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Baton Bob Strikes Back Against Police That Coerced Facebook Post From Him
McGruber (1417641) writes "In June 2013, Atlanta police arrested costumed street performer "Baton Bob" during the middle of a street performance after Baton Bob was allegedly involved in a verbal altercation with mall security guards. Now, a year later, Baton Bob has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Atlanta police of violating his constitutional rights, assault, discrimination, privacy violations and identify theft. Atlanta Police allegedly forced Baton Bob to make 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."
Is there so little happening in the world right now that the best "story" you can come up with is a guy with obvious mental issues claiming police made him post Facebook comments?
What'd he say, "so he was trying to do his job comma respectfully and arrested my ass exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point"?
Or was it more, "and then just dump a sh!tload of exclamation points down".
You hate everything AC! That's why we love you.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
Great post McGruber, thanks for selecting it timothy.
how does a mime have a "verbal altercation"?
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I can only wish Baton Bob was a mime.
He was performing in front of my office building and we could hear him blowing his whistle down on the street from 14 stories up.
Well, it was either post the pro-police statement or face indefinite detention in an imaginary glass box.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
He looked at the police and gave him the finger?
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He's lucky they didn't kill him.
In our state the cops have killed people with their batons, tasers, pistols and assault rifles for less than this. Of course, every time this happens the cops get off scott free without even a reprimand and with full paid leave during the "investigation" into the "incident". Cops are killing citizens left and right. These are not isolated incidenses but a problem with police mentality. Kill first, ask questions later.
Street Performer is a euphemism for public nuisance.
They are a public nuisance with the same rights we afford assholes like myself and yourself. No one, even a mime, can be coerced into a public statement like this...
This is a highly illegal method of reputation modelling by the Atlanta PD.
I have no idea why ANYBODY would even consent to logging in to his Facebook account on a computer or unlocking his phone while in custody, let alone post a coerced message like that.
While people are busy ignorantly demanding that NO ONE access their Facebook account and threatening to sue on Constitutional grounds, Facebook is busy whoring out every last click of your data to the highest bidder.
But hey, let's keep screaming about privacy. Might as well tweet about it too.
The only issue that should be on the table here is the issue of coercion that appears to have taken place to release a man from jail. Other than that, let's just drop the Facebook privacy bullshit. If you want privacy, then get the fuck off social media.
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Just because this is about a guy in a tutu doesn't mean that a story concerning a citizen of the USA being forced to post something online against his will isn't interesting (and alarming!). I've never heard of this guy and wouldn't look twice if I saw him on the street but I will follow this case now to see if his side of the story is revealed to be accurate and what the eventual outcome is. If these cops are proven guilty and punished than I call that a win for YRO.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
how does a mime have a "verbal altercation"?
Sign language.
The system as a whole moves slowly. A year is actually a fairly short amount of time to try (and fail) to work it out within the system, and then get a lawyer to file suit.
Of course, this is assuming his claim is legit.
He's not a mime. He walks around downtown Atlanta wearing a wedding gown or a tutu. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_Bob
There was a parade last Sunday with like a thousand guys like that.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The deepest circle of hell should be reserved for people who abuse power.
And boy can they be dicks when they want to be. Never been arrested myself, but a friend of mine was and called me to bring him some cash for bail. At 3 am, I am in a waiting room, 2 cops come out and let me know "its going to be a while, it could take all night" and "you should just leave, he can get home".....
Never mind that he was about 40 miles from home and his car wasn't being released....they just wanted him to have to walk. How long was the "long time" I was going to have to wait for the bail bondsman to show up? About 30-40 minutes.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
This guy's first mistake was to assume he had any "rights". Is he "Baton Bob LLC"? Only corporate rights are respected by the law. Individual's rights are whatever the police feel like letting you get with at that moment, which is rapidly less and less.
Secondly, this is Atlanta Georgia, the deep south, and this guy is black and probably gay as well -- two strikes against him in the eyes of the police. Georgia is notoriously gun-happy as well, the governor having just recently signed a bill that allows open carry just about everywhere.
Frankly, this guy's lucky he wasn't shot dead on the spot for "resisting arrest". He seems to think we are living in a free country where the people have guaranteed rights. That hasn't been the situation for some time, he'd better get with the program or he'll be assigned to a gulag.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Had a friend who was arrested and there was a $15 filing fee.
They wouldn't make change.
They wouldn't accept $20's.
Seriously.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
The wikipedia entry suggests he likely lives in or near Atlanta. We saw a while back that murder is legal in nearby Florida, and now Georgia just passed a "carry wherever the hell you want" bill into law. If he doesn't want to be shot for being a perceived threat he might want to consider living somewhere else.
Yes, I know that slashdot's conservative majority will moderate this down because they don't like the truth. They can do their worst, the moderation of this comment won't move my karma.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
People who engage in hyperbole are the worst scum on earth and should be executed by cheese grater.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
"Members of the jury, the cops say they spoke to my client, and he dictated a message for them to put on his FB page. but I have here the testimony of several other prisoners proving that they never even bothered to speak to my client at all. This is backed up by video footage showing he was tossed into the holding cell and not spoken to again by the police...."
At least if they spoke with him, they have evidence they spoke with him. They can lie about the details.
Oddly, if you read Dante, the deepest circle of Hell is reserved for those who dared to stand up against power: Brutus is there for assassinating Caesar and defending the liberty of the Republic, and Satan is there for disobeying God. Hell, like prison, is designed to reinforce authority.
So that story was a few years back, a few even before that, I had a friend at my house who was a pot dealer. Now when I say friend, I mean, he pulled out his wad and asked me to count it for him while his hands were busy. Which, is of course, the only reasons I know this story is fact, I counted his wad with my own two hands and eyes.... it was exactly $1000 in $20 bills. Exactly, and ALL 20s.
After he left my house, he managed to get arrested. The exact details of how this happened are not as important. The key facts are that it was night, the place he was heading was the absolute nearest place to my house where one could spend any money, and he never made it even that far.
Now where this gets interesting is.... the police report actually said he had $850. Not $840 or $860 but, in fact, $850, an amount that one cannot make with $20 bills....meaning that they did, in fact, make change.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
No.
The lowest circle is for those who betrayed someone. Standing up to power is something else.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
It should be noted: I never actually finished reading Dante. Just the much improved Niven/Pornelle reboot.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'