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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

#301

Post by _DeadFred_ »

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...

His choice makes sense when you consider that the Supreme Court under Trump has essentially gutted Bivens. Our legal system is currently very broken sadly requiring strategic choices versus just (as in justice) choices. It's not clear the Supremes wouldn't contort to just gut 1983 as well (especially with their judicially created qualified immunity nonsense).

https://ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics/supreme-court-ice-r...

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

#302

Post by strictnein »

quickthrowman wrote: post #60
bko wrote: post #51

Reminds me of Douglass Mackey, who was convicted for sharing deceptive memes before the 2016 election that falsely told Clinton supporters they could vote by text message. He was sentenced to 7 months in federal prison in 2023.

There’s a large difference between tampering with an election by spreading misinformation (illegal) and posting a picture that expresses an opinion (free speech)

> There’s a large difference between tampering with an election by spreading misinformation (illegal)

Spreading misinformation about elections is broadly legal.

"Are election-related false statements protected by the First Amendment?

Generally yes, but not if they seek to interfere with the process of voting."

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites...

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

#303

Post by something765478 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #298
okeuro49 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK 30 people are arrested a day for social media posts online. Only about 10 percent resulting in convictions. Police don't face criminal charges for this. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr...

[flagged]

You can't just say the statistic is false; you have to provide evidence.

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

#304

Post by cgriswald »

hilariously wrote: post #295
kube-system wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is irreversible, the death penalty should be reserved for cases in which there is no possibility of mistake. Which, given the fallibility of humans, is never.

I think when you admit on public television and public comms that you will commit war crimes and then you do commit war crimes we should have a notable exception - there's no possibility Pete Hegeseth didn't know exactly what, how, and when his war crimes were going to be perpetuated.

I don’t see how the death penalty adds anything here. There are already significant consequences. People who commit such crimes either do not expect to face the consequences or don’t consider the consequences at all.

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

#305

Post by ben_w »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #298
okeuro49 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK 30 people are arrested a day for social media posts online. Only about 10 percent resulting in convictions. Police don't face criminal charges for this. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr...

[flagged]

They're almost quoting the headline from The Times that they linked to, which says:

  Police make 30 arrests a day for offensive online messages
Now, I suspect many of these offensive messages are in the form of stalking or are of an explicitly sexual nature, but last time this came up I couldn't find any sign that anyone had statistics to look up for this either way.

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

#306

Post by throw-the-towel »

eukara wrote: post #270
pipes wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares? Well the grand parent post references Europe, it is presumably a response to that.

"most European legal systems" implies more than one system, they're most likely referring to the "European Union" and not the geographical continent of Europe, which the UK is not a part of anymore

Also, UK law was always very different from Continental legal systems, Brexit or no Brexit. I don't think any country on the continent has common law, relying on precedent more than on statute.

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

#307

Post by OGWhales »

okeuro49 wrote: post #77
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 the UK 30 people are arrested a day for social media posts online. Only about 10 percent resulting in convictions. Police don't face criminal charges for this. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr...

My understanding is that saying anything "grossly offensive" is illegal there, so it's not clear those police were blatantly overstepping their authority like in the case from the OP.

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

#308

Post by dkersten »

alistairSH wrote: post #276
EA-3167 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is famously no longer a part of the EU.

EU membership has nothing to do with being physically located in Europe. The UK, Switzerland, and most of the former Yugoslavian states are not in the EU. Same for Iceland.

But one European countries legal system also doesn’t constitute “most European legal systems”.

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

#309

Post by bmitch3020 »

fortran77 wrote: post #286

I'm still not seeing how that "meme" could in any way be a threat. I've dissected it every possible way. It would never have occurred to me that the point that meme was trying to make was to threated violence. What am I missing?

There's more than one Perry High School, and the claim is that someone thought this was a reference to a future school shooting at their local school. The fact that the police knew that it wasn't, but arrested him anyway, and held him with a ridiculous bond, all weighed into the lawsuit.

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

#310

Post by newaccountman2 »

pipes wrote: post #267
newaccountman2 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Who cares? Well the grand parent post references Europe, it is presumably a response to that.

My bad, I misread the thread, edited my comment to a no-op
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