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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

#321

Post by cogman10 »

_jab wrote: post #163
ryandrake wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxpayers should get a line item on their tax bills that specifically counts the amount of their bill that went toward settlements arising out of police misconduct, so they can see in numeric terms what they're voting for.

While $835k is undoubtedly a lot of money for this man, split among Tennessee's 7M residents, this works out to be less per taxpayer than the sales tax on a latte. Still, this idea bears merit for other reasons. Americans routinely underestimate how much money is spent on Social Security, healthcare, and debt payments, and overestimate how much money is spent on education and infrastructure. More clarity into that co…

It was the county sheriff and thus the county that was sued, Perry County.

Perry County is home to 9,126 people as of 2025. Which means this was $91 per resident.

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

#323

Post by bdangubic »

rbanffy wrote: post #320
ToValueFunfetti wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think GP is advocating that the US become more like europe by increasing the authority of police officers.

I see a huge problem in increasing the authority of US police officers. They need to be held to much higher standards than they are now.

you pitch this and next election cycle you will out as soft on crime which is why this can only ever go (significantly) into the opposite direction unfortunately

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

#324

Post by dylan604 »

elicash wrote: post #315
dylan604 wrote: post #208

"Today, the parties announced in a joint statement that Larry will receive $835,000 in exchange for dismissing his complaint. " They do not mention what their cut of that will be, but since they also do not specifically state they were working pro bono, I'd imagine it'll be around 40-50%.

"Larry will receive" answers your question. But elsewhere on their website, on the Submit a Case FAQ, they do say very clearly: "Will this cost me anything? No. FIRE is a charitable, non-profit organization and does not charge for any of its services." https://www.fire.org/research-learn/submit-case-faq

Okay, that's for FIRE's part, but they worked with another law firm:

"Represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and Phillips & Phillips, PLLC"

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

#325

Post by mindslight »

ikeboy wrote: post #287
mindslight wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shooting from the hip, I'd think a properly adversarial/just process would be something like a public defender (or other attorney of the person's choosing) who is paid out of government funds. Then there should probably be different classes of warrants, with the lowest class being something like the person is notified and able to choose their representation to challenge the warrant before it's even issued (presumably…

My concern is that new crimes will be weaponized.

As opposed to the current status quo where would-be criminal actions of public officials against otherwise-uninvolved private citizens go unpunished? I don't find this argument compelling, as it would still at least limit the blast radius to people who get involved in public office.

And once again there isn't much that can be done about corrupt public officials unjustly prosecuting/persecuting former officials as it comes down to that same human problem rather than a system problem - regardless of whether there is or isn't criminal liability for actions adjacent to official acts, they are still subject to the rest of the law! For example James was persecuted under the guise of having defrauded an unrelated agency in a personal capacity, independent of her actions as an official being what drew the aggro. Those persecutions of Comey and James basically rely on a post-truth electorate that doesn't care, and who chose to reelect a destructive tyrant who repudiates our American values merely to stick a fork in the eye of "the elites".

And while we can also talk about ways of reforming the system to prevent that (eg Constitutional amendment that explicitly divides power amongst independent agencies), I don't think it has much bearing on how we should be drawing legal lines in the sand to constrain public officials.

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

#326

Post by rbanffy »

bdangubic wrote: post #323
rbanffy wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a huge problem in increasing the authority of US police officers. They need to be held to much higher standards than they are now.

you pitch this and next election cycle you will out as soft on crime which is why this can only ever go (significantly) into the opposite direction unfortunately

We need a better system than this one.

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

#327

Post by newaccountman2 »

alistairSH wrote: post #279
newaccountman2 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That's completely wrong. The US legal system drew heavily from the British system, particularly any of the common law pieces (much of tort law, IIRC).

I deleted my previous comment, but no, it's not "completely wrong".

"drew heavily" != "the same"

I went to law school and I assume you did too; I'm not sure why you would say this lol

Among other things, the fact that the US has The Bill of Rights is turning out to be important when it comes to privacy and free speech issues.

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

#328

Post by mjh2539 »

wat10000 wrote: post #277
sidewndr46 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This distinction doesn't make sense. A police officer's job is to lie to you. Are we expecting jailtime for doing their job?

How is it their job to lie to me?

When trying to obtain evidence, investigators or regular officers will make frequent recourse to lies and intimidation to get you to admit to things that you may or may not have done. For example, "If you don't tell us where you were that day, CPS will take your kids away" or "Look, if you just admit what you did, we can let you go" or "We've already detained your wife/brother/mother/father and they've fessed up; just yadayada."

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

#329

Post by jim33442 »

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...

UK police aren't breaking laws by arresting people for those social media posts. They don't have free speech to begin with.

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

#330

Post by craftkiller »

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...

While we'd all like to see justice, I can understand taking this offer. SPY has averaged 15% APY over the past decade, which means if you dropped the full $835k into SPY you'd have passive income of $125k per year without touching the principal. That's a never-work-again, very comfortable life in large parts of the country. He's in Lexington Tennessee where the median income is less than half of that, and those people actually have to work for their money. I'm sure some of that money is going to pay the lawyers but I'm also assuming he's not starting at $0 savings either so he really should never have to work again, especially considering at his age he'll be raking in that sweet social security and medicare.
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