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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.
People that can't find something to live for always seem to find something to
die for. The problem is, they usually want the rest of us to die for it too.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Joe Desertrat on Friday April 18 2014, @01:49AM
Edward Abbey said it well: "...history demonstrates that personal liberty is a rare and precious thing, that all societies tend toward the absolute until attack from without or collapse from within breaks up the social machine and makes freedom and innovation again possible".