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Lawsuit involving Facebook post about guns and kindergartners heads back to court

OC for ME

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
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White Oak Plantation
Interesting read.
James Robert Ross v. City of Jackson, Missouri: http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/07/171390P.pdf

Several media sources.
Lawsuit involving Facebook post about guns and kindergartners heads back to court: https://www.semissourian.com/story/2541336.html

Sarcastic Facebook Comment Led to Man's Arrest, Lawsuit Claims: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/new...ook-comment-led-to-mans-arrest-lawsuit-claims

Think about context when you make that joke on Facebook: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/syndicated-columnists/article216138820.html

Cops Lose Qualified Immunity After Arresting Man For A Snarky Facebook Comment: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...r-arresting-man-snarky-facebook-comment.shtml
Hopefully a settlement is avoided and the cops face a jury where their incompetence, the department's competence, and the civilian instigators anti-liberty views are placed in the official public record. A public shaming of all is needed.

Abolish QI!!
 

color of law

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
6,012
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Southeast Missourian
https://www.semissourian.com/story/2541336.html
A federal appeals court has reversed a lower-court ruling that had thrown out a civil suit against three Jackson police officers who arrested a Cape Girardeau man for a satirical Facebook post that talked of shooting kindergarten students.
Page two of the opinion:
Ross interpreted this post as advocating against gun control measures. Ross, an advocate in favor of gun control measures, commented on the post: “Which one do I need to shoot up a kindergarten?”
Footnote 7 from case:
For example, the original meme was about why someone might need a gun, and gave examples explaining what the various types of guns could be used for. In that context, Ross’s comment—which directly paralleled the language of the meme— was responding by suggesting another, far more upsetting, use to which he believed such a gun might be put. See Watts, 394 U.S. at 708 (“The language of the political arena . . . is often vituperative, abusive, and inexact.”) (citation omitted)). The comment was in the form of a rhetorical question, which identified no school where a shooting would happen. And the comment was made on a social media website that the Supreme Court has recently called “a quintessential forum for the exercise of First Amendment rights” analogous to “a street or park.” Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730, 1735 (2017).
To the news media, nothing more than a question became a discussion (talk of shooting). There was no discussion, there was only a question.

This is why it is considered fake news.

It is now a crime to ask a question according to three officers and a federal district court.

This was a first amendment case. No slack would have been cut if it had been a second amendment case.
 
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deepdiver

Campaign Veteran
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Apr 2, 2007
Messages
5,820
Location
Southeast, Missouri, USA
Interesting... This is local to me yet I never heard about it. I read the local headlines in the paper most days, but obviously missed this story. I'm surprised it wasn't a matter of discussion at the local gun club or among my friends in the firearm community or even among my friends with school aged children. I am thinking that the original story was kept on the down low, even locally, perhaps so as to not scare the locals, so to speak.
 
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