Man Arrested For Parodying Mayor On Twitter Files Civil Rights Lawsuit

mpicpp (3454017) writes with an update from Ars Technica to this story: "The Illinois man who made headlines when he was detained for parodying the town's mayor on Twitter sued the Peoria politician and local police, claiming on Thursday that his civil rights were violated. As part of the April raid, the authorities seized the mobile phone and laptop of the 29-year-old prankster, Jonathan Daniel, and reviewed their contents, which he says was in violation of his First Amendment rights. Daniel, the operator of the @peoriamayor handle shut down by Twitter after the city threatened a lawsuit, was initially accused of impersonating a public official in violation of Illinois law. The authorities never lodged charges, however."

Comments

Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

If that guy was in Sudan, and the entire incident transpired in a backwater country like Sudan, it would seem to make some sense

But this happened in the United States of America, the supposed land of the FREE

What has happened to FREEDOM and LIBERTY ?

Have they been stripped off by the Obama Administration, along with the Privacy of the citizens ?

Re:Shut up and take my money

[nut]

Interesting. Illinois police certainly do have a repuation. I'm not actually from the U.S.A. but nevertheless Amnesty International sends me emails about petitions such as this one about the Chicago police .

Sorry if that looks like a shameless plug for Amnesty International (well I guess it is) but WTH, they do good work.