Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

(reclaimthenet.org)

118 points | by abawany 58 minutes ago

12 comments

  • vjvjvjvjghv 28 minutes ago
    I assume she will get a settlement, the city (the taxpayer) will pay for it and nothing else changes. There will be even less money for infrastructure repair and people will keep voting for the same people.
  • nkrisc 8 minutes ago
    Yikes, they’ll have to arrest most of the current federal administration if they ever set foot in Texas if that post meets the criteria for that particular law. That’s going to cause problems.
    • dpe82 3 minutes ago
      Oh don't worry, the enforcement is extremely selective.
  • SilverElfin 27 minutes ago
    The craziest part is the police defending this action as a “cut and dry” case. Meanwhile the lawsuit this woman just filed will hurt taxpayers and not the corrupt city officials and police that caused this. We need to ban all forms of immunity - none for cops, politicians, or judges. They need to be personally liable for their actions.
    • thot_experiment 21 minutes ago
      It's absolutely not the slightest bit crazy if you've paid attention to how cops behave at any point in the last history of the country. 100% agree about personal responsibility. You must understand that when the cops says that oversight means they can't do their job, that means they view their job as bullying, harassing and killing citizens, so yea, we should put a stop to that. 1312
      • ggoo 6 minutes ago
        > It's absolutely not the slightest bit crazy

        Imo, speaking like this normalizes their behavior - it was crazy then and it's crazy now.

      • Bender 4 minutes ago
        I will not put the blame on the bobbies, that's too convenient. Someone had to order them to do this. That's who needs to be permanently ousted from all levels of government and their voting rights rescinded.
      • Rekindle8090 5 minutes ago
        [dead]
    • Bilal_io 23 minutes ago
      I hear you, but there has to be some balance between full immunity and no immunity at all. The one thing that comes to mind is rich and powerful people, because they have unlimited resources to sue and ruin the lives of cops, judges and politicians, which would lead to these officials avoiding to hold rich and powerful individuals accountable even when they have committed crimes.
      • mcdonje 9 minutes ago
        "would"? There is currently a disparity in how rich and poor people are policed.

        I get the point that there should be some limited immunity so they can do their jobs. Debatable, but worth the debate.

        The argument about the repercussions of eliminating immunity is logical. It just seems like one of those things where there are multiple factors contributing to undesirable outcomes, and that makes it necessary to talk to experts.

      • ben_w 20 minutes ago
        I'm not a lawyer, but what you're describing sounds to me like an example of strategic lawsuits against public participation, just where the targeted "public" isn't a member of the general public but a public servant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_publ...
      • thot_experiment 17 minutes ago
        You're so close! Instead of patching the issue maybe let's solve the root problem of spiky power distribution among humans. We don't need to make sure cops have immunity to prosecute powerful people. We need to not have powerful people.

        (though realistically speaking yes there's probably some level of procedural immunity that probably makes sense, similarly with business bankruptcies not ruining the people who start the business)

        • p1esk 2 minutes ago
          We need to not have powerful people

          What does this even mean?

        • Ar-Curunir 9 minutes ago
          [delayed]
    • rightbyte 24 minutes ago
      Exactly which types of politicians, judges etc would be targeted by liability do you think? The unrighteous politicians? The judges in favour of those in power?
    • nozzlegear 20 minutes ago
      In my experience (I sued my town for violating my first amendment rights), the city will have insurance that will cover any damages or settlement they have to pay. Their premiums will likely go up, but the impact to taxpayers is probably minimal.
    • casey2 17 minutes ago
      Even making them pay their own lawsuit insurance premiums would be enough to stop 90% of abuse.

      No change will happen until cities stop using police revenue for discretionary spending.

    • thinkingtoilet 20 minutes ago
      Just more actions from free speech loving Republicans. Exactly like that guy in Tennessee who got $800k.
  • 6stringmerc 31 minutes ago
    Not surprised. Tarrant County told the US Marshals my styrofoam cooler with vomit in it was a “bomb threat” and charged me with use of a DEADLY WEAPON. Honestly. If my public defender hadn’t colluded with the Prosecution it wouldn’t be on my record today.

    This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better in the US. I’m a nonviolent cripple. Meanwhile a pardoned Jan 6 rioter just told a City Counsel “they should be strung up” and isn’t even being charged. Totally depends what team you’re on right now.

    • vjvjvjvjghv 27 minutes ago
      "Meanwhile a pardoned Jan 6 rioter just told a City Counsel “they should be strung up” and isn’t even being charged."

      A great candidate to get some money from the lawfare fund.

  • markoman 2 minutes ago
    This type of treatment of citizenry by the State of Texas, and its various (and especially red) localities should be all one needs to see of where Conservatives (and Christian Naitonalism) will take our country in the future -- should they get their way. Republicans hope to enable just such a future by scaring Americans with made-up visions of transsexuals 'grooming' their children, yet they cleverly hide what awaits behind the curtain.

    Saying nothing of the future of abortion & contraception, U.S. conservatives base their worldview on sexuality & reproduction and seek to burden it with fixtures that we have already spent hundreds of year to free ourselves from. At the same time, they take their eye off the ball of keeping our country competitive in the world. How embarrassing it is now to have the Chinese president suggest that the U.S. is in decline and that it shouldn't get caught in a Thucydides Trap.

    Yet, that is where Trump has put us indeed.

  • nadermx 39 minutes ago
    Imagine the town of flynt getting arrested for having your government fail you.
  • joshuafuller 7 minutes ago
    [flagged]
  • breck 11 minutes ago
    [dead]
  • cboyardee 29 minutes ago
    [dead]
  • userbinator 31 minutes ago
    [flagged]
    • stouset 27 minutes ago
      I would imagine it’s hard to be reminded of things that didn’t actually occur.
      • userbinator 23 minutes ago
        Wow. The brainwashing is still real, half a decade later.

        If you think this is somehow "wrong" and that was "right", or vice-versa, you do not believe in free speech.

        • stouset 8 minutes ago
          Indeed the brainwashing is still alive and well.

          It’s been five years since multiple COVID-19 vaccines have been widely available and administered worldwide, and just about the worst common side effects have been a small risk of mild, self-resolving myocarditis in mRNA vaccines and an increased risk of clotting for adenoviral vector vaccines which have been either discontinued or fallen out of use.

          Past those, there have been rare (~5 per million doses) cases of Guillain-Barré or anaphylaxis, but those are broadly in line with risk profiles for other vaccines.

          Despite repeated insistence from chronically-online nutjobs, the sky has not fallen, and the well-known, well-published, and well-studied risks of these vaccines remain drastically lower than the risks of actually contracting the disease they inhibit. Which is the whole goddamn point.

        • galangalalgol 11 minutes ago
          To make it more explicit. Censorship is always bad. There is no censorship for the good of the people. If fewer people had gotten vaccines because we didn't censor claims it was dangerous, maybe more people would have died. Maybe hospitals would have shut down from crowding. We can't know for sure. But because that was censored, amongst other things, the trust in government dropped even lower. This in turn is allowing populists from both parties to win and local state and national levels. Populists always hurt the economy and damage individual freedoms. There is no substitute for trust, and it is a generational project to rebuild it. Censorship of any speech errodes it and harms all of us more than letting people who are probably wrong speak.
        • thinkingtoilet 19 minutes ago
          Provide proof of someone getting arrested for a social media post.
          • userbinator 14 minutes ago
            Did the ones posting about the water provide "proof" also?
        • nilslindemann 16 minutes ago
          Lying is not free speech.
        • breck 8 minutes ago
          [dead]
    • gdulli 25 minutes ago
      We should call this obsession "longest Covid". Certain people will be on this until they die.
  • userbinator 12 minutes ago
    [flagged]
  • bfkwlfkjf 32 minutes ago
    Land of the free
    • nozzlegear 22 minutes ago
      This is newsworthy because it's a clear and flagrant violation of her rights.

      Source: I was threatened with a lawsuit by my own town for criticizing them online, but the ACLU helped me counter sue and win a settlement for violating my first amendment rights.

      • poly2it 16 minutes ago
        Was the comment you are replying to edited?
    • vjvjvjvjghv 28 minutes ago
      I assume you mean "Land of the fee"
    • 6stringmerc 30 minutes ago
      World Cup Tourists about to get some “civic lessons” if they buy that too much, mmmhmmm.