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The Babylon Bee Joins The Onion in Decrying an Ohio Law That Makes Parody a Felony
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:03 pm
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:03 pm
LINK
The Babylon Bee this week joined The Onion in urging the Supreme Court to defend the First Amendment against an Ohio law that makes parody a felony. The case, which the Institute for Justice is asking the Court to take up, involves Parma resident Anthony Novak, who in 2016 was prosecuted for violating a state law against using a computer to "disrupt, interrupt, or impair the functions of any police, fire, educational, commercial, or governmental operations." Novak supposedly did that by creating a parody of the Parma Police Department's Facebook page.
Among other things, the fake Facebook page included a job notice saying the department "is strongly encouraging minorities to not apply," a warning that Parma had banned food handouts so "the homeless population" would "leave our city due to starvation," and an announcement of "our official stay inside and catch up with the family day," during which anyone venturing outside between noon and 9 p.m. would be arrested. The police department was not amused.
The cops retaliated by investigating Novak, searching his apartment, seizing his electronic equipment, arresting him, and bringing charges that could have sent him to prison for up to 18 months. After a jury acquitted him, Novak filed a federal lawsuit against several officers who were involved in the case, arguing that they had violated his constitutional rights under color of law. But last April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that the defendants were protected by qualified immunity, which shields cops from liability unless their alleged misconduct violated "clearly established" law. The appeals court concluded that the cops "reasonably found probable cause in an unsettled case judges can debate," noting that "both the City's Law Director and the judges who issued the warrants agreed with them."
For obvious reasons, the right-leaning Bee, like the left-leaning Onion, is alarmed by the implication that people have no recourse against cops who arrest them for making fun of government agencies. "The Bee is serving a brutal life sentence in Twitter jail as we speak," says its amicus brief in Novak v. City of Parma. "Its writers would very much like to avoid a consecutive sentence in a government-run facility."
The Babylon Bee this week joined The Onion in urging the Supreme Court to defend the First Amendment against an Ohio law that makes parody a felony. The case, which the Institute for Justice is asking the Court to take up, involves Parma resident Anthony Novak, who in 2016 was prosecuted for violating a state law against using a computer to "disrupt, interrupt, or impair the functions of any police, fire, educational, commercial, or governmental operations." Novak supposedly did that by creating a parody of the Parma Police Department's Facebook page.
Among other things, the fake Facebook page included a job notice saying the department "is strongly encouraging minorities to not apply," a warning that Parma had banned food handouts so "the homeless population" would "leave our city due to starvation," and an announcement of "our official stay inside and catch up with the family day," during which anyone venturing outside between noon and 9 p.m. would be arrested. The police department was not amused.
The cops retaliated by investigating Novak, searching his apartment, seizing his electronic equipment, arresting him, and bringing charges that could have sent him to prison for up to 18 months. After a jury acquitted him, Novak filed a federal lawsuit against several officers who were involved in the case, arguing that they had violated his constitutional rights under color of law. But last April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that the defendants were protected by qualified immunity, which shields cops from liability unless their alleged misconduct violated "clearly established" law. The appeals court concluded that the cops "reasonably found probable cause in an unsettled case judges can debate," noting that "both the City's Law Director and the judges who issued the warrants agreed with them."
For obvious reasons, the right-leaning Bee, like the left-leaning Onion, is alarmed by the implication that people have no recourse against cops who arrest them for making fun of government agencies. "The Bee is serving a brutal life sentence in Twitter jail as we speak," says its amicus brief in Novak v. City of Parma. "Its writers would very much like to avoid a consecutive sentence in a government-run facility."
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:04 pm to DiogenesLamp
quote:
against an Ohio law that makes parody a felony
wut?
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:04 pm to DiogenesLamp
Y’all keep making fun of the people we’re not allowed to make fun of and this is gonna keep happening
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:07 pm to DiogenesLamp
quote:
Consider the March 3 Bee story headlined "Donut Sales Surge as Police Departments Re-Funded."
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:07 pm to DiogenesLamp
Dimocrats can lie daily and frame Presidents and not go to jail but you get a felony for parody
Literally Hitler
Literally Hitler
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:09 pm to DiogenesLamp
There's parody, and then there's impersonating a police officer.
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:10 pm to DiogenesLamp
Because parody accounts expose their failures.
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:12 pm to deeprig9
quote:
There's parody, and then there's impersonating a police officer.
Lick those boots
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:14 pm to el Gaucho
quote:
l Gaucho
Avoid Ohio.
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:16 pm to Ingeniero
(no message)
This post was edited on 4/17/23 at 7:50 pm
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:17 pm to DiogenesLamp
What is The Sadvocate’s take?
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:20 pm to DiogenesLamp
The problem is with what the Babylon Bee and its ilk are doing it's hard to distinguish when they're being serious or not. If people take them serious it can be very damaging. Misinformation of any kind in at best not ideal. At worst it gross negligence and could be cause for liable. They're standing on thin ice
This post was edited on 11/2/22 at 1:22 pm
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:21 pm to TheSadvocate
quote:
Consider the March 3 Bee story headlined "Donut Sales Surge as Police Departments Re-Funded."
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:21 pm to DiogenesLamp
The guy sued for the police for arresting him, but
Sounds like Ohio needs to go a couple of steps further and enact a law that specifically protects parody.
quote:
defendants were protected by qualified immunity, which shields cops from liability unless their alleged misconduct violated "clearly established" law.
Sounds like Ohio needs to go a couple of steps further and enact a law that specifically protects parody.
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:21 pm to deeprig9
quote:
There's parody, and then there's impersonating a police officer.
Putting up a fake facebook page for a fake police department is not impersonation in the least bit. You can impersonate an officer. You can't impersonate an entire agency.
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:21 pm to LSUballs
quote:
The problem is with what the Babylon Bee and it's ilk are doing it's hard to distinguish when they're being serious or not. If people take them serious it can be very damaging.
Perhaps reality should stop being so ridiculous that people mistake fiction for it.
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:23 pm to DiogenesLamp
So CNN (and others) can air fake news all day long but hoping is a felony?
If our founding fathers had foreseen the state of our country they would have made revolutions mandatory every 10 years.
If our founding fathers had foreseen the state of our country they would have made revolutions mandatory every 10 years.
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:24 pm to deeprig9
What if a mostly peaceful parody?
Posted on 11/2/22 at 1:24 pm to deeprig9
I impersonate the police by standing around with my thumb up my arse while scum loot stores.
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