A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer was held in jail for more than a month this fall after police arrested him over a Facebook post of a meme related to the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Prosecutors eventually dropped the criminal charge brought against Larry Bushart, but his stint behind bars came to exemplify the country’s tense political and legal climate following the tragedy, when conservatives sought to stymie public discourse about the late controversial figure that it saw as objectionable.

Now, Bushart is suing over his incarceration.

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[–] 337 points 10 months ago (12 children)

He quoted Trump saying 'We need to just get over it' about the Perry High School shooting in Iowa.

What he said wasn't even hateful, it was a fucking quote.

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  • [–] 170 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Well, it was from Trump, so it was a pretty hateful quote, to be fair

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  • [–] 88 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    And not even close to encouraging breaking the law. I've heard politicians have essentially the same "let's move on" attitude about school shootings.

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  • [–] 44 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I got in trouble with Facebook once for quoting Trump's thing about how he could shoot someone without losing supporters. If it isn't appropriate to say on Facebook, it isn't appropriate to say in a presidential campaign!

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    This news story existing a decade ago would have broke the minds of most Americans. Even those that support Trump now. It's amazing how the slow trickle of Fascism is normalized in society.

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  • [–] 138 points 10 months ago (11 children)

    (From the article)

    This is the image they jailed him for.

    This should be a slam dunk win for him. Blatant political retribution. The people who jailed him should be jailed, disbarred, fined, etc., the citizens shouldn’t have to pay the court award for their fascism.

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  • [–] 52 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    May I say thanks for the pixelation. I'm serious, it's tiring looking at his ugly clueless face all the time.

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    It's amazing how expressive that face is, simultaneously conveying limitless malice and stupidity. The face of a child rapist? It's believable.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Even Bob Gale, who had access to a real time machine when penning Back to the Future 2, had to dial back how Biff Tannen represented Trump to get a PG rating. Meanwhile a documentary about our sitting president that only tells objective facts could potentially get an NC-17. Guess that's why the voting age is 18.

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  • [+] -6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    alexandria ocasio-cortez looks a bit better than trump. seriously!

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  • [–] 79 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    ...

    Then they came for the retired law enforcement

    ...

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  • [–] 92 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    And I said nothing because ACAB

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  • [–] 52 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Okay, that's pretty funny.

    I do wonder, if the roles were reversed, would he have refused orders to make the arrest?

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  • [+] 30 points 10 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    This dude literally kept his chin up and went to jail after multiple threats. I'm not ignorant about more than a couple bad apples. I understand the implicit complicity of by standing quietly. I don't need the lectures, so let's focus and not whatabout. This single person, is not a bastard. Say what you will, but bastards equals no greater than all minus one, bc this dude. Wrong fucking thread.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    'A couple bad apples' isn't an excuse for bad cops, that's the complete opposite of what the phrase means.

    It's "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch". It works like that for literal apples and for cops too. Even if a cop doesn't go around crushing necks with his knees, if he's willing to tolerate the bad cops that do that makes him a bad cop too.

    Good cops don't survive to retirement. This particular guy is completely right in this situation, but ACAB is still true

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  • [–] 62 points 10 months ago

    At least he is American and can sue. Some immigrants were deported and had their lives destroyed just because they had their opinions

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