this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
960 points (99.4% liked)

politics

26740 readers
3105 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
 

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
[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 2 points 11 minutes ago

The former police officer shared a meme on Facebook about a vigil being held in Tennessee for Kirk.

“This seems relevant today,” read the meme, which included a photo of Trump and a quote the then-candidate made in 2024 following a shooting at Perry High School in Des Moines, Iowa.

“We have to get over it,” Trump is quoted as saying in the meme.

Four officers came to Bushart’s home the next day, arrested him and took him to jail for “threatening mass violence at a school.” Authorities at the time said that the post was understood locally to be a threat to an area school that has a similar name to the one where the 2024 shooting occurred, according to court records.

“When Mr. Bushart posted the meme, he had no inkling or reason to think that anyone would take it as a threat of violence. And unsurprisingly, defendants … have produced no evidence that any person interpreted the meme as a threat,” the lawsuit states. “In fact, the Perry County School District has no records at all concerning Mr. Bushart or the meme.”

And there are people in this country who may still see nothing wrong with this, because it involves their dear blameless president.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 hour ago

Too bad he was retired otherwise he would've only been suspended for a month with full pay. /s I hope he gets a shitload of money for being subject to the thought police hypocrisy.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 10 points 10 hours 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 46 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 18 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Cops often grew up under similar circumstances to many people who joined gangs. Being a cop is just being part of the biggest most untouchable gang of them all.

[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Well, let's be real, BANKERS are the biggest most untouchable gang!

[–] ViceroTempus@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Yup I hear they're as untouchable as health insurance ceo's. Hmm I guess when I think about most powerful people are.

[–] Feedback17@lemmy.world 43 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Kirk hasn't said anything racist in a while.

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.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 11 points 19 hours ago

Looks like we found a cure for racism

[–] MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 4 points 12 hours ago

No shit, but it doesn’t matter. SCOTUS and too many other courts are MAGA.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 116 points 1 day ago (2 children)

(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 21 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 7 points 17 hours ago

Thou shall not offend the Dear Leader!

[–] EtherWhack@lemmy.world 37 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

May I say thanks for the pixelation. I'm serious, it's tiring looking at his ugly clueless face all the time.

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 15 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

It's amazing how expressive that face is, simultaneously conveying limitless malice and stupidity. The face of a child rapist? It's believable.

[–] qualia@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago

Even Bob Gale, who had access to a real time machine when penning Back to the Future 2, had to dial back how Biff Tannen represented Trump to get a PG rating. Meanwhile a documentary about our sitting president that only tells objective facts could potentially get an NC-17. Guess that's why the voting age is 18.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 7 points 20 hours ago

He is like a living testament to the Roald Dahl aphorism about thinking evil thoughts making you look evil.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 18 points 20 hours ago

I never thought I'd side with a retired Tennessee cop, but here I am

[–] webp@mander.xyz 24 points 1 day ago

Let's not use the opinionated word "tragedy."

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 311 points 1 day ago (7 children)

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 159 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 4 points 21 hours ago
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 161 points 1 day ago (5 children)

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.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

scary thing is how they managed to find him (the retired cop) through facebook.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 14 points 21 hours ago

I mean isn't your name right there on it? It isn't even semi-anonymous.

load more comments
view more: next ›