Tennessee's law enforcers think it's a crime to share this image, and have arrested a man for doing so

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/23/tennessees-law-enforcers-think-its-a-crime-to-share-this-image-and-have-arrested-a-man-for-doing-so.html

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Is tasteless and disrespectful photoshop a crime?

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Do they have an APB on a “Lord Byron” aka George Gordon yet?

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What next? Criminal proceedings for people who shoot videos in portrait mode?

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No, and taxpayers are going to pay for the thin-skinned cops making an illegal arrest while boot-lickers will defend them breaking the law.

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The person arrested will now get a hefty settlement from the town/county when his harassment/false arrest lawsuit inevitably succeeds.

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As he should. It’s just too bad it won’t come out the criminal cops’ own salaries and pensions.

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Which is why cops have no incentive to stop doing shit like this. It’s a win/win for the cops. They get to illegally abuse individuals to “make an example” of them, in order to cow the larger population into showing what they feel is sufficient deference, with no consequences for them.

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Perhaps they should be referred to band’s last EP:

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Well yes. I mean you have to draw the line somewhere.
So, yes, arrests for portrait mode.
No for insulting Photoshops.

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What happened to the good old days, when if you pissed off a cop, they would just park by your house and, as soon you pulled out to leave, would pull you over and give you an undeserved ticket.
“Tell it to the judge.”

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If tasteless and disrespectful photoshop is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

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Looks like assholes all around.

The cop they were “pissing on” was killed while helping someone open his stuck car door. Apparently that was a ruse to lure him close so he could be murdered.

There are no winners here, just all sorts of people being dumbshits, far as I can tell w/o digging deeper into a pile of shit I don’t want to.

/excuse my French

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And now this edgelord is going to get a huge payout for his edgelordiness.

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OK, but the poster was probably more upset about something the cop did when he was alive. I don’t know. I wouldn’t leap to draw conclusions from shitposts either way, but the overreaching reaction is (a) bad in itself and (b) doesn’t make me more inclined to give the police department the benefit of the doubt.

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Landscape warriors have to admit that they’re losing the fight. Some social media sites will put huge black bars on the top and bottom of the video if you upload something in landscape now so when you rotate your phone it shrinks the video to a postage stamp.

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Definitely, but only actual criminals on one side. If the police can get away with arresting a dirtbag for offending them, they can get away with arresting anyone for offending them. The fact that they effectively gave this particular dirtbag a payday from taxpayers so they could harass and arrest him is also on them.

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But you did, I’m afraid. The idea of taking the poster at face value for what they did (thereby suggesting they’re an asshole) was abhorrent enough that you had to raise the possibility that something else must have happened.

You may not realize it, but that is precisely the tactic used when an otherwise upstanding member of the privileged community is accused of a crime like rape or murder. “There must be a reason we would all approve of for this behaviour”, which very often escalates into “Obviously they were asking for it”.

The likelihood that the poster just wanted to “piss on the cops” and made an shit choice is as likely as any other.

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If so, @beschizza is screwed :wink:

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Legally though it doesn’t matter what his motivations were. What he did wasn’t a crime and arresting him for it is.

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