273
submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer was held in jail for more than a month this fall after police arrested him over a Facebook post of a meme related to the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Prosecutors eventually dropped the criminal charge brought against Larry Bushart, but his stint behind bars came to exemplify the country’s tense political and legal climate following the tragedy, when conservatives sought to stymie public discourse about the late controversial figure that it saw as objectionable.

Now, Bushart is suing over his incarceration.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Jax@sh.itjust.works 62 points 3 months ago

He quoted Trump saying 'We need to just get over it' about the Perry High School shooting in Iowa.

What he said wasn't even hateful, it was a fucking quote.

[-] Ulvain@sh.itjust.works 34 points 3 months ago

Well, it was from Trump, so it was a pretty hateful quote, to be fair

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 months ago

The same guy who said Rob Reiner "died due to TDS"?

[-] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Its OK when Chavez he president does it

[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

And not even close to encouraging breaking the law. I've heard politicians have essentially the same "let's move on" attitude about school shootings.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

All Kimmel did was play clips of trump.

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 months ago

I got in trouble with Facebook once for quoting Trump's thing about how he could shoot someone without losing supporters. If it isn't appropriate to say on Facebook, it isn't appropriate to say in a presidential campaign!

[-] nocturne@piefed.social 9 points 3 months ago

I created a Facebook page called "Fled Cruz", the profile picture was Rafael "Ted" Cruz and the only thing I posted was quotes of his tweets, Facebook shut it down for hate speech. They denied the appeal and deleted the entire page.

[-] Fizz@lemmy.nz 44 points 3 months ago

The US has lost their license to roast us (the rest of the world) for saying mean things on the internet and getting a vist from the police. Welcome to the club you fat bitch.

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 10 points 3 months ago

I assure you the United States has both people who will continue to try making that roast, and people who never felt like they had that freedom in the first place.

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 30 points 3 months ago

As he should, absolutely his first amendment right was violated.

If the right can spout pure hatred and bullshit with impunity, so can everyone else.

[-] DrFistington@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

It's not even hatred. It's a quote from the 'president' about a similar event, that had more and younger victims.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 28 points 3 months ago

Was there ever a time that Republicans actually stayed true to their principles when it wasn’t to their advantage?

In my life experience I honestly can’t think of a time.

[-] BassTurd@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Almost 100% of the time actually. You gotta think, what are republican principles? The answer is hate and bigotry, and the vast majority have stuck to that in spades.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] snooggums@piefed.world 4 points 3 months ago

Like 60+ years ago, before the Southern Strategy, yes.

They have been corrupt selfish assholes my entire life.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

At least he is American and can sue. Some immigrants were deported and had their lives destroyed just because they had their opinions

[-] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

...

Then they came for the retired law enforcement

...

[-] Postimo@lemmy.zip 20 points 3 months ago

And I said nothing because ACAB

[-] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Okay, that's pretty funny.

I do wonder, if the roles were reversed, would he have refused orders to make the arrest?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

(From the article)

This is the image they jailed him for.

This should be a slam dunk win for him. Blatant political retribution. The people who jailed him should be jailed, disbarred, fined, etc., the citizens shouldn’t have to pay the court award for their fascism.

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 3 points 2 months ago

Are you fucking kidding me? He simply quoted Trump and got jail time? What a fucking joke.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Excited to be in the Supermax Prison built entirely for people who reposted illegal memes.

[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

There will be an entire cell block for people that post this.

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

The worst part is the sheriff literally not understanding what's wrong with his actions.

[-] TheGoldenV@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Oh he knew. He just doesn’t care. No repercussions and the municipality will pay the settlement. Just another day in freedumbville.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

This is the way.

If fucking Nazis are still permitted to go on marches (and that's the typical case discussed) then someone sure as FUCK can say whatever they want about some asshat like Kirk passing away...

[-] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Turns out being a cop doesn't protect you from the regime.

Wish all the law enforcement officers who voted for a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist realized that before voting for a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 months ago

Knowing the injustice done through cash bail to poor citizens in this country - people who have done nothing wrong, but are incarcerated for months because they can't afford bail - this is nothing more than a continuation of police policy. Of course, the fuckhead in the White House signed an executive order to ban no-cash bail because every thing that piece of shit does is to make the world a worse place.

All that said, this is pretty bad from a basic Bill of Rights standpoint. But again, most of what Cheeto (and law enforcement in general) does tears holes in the law of the land.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Feedback17@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Kirk hasn't said anything racist in a while.

[-] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Looks like we found a cure for racism

Now that the emotion has died down and I can look at Charlie Kirk’s assassination as a whole and what came of it, i can confidently say that the world feels slightly better without Charlie Kirk in it. I don’t mourn him.

[-] cheesybuddha@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

A month? Absolutely unacceptable. What a travesty the US "Justice" system is.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
273 points (99.3% liked)

politics

28929 readers
421 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS