• treadful@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    2 days ago

    His first hearing isn’t until December! Imagine being stuck in jail for at least 2 months for a meme…

  • Substance_P@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    2 days ago

    Individuals cannot be arrested simply for expressing dissenting opinions or sharing memes that criticize the government, as long as those expressions do not constitute true threats. Fuck that NSPM-7 order.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 days ago

    We don’t know what evidence was presented to the judge. That’s all that can be said, but I’ll add this, stay the fuck off FaceBook. Preaching to the choir around here, I know.

    Those comms are in the clear and monitored not only by FB, but by the sort of people that initiated this complaint. And guess where the government is aiming their new, high-power AI tools? Funny that people are worried about our discussions here when the administration has their hands full monitoring the big dogs.

    • Manjushri@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      22
      ·
      2 days ago

      No way it’s just the meme for that kind of bond. The judge must have considered him some kind of risk to the community. My guess is that the investigators found some evidence suggesting that he meant for it to be interpreted as a threat.

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        You have to be pretty fucking dense to still be giving law enforcement the benefit of the doubt in 2025. You’ve learned nothing.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          Judges are not law enforcement and we have scant evidence. Tried looking up the arrest record (have you?), nothing I can find except the charge and the fact he’s in custody.

          There are several FOIA requests in the pipeline. Who knows if they’ll dodge those requests or spill the beans.

      • Glytch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        Read the article.

        They are assuming he meant it as a threat when he actually meant it as a dismissal of the CK shooting. Their only evidence is that the county in which he was arrested and the school where the shooting that prompted the Trump quote are both named Perry. No actual substantiation, just a presumption of guilt based on having the same name.

  • Manjushri@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    12
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    At first glance it doesn’t seem like much but there are factors that might cause him some real trouble.

    He posted the meme(s) in the Perry county (Tennessee) community FB group. The meme references the Perry high school mass shooting. The Perry high school shooting happened in Iowa but this knucklehead posted it in a group where it could easily be taken to mean the local Perry high school as a threat. Further, the meme has the added tag of “This seems relevant today” so it was taken as a threat to shoot up the local school. The judge seems to think it was a legit threat too since the bond was set at $2,000,000 dollars.

    Personally, unless there is more too it, I think he’ll get off in the end. His posts don’t sound much worse than many things I’ve seen posted and it doesn’t seem to me like a direct threat. But then, I don’t live by a Perry High School

    Still, sucks to be him since he’s stuck in jail until at least December. Then again, he’s a former cop, so I have to wonder how many other people lives he ruined by getting them locked up for months on some bullshit charge. Maybe this is just karma.

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      2 days ago

      Okay but

      This man should be put in front of a judge who should realize that it is not that

      • Manjushri@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        2 days ago

        We don’t know that for certain. I mean, the guy actually did go before a judge who decided that he was enough of a threat to warrant a $2 million dollar bail. My assumption is that the judge saw more evidence than was included in this article.

          • shalafi@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 days ago

            Do you think Trump has somehow gotten hold of ever tiny aspect of government, down to the county level?

            Look, there’s no doubt in my mind America is now a fascist country at the highest levels, but most parts are still functioning, especially at local levels. Yes, they’re working their way down, I get that, studied 20th century history in depth.

            There’s no more evidence ATM, but this sounds like a MAGA judge going off the rails.

          • porcoesphino@mander.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            The lower courts have been blocking the administration a lot. Ignorant of you to lump every part of government together. And kind of infuriating when the lower courts are about the only thing restraining the executive in Trump’s second term.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          You’ll often find that headlines don’t match what later comes out in court, but no one follows the case past the initial headline. What comes out is months down the road and everyone has forgotten.

          Still, this is pretty smelly. Good to see people are digging:

          https://www.muckrock.com/foi/perry-county-30235/perry-county-tennessee-bushart-arrest-193462/

          Unfortunately, the inmate portal gives no further info or evidence:

          https://isoms.perrycountysheriff.net/portal/Jail?hours=0&lname=B

    • Signtist@bookwyr.me
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      How does posting a quote from the aftermath of a school shooting constitute a real threat of a new shooting? It’s relevant because it was in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting, it wouldn’t be relevant to post a quote of “we have to get over it” if you were trying to make a threat about a future shooting.

      Sure they might have taken him in on the bogus, unfounded claim that he was somehow making a threat, but the real message they’re trying to send is that being outspoken against the rise of fascism will get you thrown in jail.

      There’s no point in trying to explain the bullshit excuse, because it never mattered in the first place. The judge “thought” it was a legit threat because they’re just another part of the corrupt system trying to quash this kind of discourse. If anything they went after the former cop because they want to keep any others from switching sides.

    • porcoesphino@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Thanks for actually adding context and an assessment. Sorry you’re getting downvoted by people that don’t like it

        • porcoesphino@mander.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          I’m not, and the poster doesn’t seem to be, saying this isn’t some sort of retaliation for saying Charlie Kirk did some bad things. The Trump admin does do plenty of that. But a lot of posts are saying it’s definitive when it’s not. At the very least, based on how the law seems to be still enforced, they need some sort of pretext. The poster at least takes some time to address that instead of screaming loudly with certainty about an uncertain situation where we have pretty partial information.

          Slightly off topic, I went looking for court documents instead of news articles but failed to find anything.

      • Manjushri@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        I actually find it kind of fascinating. There are loads of people in this thread defending this guy and saying that he’s being victimized by a corrupt system, all the while not noticing that he is a retired cop who spent his career as part of that corrupt system and who almost certainly sent more than a few people to jail for a couple of months on charges as bogus as these seem to be. That sounds like it might be karmic payback to me.

        Personally, I’m just keeping an open mind and suspecting that there is more to the story based on the rather large bail.

        • porcoesphino@mander.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised if the loud mob is right but it seems like we’re all guessing with not much info. Agreed that it’s a bit fascinating. I’m definitely not upset with my decision to leave the US