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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

#451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, and that might as well be said for any punishment at all for them. When you take mass human life you should not expect to stick around for your cronies to bust you out of jail in 10 years when the political winds have shifted for the worse again.

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

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The death penalty was supposed to be for exceptional circumstances now, and look where we are. This country has put innocent people to death. If you make exceptions, you will make more exceptions, and you are eventually guaranteed to put an innocent person to death due to the law of large numbers. A justice system must have a way to reverse mistakes to deliver justice properly, period.

Bad people doing bad things doesn't invalidate good people doing the right thing. If we kill innocent people that is bad, and we should require an incredibly high bar for this type of thing.

It becomes a slipper slope argument - well if we allow people to be jailed then inncocent people will be jailed and that's due to the law of large numbers, and there's no way to reverse our incredibly horrible prison system as it stands.

So now its my job to build our restorative justice system or... take out a few more nazis.

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

#453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? It's a widely recognised proverb, you might as well say that "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" is without much meaning. You could insist it's wrong if you like, or that it somehow doesn't apply but meaning is its whole thing.

I would say that goose phrase is also without much meaning. It's just a phrase. Like ok, you said a phrase? So what? Let's bring up the Iran war - you could say a few things about how it's wrong or something and I can just reply de oppresso liber . Ok? That's not a discussion, it's a drive-by, feel good zinger.

You claim that "de oppresso liber" doesn't mean anything? Seems to me that it's meaning was pretty clear. Actually in this context I'd say there are two distinct meanings, both the "Regime change" bullshit from the start of this war and boots on the ground for a US combat unit. Seems like a poor comeback to any "War is bad" rhetoric because in my experience all such rhetoric sort of builds in a just cause assumption and that's really all you'd be going for with this phrase.

But then you say it's not a discussion, nobody said anything about it being a discussion.

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

#454
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that would never be weaponized with trumped-up charges against political opponents.

But the same thing could happen right now with the existing death penalty -- has that been a trend in American politics?

There are some troubling signs that things are headed in that direction (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/11/20/sediti...)

The greater problem is that many innocent people have already been and certainly will be murdered because of the death penalty. That should be totally unacceptable.

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

#455
post #10
post #9

The path to solving a culture that overincarcerates is not by incarcerating those involved in perpetuating that culture. We need to tame the impulse to throw people in jail for doing things we dislike, not just point it at different targets. I see several comments saying that criminal charges should be brought over this. That is not the way.

that is literally the way. these maga law breakers need accountability. They got off scott free for j6. we're still fighting the civil war and white fragility because they suffered no consequences the last time.

The people involved in January 6th were manipulated by external intelligence influences, and really had no choice in committing their crimes.

Much of our legal system is based on the incarceration or individuals who are deeply compromised and have zero choice in their actions, pardons need to become more commonplace until a more mature approach is taken here.

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

#456
post #439
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is to somehow ensure all the other officers (A) care about avoiding the cost while (B) are not motivated to collectively lie for one-another. It's not hard to imagine: Officer X does something bad through incompetence, Officer Y tells the truth about it, and then all the other officers take revenge on Y for "being a snitch" and "screwing our pensions." Once that pattern is in place, it continues even when O…

Except that’s how cops already act even without that incentive.

My point is that it's quite possible add the pension mechanism and make things even worse, if it isn't done carefully in conjunction with other policies.

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

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it would make officers turn in the bad apples, since they insist "one bad apple" each time these issues arise.

How do you "turn in" a sheriff? It's an elected position

You report them to state police or the FBI?

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

#458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The death penalty was supposed to be for exceptional circumstances now, and look where we are. This country has put innocent people to death. If you make exceptions, you will make more exceptions, and you are eventually guaranteed to put an innocent person to death due to the law of large numbers. A justice system must have a way to reverse mistakes to deliver justice properly, period.

Bad people doing bad things doesn't invalidate good people doing the right thing. If we kill innocent people that is bad, and we should require an incredibly high bar for this type of thing. It becomes a slipper slope argument - well if we allow people to be jailed then inncocent people will be jailed and that's due to the law of large numbers, and there's no way to reverse our incredibly horrible prison system as it…

Theres's no slippery slope. You can reverse sending the wrong person to jail. You release them.

> If we kill innocent people that is bad, and we should require an incredibly high bar for this type of thing.

Yeah, the bar should be "only when humans reach infallibility" and then we won't kill any innocent people.

Why would you want a justice system that kills innocent people (and spends more money in the process) when it is entirely avoidable?

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

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people would spend 40 days in jail for $800k. Why wouldn't police collude together to arrest one another? This feels like a free money glitch. I agree without accountability this provides a huge incentive to enrich your friends quite easily off the taxpayer.

You're making a big mistake by completely failing to account for the inherent (not to mention quite large) uncertainties in this kind of situation. A priori, it's not "40 days in jail == $800k payday", it's "some unknown number of days in jail and risk of a conviction in exchange for a chance at a payday of unknown value".

Not to mention, the side effects extend beyond jail time. For example, your name gets plastered everywhere too.

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

#460
post #71

I’ll cut against the grain here and say it’s ABSOLUTELY appropriate for taxpayers to pay the bill here. It’s pretty toxic that people don’t want to take responsibility for their own government in a democracy. In this case, it’s especially bad, given the sheriff is elected by the people directly. But I’d go even further and say even where control is less direct, we need incentives for voters to take this stuff serious…

Police aren't elected. Nor are judges in most cases. There is literally no legal mechanism for anyone to hold a police officer responsible for anything . This is enshrined in the highest levels of the law and there is literally no way to undo it without a constitutional amendment or a supreme court decision. Citizens also have no influence over either of those mechanisms. Literally nobody has influence over the supre…

Sheriffs are elected officials, at least in most states.
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