Larry Bushart, 61, from Lexington, Tennessee – about 110 miles from Nashville – was booked into jail on September 21 for posting a meme quoting President Donald Trump when he responded to a 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa, saying, “We have to get over it.”

Bushart was then arrested and charged with making threats of mass violence on school property and activities.

The dropping of the charges came after NewsChannel 5 aired an interview on Wednesday with Weems in which he admitted that investigators knew the meme was not about a school shooting, but authorities were responding to community anxiety.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    23 hours ago

    Fascism in action: Held in jail on bogus charges for over a month until he lost his job. This is a blatant and likely effective attempt to stifle dissent and deny people their First Amendment rights.

    Hopefully he sues the crap out of them. The officers should lose their Qualified Immunity protection because they knowingly violated his Constitutional rights.

      • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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        22 hours ago

        He better act quickly. The legal system is just about completely collapsed at this point. He may not get the opportunity at all later.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      20 hours ago

      Qualified immunity and the corporate veil shouldn’t exist at all. If they can’t afford liability insurance, then they shouldn’t do it.

    • FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Yeah, I hope this costs the taxpayers millions. I hope it costs them enough to where they have to start fucking caring about the shitbags they put into law enforcement.