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Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

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Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#101

Post by JumpCrisscross »

echelon wrote: post #98
Arubis wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a sane, fair, and (crucially) long-term stable system, persons given privilege and authority over others are subject to a higher standard for their own behavior. The long-running US trend of the inverse (additional legal protections for positions of authority) is incredibly destructive. This is a moral and values judgment, yes, but it's not just that -- it communicates to the population at large that they should f…

> In a sane, fair, and (crucially) long-term stable system, persons given privilege and authority over others are subject to a higher standard for their own behavior. The US military is subject to a higher standard, the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Penalties for US service members breaking the law or codes of conduct are much higher and much more severe than civilians. The US military makes routine example of la…

> Penalties for US service members breaking the law or codes of conduct are much higher and much more severe than civilians. The US military makes routine example of law breakers and misconduct

Honest question, is this currently true?

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#102

Post by anonymars »

pjc50 wrote: post #57
contubernio wrote: post #28

The sheriff that arrested him should face criminal charges for misuse of authority. That he doesn't reflects a structural weakness in US law. In most European legal systems a law enforcement officer overstepping his legal authority would face criminal charges for it.

Eh, in the UK this is only true for the most absolutely serious cases where someone has been killed or seriously injured. Wrongful arrest doesn't. It may face career risks. Ultimately the US lacks some sort of Federal "inspectorate of police" that would be able to ban people from being law enforcement officers or at least require e.g. retraining or restriction of duties, without leaving it up to frankly corrupt local…

Yeah. Did any meaningful consequences befall anyone for the Horizon IT scandal?

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#103

Post by cgriswald »

lokar wrote: post #67
Arubis wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a sane, fair, and (crucially) long-term stable system, persons given privilege and authority over others are subject to a higher standard for their own behavior. The long-running US trend of the inverse (additional legal protections for positions of authority) is incredibly destructive. This is a moral and values judgment, yes, but it's not just that -- it communicates to the population at large that they should f…

The death penalty should be reserved for people who violate a position of public trust and authority.

You want to give the government the legal ability to threaten the life of the entire civil service, judiciary, and all elected representatives.

I’m sure that would never be abused.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#104

Post by ceejayoz »

ikeboy wrote: post #94
ceejayoz wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a functioning system, the judge would block the warrant and arrest. But they lied to obtain the warrant.

OP says that they left out information (which cops do all the time) but that the warrant shouldn't have been granted either way because of SCOTUS precedent. Would welcome reform that makes it harder to lie on warrant affidavits, although again, that should be civil in nature.

> they left out information

Yes, we call that lying by omission.

They knew that information would result in the warrant not being granted, so they left it out.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#105

Post by jacobsenscott »

ceejayoz wrote: post #41
chociej wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I at least partly disagree, speaking from my perspective as a small-time city council member. I agree that ideally taxpayers shouldn't pay money for this kind of misconduct. But in practice, misconduct must face consequences, those affected must be made whole, the offending employee likely can't pay the judgment in full, and most importantly, the monetary judgment is the most effective way to motivate city government…

> the offending employee likely can't pay the judgment in full My doctor is required to carry malpractice insurance. Those who commit repeated egregious mistakes become uninsurable. Make cops do the same.

Many (most? idk) governments that employ the cops (city, county, whatever) do have insurance for this, and grant police qualified immunity. There are some attempts to hold cops liable as well - https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb20-217. The City Council in my town immediately restored qualified immunity for their police. Don't underestimate the level of absolute blind support for cops that exists among the US population.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#106

Post by Manuel_D »

okeuro49 wrote: post #99
Manuel_D wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK has different speech laws than the United States. Presumably, the actions of the police making those arrests are within the scope of UK law. Even if 90% don't result in a conviction, the police may still be operating within the scope of their authority in those arrests.

[flagged]

Linehan was arrested for making this post:

> If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls

This seems like a straightforward call to violence to me. And he was released after police ascertained that he had no intent to act on these statements.

If someone made posts along the lines of "Christians are abusive, punch them" would it be surprising if CBP took them aside for further questioning?

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#107

Post by LastTrain »

Supermancho wrote: post #42
contubernio wrote: post #28

The sheriff that arrested him should face criminal charges for misuse of authority. That he doesn't reflects a structural weakness in US law. In most European legal systems a law enforcement officer overstepping his legal authority would face criminal charges for it.

"In return, Bushart will drop the federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against Sheriff Nick Weems, investigator Jason Morrow and the county for violating his constitutional rights." Even at his age of 60 (I'm getting up there), I wouldn't have made that deal. https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates...

Under today’s administration and courts a federal lawsuit like that was going nowhere anyway, except maybe an executive order praising the Sheriff.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#108

Post by jacobsenscott »

arein3 wrote: post #19

Thank god 1st amendment works. But it should not get paid from taxpayer money, instea the offending officer ahould pay it

When a cop does millions of dollars of damage they only choice is for tax payers to pay, or for the victims to get nothing. Definitely the cops should also face consequences though.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#109

Post by malfist »

ikeboy wrote: post #63
malfist wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just scott free, but they might be getting a million dollars each from tax payers due to that asinine "settlement" from Trump suing the government.

This is another example of the kind of partisan thinking I'm criticizing. It's nearly impossible to get paid for malicious prosecution by the federal government. Read up on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Amendment_(1997) >A 2010 investigation by USA Today "found the law has left innocent people... coping not only with ruined careers and reputations but with heavy legal costs. And it hasn't stopped federal prosecu…

I'm sure that the DOJ, headed by Trump's personal attorney, will get right on the Trump administration to prevent them from violating the Hyde amendment.

This comment has too much snark, but anybody who says the Trump administration won't do something because it's illegal/against norms __hasn't been paying attention__

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#110

Post by ikeboy »

ceejayoz wrote: post #91
ikeboy wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the second circuit opinion and saying that it was legal is a fair takeaway. They didn't reach the 1st amendment grounds though because they didn't need to once determining that he didn't conspire as required (technically, they didn't prove he conspired.) Of course any two cases are going to be different, and the guy posting memes on your side is going to be more sympathetic to you than the guy posting memes…

That doesn't seem so hard. Per this article: > That meme — which Larry didn’t create or alter... > Weems admitted in a later interview that he knew at the time of the arrest that Larry’s Facebook post was a pre-existing meme that referred to an actual shooting that took place in a different state, over 500 miles away… He didn't create it, the meme was accurate , and the cops knew that. Every bit of the conduct they a…

When an appeals court rules on one issue that's enough to decide the case, they often don't rule on the remaining issues.

Anyway I don't see how you'd word a law that only applies to the cases you like and not the ones you don't.

Also, other people will like different cases than you, including the judge and jury in whatever case gets brought based on the statute you're proposing.

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