'Ex-cop sues after arrest over anti-Trump meme' [View all]
'Larry Bushart spent 37 days in jail on a $2 million bond after posting a meme on Facebook in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing that quoted Donald Trump’s response to a different shooting.
The quote? “We have to get over it.”
“I spent over three decades in law enforcement, and have the utmost respect for the law,” Bushart said Wednesday. “But I also know my rights, and I was arrested for nothing more than refusing to be bullied into censorship.”
'Bushart and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Tennessee authorities alleging violations of his constitutional rights in retaliation for his protected speech.
“If police can come to your door in the middle of the night and put you behind bars based on nothing more than an entirely false and contrived interpretation of a Facebook post, no one’s First Amendment rights are safe,” FIRE senior attorney Adam Steinbaugh said.
(Reported by Alex Woodward, 17 December 2025, The Independent)
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