there.
Upvote
310
(310
/
0)
Upvote
180
(180
/
0)
This kind of thing isn't new. Professional educators, as soon as "social media" was a thing, started losing their jobs over internet postings. In no time at all--college K12 educator programs took to warning all their students DO NOT POST anything controversial on the internet--because you'll not only lose your job, but be forever run out of the profession.
Kudos to this guy for fighting it. It is one thing for a public-service employer to can employees for internet posts. And an entirely different thing to get a prosecutor and judge and sheriff to all team up to illegally arrest them for it.
Upvote
102
(103
/
-1)
Sheriff is an elected position in that county. The easy punishment should be for the Sheriff to lose his job. But he is probably going to be re-elected. Because if it is a red county, the citizens also wants to jail anybody that made fun of Kirk murder.
Upvote
101
(103
/
-2)
So now that the jail has a free slot; any reason to to assign the sheriff to it until further notice? Because I'm having a hard time thinking of one.
Upvote
22
(22
/
0)
Meanwhile people who were arrested for illegally entering the capital building on 1/6 are set to receive millions...
Upvote
133
(133
/
0)
They deserve to fund and pay for this. "Liberal tears" cost more money now and no longer free.
Upvote
27
(28
/
-1)
They won't get 1 cent. the 1.8 billion will be used for Trump nestegg and to fund Republican candidates during elections in the future.
Upvote
64
(64
/
0)
Are you so sure? Getting a big payout now will ensure that more people will want to do it when the Republicans lose 2028.
Upvote
52
(53
/
-1)
Its stories like this that convince people to avoid going to a bananna republic of America.
Land of Free Speech indeed.
Land of Free Speech indeed.
Upvote
55
(57
/
-2)
...and he wasn't actually making fun of the Kirk murder. He was showing up the right-wing hypocrisy about how shooting schoolchildren is perfectly fine - "Get over it" - but a right-wing demagogue is a national emergency.
Hint: murder of anybody is flat wrong. But the schoolchildren are innocents, and Kirk, a cynical right-wing propagandist, most assuredly was not.
Upvote
161
(161
/
0)
Hunter Biden should apply for Trump's "political weaponization" reparations; it was "BiDeN's DoJ" that convicted Hunter of a something every other person charged with it alone gets to plea out and pay a fine.
Upvote
73
(73
/
0)
Kirk advocated for aggression and violence against people whom he didn't like. If he had the right to do that then everyone has the right to treat him the same way. If people do not like that right then change the laws but do not pretend that Kirk did not fan the flames and end up destroyed by his own words.
Upvote
115
(115
/
0)
Until we actually punish the offenders (cop, prosecutor, judge) the settlement is pointless. It also places a very large target on the man's back, they will cause him trouble moving forward.
Upvote
48
(48
/
0)
You would think so but they likely have qualified immunity….while the rest of us government employees would get fired for some other seemingly unrelated reason six months later.
Upvote
25
(27
/
-2)
There's also the other bit.
He'd always try to book hostile venues, AKA venues in politically hostile places. Locals would not want him anywhere near their community or campus....and he'd performatively sue them on "free speech" grounds, and the venues would give up because it wasn't worth the effort. Which is precisely how he rose to prominence in the first place. And it was his gravy train.
Upvote
84
(84
/
0)
Perry County voted 74% for Trump.
It's sad for the 25% that are on the hook. I suspect most of them don't want to be in Perry County either. That 74% can fuck off though.
Upvote
78
(78
/
0)
The sheriff should be in jail and the judge that set the bail should be removed and disbarred.
Upvote
47
(47
/
0)
Wait, did any of the smarter bullies make it in? I hadn't noticed if so.
Upvote
14
(14
/
0)
I find it interesting that FIRE was involved with this case. FIRE has always come off as a more right leaning ACLU. That doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be involved with a case like this, but it definitely made me curious.
Upvote
17
(17
/
0)
It bears repeating: this guy didn't "make fun of Charlie Kirk" in the post that was used to illegally arrest him.
And Jimmy Kimmel didn't "make fun of Charlie Kirk" in the line that the American Nazi Party used to temporarily suspend him from the airwaves.
Don't let them control the narrative, especially when it's not fucking true.
Upvote
117
(118
/
-1)
First claims on Trump's $1.776B fund should be to people like this guy and victims of Trump's ICE thuggery, in my mythical Land, where Karmic Nelson Ha-Ha's peal like thunder across the skies.
Upvote
32
(32
/
0)
If the only cost for catch and release for thought crime is a fine paid for by the victims, then they're going to keep catching and releasing for thought crime. I'll simply gesture at the history of American policing to show how effective settlements are at genuinely curbing police behavior.
Upvote
37
(38
/
-1)
Both of the worst school bullies in -my- high school ended up as cops in the city I grew up in: both of whom were heard to be discussing at a high school reunion how proud they were to be paid to be beating up ________. (the city I grew up in has problems with substance abuse by certain populations. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out the rest)
its somehow sad/disappointing/not surprising to know that things don't change
Upvote
40
(41
/
-1)
That's exactly the psych profile police departments are after. If your IQ is over the hiring threshold you get passed over. On the other hand, if your IQ is too low to be a cop, you can join ICE.
Upvote
55
(55
/
0)
I think the actual lesson learned is: "Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared for the taxpayers to foot the bill for your opinions tomorrow. You won't be held accountable, and there will be no other consequences for your actions."
And the taxpayers / voters will cheer this on and happily pay up in the form of sales, property, and income taxes while simultaneously complaining about having to pay for big government.
And the taxpayers / voters will cheer this on and happily pay up in the form of sales, property, and income taxes while simultaneously complaining about having to pay for big government.
Upvote
30
(30
/
0)
50 of over 70 County Sheriffs in my state are under investigation by the DOJ.
30 of them are are endorsing a “Trump Patriot” for Governor.
Portugal sounds nice…
Upvote
50
(50
/
0)
It's almost like institutions and occupations entirely predicated on using violence to maintain the status quo inherently attract violent thugs looking for permission to use violence.
Who knew?
Upvote
35
(37
/
-2)
Exactly. The county paying a fine does nothing to the sheriff who caused this problem. He'll get a wrist slap and may lose the next election but that's not the same of taking it out of his pocket or penalizing him directly.
The sheriff cost the tax payers a pretty hefty chunk but he'll face no real penalties from it.
Upvote
18
(18
/
0)