A former law enforcement officer in Tennessee is suing his county and sheriff after he was jailed for more than a month for posting a meme on Facebook related to the 10 September assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
According to the new 30-page lawsuit filed this week, 10 days after Kirk’s killing, Larry Bushart, 61, shared a post in the comments of a Facebook post about a vigil for Kirk in Perry county, Tennessee.
According to the lawsuit, police came to Bushart’s home the following day, took him into custody and charged with “threatening mass violence at a school”.
He was unable to pay the $2m bond and was jailed for 37 days.
In an interview with local news at the time, Weems said that the post caused “multiple people” to become “scared to send their kids to school”.
“In fact, the Perry county school district has no records at all concerning Mr Bushart or the meme,” the lawsuit adds.
But I also know my rights, and I was arrested for nothing more than refusing to be bullied into censorship.”. »