"An Illinois man who
was raided and arrested last year for creating a parody account of his
town’s mayor on Twitter has won $125,000 in a civil rights lawsuit
settlement."
"Jon Daniel, 30, the man behind a parody Twitter account with the handle
@peoriamayor, was accused of 'impersonating a public official,'
after mayor Jim Ardis became upset about the mockery.
"'Im bout to climb the civic center and do some lines on the roof
who's in,' one tweet read. Another questioned,'Who stole my
crackpipe?'
"Ardis argued that these tweets sounded reasonable enough that it
sullied his reputation, as people might not be able to tell the account
was fake.
"'Hurt feelings do not free government from the
responsibility of respecting Mr. Daniel's freedom of speech and freedom
from being arrested for that speech,' ACLU attorney Karen Sheley said
in a statement.
"The settlement also includes the agreement that the town of Peoria
will send a directive to the police department reminding them that
parody and satire is excluded from criminalization under the
impersonation of a public figure law.
"'The directive makes it clear that parody should never be the
predicate for a criminal investigation and that the action against Mr.
Daniel should never be repeated again,' Sheley stated.
"The agreement with the city will also cover legal fees, bringing the total taxpayer-funded cost of the raid to around $250,000."
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1 comment:
Good for Mr. Daniels.....
I have written things about our asshole mayor and governor, but i have not directly threatened either of them.
Such as, "I should shoot him in the head", I would never say that, instead i said, "I'm surprised someone hasn't shot him in the head yet".
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