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from the St.-Louis-still-misses-you,-Baton-Bob dept.
"Baton Bob" (wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_Bob) is a street performer in Atlanta, Georgia. In June 2013, Atlanta police arrested Baton Bob during the middle of a street performance, after a verbal altercation Bob had with mall security guards.
Baton Bob has now filed a
federal lawsuit accusing Atlanta police of violating his constitutional rights, assault, discrimination, privacy violations and identify theft.
What makes this SoylentNews-worthy is that Atlanta Police forced Baton Bob to post a pro-police statement on his Facebook page before officers would allow Bob to be released on bond. According to the lawsuit:
At approximately 3:40 p.m., while Plaintiff sat handcuffed and without an attorney, he was told to dictate a public statement to Officer Davis, who then typed and posted the message to the Baton Bob Facebook account. The message read:
First of all, the atl police officer that responded to the incident thru security has been very respectful and gracious to me even in handcuffs. So, the situation escalated from a complaint from a security officer in the area and for some reason she rolled up on me like she didn't know who I was and like I had not been there before. For them to call police to come to intervene was not necessary. So, out of it, because of my fury, the Atlanta police officer did not understand the elements of the situation, so he was trying to do his job, respectfully and arrested my ass!!!!!!!!! I'll be out tomorrow so look out for my show at 14th and Peachtree. So now I'm waiting to be transported so I can sign my own bond and get the hell out of here. I want to verify, that the Atlanta police was respectful to me considering the circumstances. See you when I see you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As promised, Plaintiff was then given a signature bond and released from jail.
(Score: 1) by Lemming on Tuesday July 01 2014, @08:49AM
So he had to post this text, and then he was released. He should have edited the Facebook post immediately afterwards, saying he was forced to post the previous text. Maybe he did, it's clear in the article if he corrected the post immediately or if he posted about it later on. This would definitely have backfired for the police department, I think.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday July 01 2014, @09:24AM
As soon as the police saw the updated post, you can bet they'd find an excuse to haul him in again and make him miserable. Now he's lawyered up and gone public they'd be idiots (that is, even more idiotic than usual) to try to intimidate him now.
Besides, if you really want to vent your righteous outrage and see the wicked punished and humiliated, a courtroom has far more potential for satisfaction (not to mention cash) than a crappy boo-hoo post on your farcebook page.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday July 01 2014, @09:31AM
FTFY
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday July 01 2014, @10:20AM
Better than mine, thanks.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 01 2014, @10:36AM
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday July 01 2014, @02:35PM
As far as I know you can't edit a post directly on your profile after you submit it, although you can edit comments on it. You can however delete it.
(yes yes I'm a facebook user shun shun etc.)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by Lemming on Tuesday July 01 2014, @03:13PM
Yes, you can edit your posts after you posted. If you click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of one of your posts, you get a pop-up menu including an "Edit..." option. Afterwards, your post will have an indicator "Edited" next to the post timestamp, which anyone can click to see the editing history.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Tuesday July 01 2014, @04:35PM
Mister, I shun you for one reason and one reason only. That uid is brain-itchingly short of a good number.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 01 2014, @04:39PM
So, 668 would float your boat better?
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Tuesday July 01 2014, @04:52PM
... You little smartass AC >:|
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 08 2014, @08:31PM
667 - Neighbor of the Beast
(Score: 2) by hubie on Tuesday July 01 2014, @05:08PM
Is it considered a Streisand effect if you are doing it to purposely get attention drawn to you?