This incident is beyond words, beyond justice and beyond the American Constitutional principles of principles of Freedom of Speech. It takes the concept of “qualified immunity” into the area of willful illegal activity. The police and prosecutor deliberated for a month and decided to arrest and persecute Mr. Novak for reasons that were blatantly unconstitutional. That this can be considered “performing their jobs” in good faith gives coverage to any kind of illegal arrest.
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal, backed by the satirical site The Onion, from a man who was arrested and prosecuted for making fun of police on social media.
The justices on Tuesday left in place a lower court ruling against Anthony Novak, who was arrested after he spoofed the Parma, Ohio, police force in Facebook posts.
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"They said, 'put your hands behind your back.' They said, 'fake Parma Facebook page,'" Novak told ABC News about the time he got arrested.
Novak spent four days in jail and was later acquitted of the charge of computer usage that disrupted police functions, per the Times.
"Nearly a month after Novak had deleted the parody account, police arrested him, searched his apartment, seized his phone and laptop, and jailed him for four days," his appeal to the Court reads.
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Novak sued the city after his acquittal, arguing the city trampled on his First Amendment rights to free speech. But the district and appeals courts sided with Parma, saying that qualified immunity shielded the city from civil liability.
Qualified immunity allows government officials, including police officers, to avoid being sued for violating a person’s rights while performing their jobs, so long as they do so in the scope of their duties.