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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums100k payout to woman arrested for cursing cops as she rode past on bicycle
In Cobb County, Georgia, Amy Elizabeth Barnes was arrested on Easter Sunday 2012 when she rode her bicycle past two police officers questioning a black man outside of a convenience store. Her crime? Shouting, Cobb police suck, and, Fuck the police, while raising her middle fingers.
Impolitic, sure, but criminal? Judge Melodie Clayton sure didn't think so. She ruled this week that police had no grounds to arrest Barnes for incitement. The evidence at trial showed that the Defendant was not engaged in a face-to-face confrontation with the officers which tended to incite an immediate breach of the peace when the words were spoken, Judge Clayton wrote in her decision. In addition, the word su*k, used as an epithet, is now common enough in modern society that it cannot reasonably provoke a threat of violence. The defendants other statement, '(expletive) the police,' was a fleeting epithet that was insulting and inappropriate, but it did not create an immediate threat and danger of violence.
Barnes was awarded $100,000 in a settlement with the county, as a form of compensation for spending a day and night in jail (that includes six hours in solitary confinement).
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/georgia-county-ordered-pay-100000-woman-arrested-and-jailed-cursing-cops
840high
(17,196 posts)From Marrieta Daily Journal
hat this article left out was what a fine up standing citizen this piece of trash is.... Barnes was most recently in the news in 2013 when she was arrested after her then 4- and 5-year-old children were found playing by themselves in a school playground three blocks from her home on Wanda Circle.
Authorities investigated and arrested the then 30-year-old Barnes and John Galczynski, then 58, after reportedly finding raw sewage, feces, dirt, moldy food and dog food on the floors, exposed electrical wires throughout the house, according to the arrest warrant.
They also found a German shepherd in dire need of medical care. The pet was suffering from a skin infection and had lost much of its hair, the warrant said.
They are currently facing charges of deprivation of a minor, reckless conduct and cruelty to animals in the unresolved case in Cobb Superior Court, according to court records.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - County to settle civil rights suit pay
Atman
(31,464 posts)How have we gotten here? So you hate her, so she's does not live a life any of us would want to live...I doubt she would PREFER to live her current life. But that doesn't take away her constitutional right to free speech. The cops did not arrest her because her house was messy or her kids were playing alone. They arrested her for her WORDS.
That is NOT the law. Otherwise, the cops would be kicking in your door for the porno you watched, or the kale you ate, or any other things LOE found distasteful. If there was a reason to arrest her for dog shit or exposed electrical wires, get a warrant and do so. How is this difficult to understand? So she's an asshole. Plenty of us here on DU are as well.
840high
(17,196 posts)rights - just gave an update.
840high
(17,196 posts)posted what the paper said. Get a grip - I don't know if she prefers her current life or not and don't care.
Atman
(31,464 posts)Most progressives/liberals/human beings don't blame the victim for police overreach. She was asshole, to be sure. But please don't double down on your "blame the victim" BS by saying "but I was only saying what others are saying!"
What truly makes people upset here is that she was awarded money for being an asshole. Again...that was the cops' fault for arresting her for hurting their feelings.
951-Riverside
(7,234 posts)Are you by chance a member of a Police Union?
Funny how she gets slammed with a bunch of charges after the incident. Seems like a witchhunt on the police department's part and of course the media just repeats and slants their story in such a way that demonizes the victim and favors the police so this article has little weight with me.
A charge is not a conviction but regardless that doesnt give your Buds in Blue the right to arrest someone just for hurting their feelings.
840high
(17,196 posts)newspaper said - those were not my words. Chill.
840high
(17,196 posts)lick boots - I;m sure you can teach me.
Logical
(22,457 posts)840high
(17,196 posts)with either.
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)You maybe?
Response to BillZBubb (Reply #6)
Post removed
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)I don't care who you are or how dirty you live, you still get and expect free speech as a right.
840high
(17,196 posts)you don't.
mythology
(9,527 posts)not protect their own egos.
bhikkhu
(10,714 posts)I wouldn't call someone trash unless I knew them pretty well and could say so from experience.
When I see a homeless person wearing dirty clothes and pushing a cart full of other people's cast-offs I don't consider them trash at all; I just think I'm fortunate for all the breaks and helping hands I've gotten myself. Not everyone is so lucky.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)The $100k will only make things worse.
Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)The DJ (we had DJ equipment run through a generator) literally started playing Fuck the Police (NWA) and they tried to arrest him. Several of us finally prevailed on the police to go find better shit to do. Queens, New York, 1992.