(Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A man who was arrested for writing ‘F**k the f*****g cops’ on a police department’s Facebook page has won a £23,000 lawsuit after successfully arguing that the arrest compromised his right to free speech.
Thomas Smith wrote the profane message on the Facebook page of the force in Arena, Wisconsin – after he became angered by a spate of arrests in the village.
‘F**k the f*****g cops they ain’t s**t but f*****g racist b******s and f*****g all of y’all who is racist’, he wrote.
In a separate message, he added: ‘F**k them n***ers b**chs wat you got on us not a dam thing so f**k off dicks.’
After posting the messages, Smith was arrested for disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a computer and telephone and later convicted for the crime.
But his conviction has now been quashed after the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled that it violated his First Amendment rights.
In a blog post, Smith’s attorney Tom Aquino said: ‘We have always believed that the defendant’s liability was clear.
‘Federal and state courts have routinely held that the right to free speech is not limited to polite speech alone.
‘In our country, we are entitled to criticise our government with passion. The use of some four-letter words in the course of doing so is never a crime.’
But while Smith won his lawsuit, attorney Lee Rowland claimed that constitution violating arrests are a common occurrence -and they don’t always end in a successful appeal.
She told Vice: ‘Just because a case is black and white from Constitutional point of view doesn’t mean the government isn’t capable of violating that right.
‘A settlement in this man’s case is a no brainer, and he deserves every penny he got.’
A man who was arrested for writing ‘F**k the f*****g cops’ on a police department’s Facebook page has won a £23,000 lawsuit after successfully arguing that the arrest compromised his right to free speech.
Thomas Smith wrote the profane message on the Facebook page of the force in Arena, Wisconsin – after he became angered by a spate of arrests in the village.
‘F**k the f*****g cops they ain’t s**t but f*****g racist b******s and f*****g all of y’all who is racist’, he wrote.
In a separate message, he added: ‘F**k them n***ers b**chs wat you got on us not a dam thing so f**k off dicks.’
After posting the messages, Smith was arrested for disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a computer and telephone and later convicted for the crime.
But his conviction has now been quashed after the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled that it violated his First Amendment rights.
In a blog post, Smith’s attorney Tom Aquino said: ‘We have always believed that the defendant’s liability was clear.
‘Federal and state courts have routinely held that the right to free speech is not limited to polite speech alone.
‘In our country, we are entitled to criticise our government with passion. The use of some four-letter words in the course of doing so is never a crime.’
But while Smith won his lawsuit, attorney Lee Rowland claimed that constitution violating arrests are a common occurrence -and they don’t always end in a successful appeal.
She told Vice: ‘Just because a case is black and white from Constitutional point of view doesn’t mean the government isn’t capable of violating that right.
‘A settlement in this man’s case is a no brainer, and he deserves every penny he got.’
Metro
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