Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
While many people across the U.S. lost their jobs over social media comments about Kirk’s death, Larry Bushart’s case stood out as a rare instance in which such online speech led to criminal prosecution. The 61-year-old retired police officer spent 37 days behind bars before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October.
During his time in jail, Bushart lost his postretirement job and missed his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter, according to a federal lawsuit Bushart filed in December against Perry County, its sheriff and the investigator who obtained the arrest warrant.
“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement announcing the settlement Wednesday. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”
Perry County Mayor John Carroll did not immediately respond to a Wednesday message left with his office seeking an interview.
Bushart was arrested in September after he refused to take down Facebook memes that joked about Kirk’s killing, which had prompted an outpouring of grief among conservatives, including in Perry County, which is near Bushart’s home and which held a candlelight vigil.
No better way to teach a lesson to an American than to tell them that their actions and their beliefs is going to cost $835,000 … either the cost to them, their office, their organization, their tax payer, their government or to anyone … because in the long run, that $835,000 is going to hang around someone’s neck forever.
Man, I wish…
But there’s tons of examples to look into.
This money almost never comes out of police budgets, and their budgets still increase every year.
They feel zero pain from settlements. The people pay on person for what the cops did, and the cops keep doing it.
As long as that’s the system, it’s gonna keep happening