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Police in Peoria, IL raided the home of a 27 year-old resident who set up a parody Twitter account for the Peoria mayor. The raid did not result in any arrests, but computers and phones were seized and the residents questioned. The police are investigating the account for breaking a law forbidding "impersonating a public official". If the case moves forward, the alleged owner of the account, Michelle Pratt, could face a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail.
Even if it is eventually dropped, this could have a chilling effect on satirical political speech and seems like a massive overstep by a local police force to save face for an elected official.
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Fake Mayor Twitter Account Leads to Police Raid
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
DON'T go!! I'm not HOWARD COSELL!! I know POLISH JOKES ... WAIT!!
Don't go!! I AM Howard Cosell! ... And I DON'T know Polish jokes!!
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Thursday April 17 2014, @09:24PM
> Since the account has now been disabled, it's now impossible to judge who is at fault here.
Nope. I don't need to see the contents of the site to know that the people at fault here are the police, the judge who signed the warrant and the mayor who used the police as his personal attack dogs.
At most this should have been a civil complaint, the police should not have been involved. Just because there is a law on the books does not exculpate those who failed to use the discretion that the system has empowered them with.