 |
| Seriously, posting this is what generated a felony charge. |
You will recall, Gentle Reader, that the immediate aftermath
of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there was a flood of backlash against
anyone who dared to suggest on social media that the late Mr. Kirk might not
have been the Second Coming. Curmie
wrote specifically about Darren V. Michael,
who was fired by Austin Peay State University for having the temerity to point
out the irony that someone who proclaimed that “It’s worth to have a cost of,
unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second
Amendment” should himself be the victim of gun violence. There were plenty of other cases, as well, of
course, but punishing a tenured theatre prof who sometimes says things that
administrators don’t like sorta resonated at Chez Curmie.
Curmie, a retired tenured theatre prof did, after all, write
that he “is not ‘celebrating’ the death of Kirk, although he does believe the
world to be a better place without his racism, misogyny, trans- and homophobia,
Christian nationalism, mendacity, and general assholitude.” That comment might have gotten him in big
trouble had he been employed at a state university in a red state at the
time.
Anyway, revenons à nos moutons… APSU officials backed
down, a little, when it became clear that their action was not within hailing
distance of due process. Michael’s
termination was changed to a suspension; Curmie has been unable to find any
more details. He did learn that a
substantial majority of Faculty Senators voted “no confidence” in the university president, Mike Licari.
The motion “failed” because the vote was 23-12; a two-thirds majority is
required for such resolutions. Curmie is
well aware that such votes have only symbolic significance, anyway: the Faculty
Senate, Chairs Council, Deans Council, and Staff Council at Curmie’s former
employer all voted “no confidence” in a president unanimously, and the
Regents kept him around… until they let him go a few months later with a fat
buyout and a promise to totally lie say good things about him to
prospective employers.
As it happens, however, Mike Licari isn’t the biggest
freaking idiot in Tennessee, and Darren Michael’s suspension isn’t even close
to the harshest and most illegitimate punishment for obviously protected
speech. Curmie only found out a couple
days ago about the case of Larry Bushart, a retired police officer (!) who was
incarcerated for 37 days with a $2,000,000 bond for posting a meme. Yes, really.
The specifics: Bushart, who posts a lot of memes, some
of them in rather poor taste, posted one to a message thread about a vigil for Charlie Kirk of then-candidate Trump saying, a day after
a school shooting in Iowa,
that “We have to get over it.” Bushart, who
was as unimpressed as Curmie was of the orgiastic keening over Charlie Kirk,
appended a note: “This seems relevant today…” (That’s the post at the top of this page.) Bushart’s son notes the obvious: that his father was pointing out “the hypocrisy in honoring
Charlie Kirk while ignoring other tragic incidents of mass violence.” That can get you arrested in Tennessee, of course. Sixth-graders are expendable, after all. Sleazy millionaire podcasters are important! The official charge was Felony Insufficient
Sycophancy “Threatening Mass Violence at a School.”
That’s a result of an overbroad law that only grandstanding
Republicans could support. Children’s
advocates opposed the legislation. The
ACLU argued that “This legislation is worded so broadly that it could potentially
criminalize a wide range of adults and children who do not have any intent of
actually causing harm or making a threat -- people who are actually just
exercising their constitutionally-protected right to free speech.” But this is Tennessee; of course, this
inanity became law.
So… this case… You see, Gentle Reader, in what passes for a brain in Sheriff Nick Weems (what a delightfully Dickensian name for this buffoon!) and Sheriff’s Investigator Jason Morrow, “This was a means of communication, via picture, posted to a Perry County, TN Facebook page in which a reasonable person would conclude could lead to serious bodily injury, or death of multiple people.” Uh, no. No reasonable person would conclude that.
The good news is
that there are, apparently, precisely zero people in the community who interpreted
the meme the way these bozos did. Indeed,
as Liliana Segura writes for The Intercept article linked above, “there were no
public signs of this hysteria. Nor was there much evidence of an investigation
— or any efforts to warn county schools.”
FIRE requested the school district for any communications pertaining to
the case, including the terms “shooting,” “threat,” and “meme.” The response: no records. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
The most succinct encapsulation was this, from a local
resident commenting on the story on radio station WOPC’s page: “A man is in
jail because the sheriff didn’t use google.”
Weems was still trying to spin it that Bushart created “mass hysteria to
parents and teachers,” and did so intentionally. That makes the sheriff both an incompetent idiot
and a liar. Curmie awaits Donald Trump’s
appointment of Weems to a high-level position in the FBI, ICE, or ATF. He has all the credentials that seem relevant
to Dear Leader, after all.
OK, two things in the category of “the best Curmie can do to
excuse this idiocy”: 1). Mr. Bushart is, at least at times, a self-described
“asshole.” 2). The meme references
“Perry High School”; one of the local schools is Perry County High
School. You will note, however, Gentle
Reader, that as even the arresting officer declares, assholitude “is not
illegal,” absent legitimate threats of violence or similar intentions of
criminality. And the high school
referred to in the meme is, as noted above, not in Tennessee, but in Iowa. Bushart’s comment makes it clear that he was
referencing that event from over a year earlier.
OK, Curmie’s distaste for Charlie Kirk is evident. That doesn’t mean that his murder was anything but abhorrent, or that those who idolized him and mourned his loss publicly shouldn’t be allowed to do so. But posting a meme shouldn’t get you fired, and it sure as hell shouldn’t get you arrested. What’s worse, of course, is the active collusion of multiple figures in the (in)justice system. True, Nick Weems would come in third in a battle of wits with a broken stapler and a corn dog. Hell, he’d even lose to Mike Licari.
But there’s also an unnamed prosecutor who not only didn’t laugh in Weems’s
face but actually requested a delayed hearing in response to Bushart’s lawyer’s
reasonable claim that bail of $2 million for a nothingburger case like this might be un peu du trop. And there’s General Sessions Judge Katerina
Moore, who granted that request. Someone should have stopped this absurdity before it embarrassed everyone involved. They didn
This case is so ridiculous, it’s almost inevitable that FIRE got involved. Charges against Bushart have now been dropped,
but that’s clearly not enough. He lost
his post-retirement job, was confined for over five weeks on an absurd charge
because bail was set at a level no normal person could afford, and missed the birth of his granddaughter. He’s going to sue, with FIRE’s assistance,
and he’s going to collect. Bigly.
Chris Eargle, who created the “Justice for Larry Bushart” Facebook page, posted on the “Re-Elect Weems for Sheriff” page, “Unwise persecution of people for their political views will cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. He should never be allowed near public office again.” He’s right, of course, on both counts. If only the problem were limited to one boneheaded sheriff in a jerkwater county in Tennessee…
No comments:
Post a Comment