White guy is racist on Facebook. White guy is later paid $35K by the government. America. Hit the jump to see why.
Thomas Smith, 27, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for leaving negative remarks on a local police department’s Facebook page in 2012. After filing a lawsuit against the police department, Smith was recently awarded a $35,000 settlement because his constitutional rights were violated by the arrest.
The feud between Smith and the police began after he left a number of comments on the department’s facebook page. In a comment thread started by Officer Nicholas Stroik, another Facebook user identified Stroik as a racist and said he had expressed that African-American people “don’t belong in his town.”
Smith then posted two comments in response
fuck the fucking cops they ant shit but fucking racist basturds an fucking all of y’all who is racist. fuck them nigers bitchs wat you got on us, not a dam thing so fuck off dicks.
[Spelling in original]
Smith’s posts, along with any other posts criticizing the police were deleted promptly. However, soon after his arrest, he was contacted by police who then asked him if he posted the comments. When he said that he was exercising his right to free speech by posting the malicious comments, he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a computer.
When he was arrested, Smith told the police “I put it on there, I don’t regret it and I mean it.” He was then banned from using a computer or phone.
The prosecution argued that Smith’s posts were not protected by free speech because they were classified as “fighting words.”
Initially, Smith was found guilty and sentenced to a year of probation and 25 hours of community service.
Shortly after being charged, he ended up winning the case after an appeal and having the convictions overturned. The appeals court ruled that the “fighting words” doctrine only applies when the two parties are within close proximity to one another. Since he was using a computer and not in the person’s face, his hateful speech was determined to be free speech.
“In our country, we are entitled to criticize our government with passion, The use of some four-letter words in the course of doing so is never a crime,” Smith’s attorney, Thomas Aquino said in a statement.
