Retired Cop Got $835,000 For Being Arrested Over A Trump Meme After Charlie Kirk’s Death

A retired cop just got $835 ,000 from Tennessee after being jailed for 37 days over Charlie Kirk in a Facebook meme that used a real Trump quote.Because last September, 61 -year -old Larry Bouchard shared a meme about Charlie Kirk's assassination.And the meme showed Trump with a quote, which is exactly what Trump said in January of 2024 after a deadly school shooting at Perry High School in Iowa.With Bouchard's caption being, And then Perry County, Tennessee, a different state, different school, arrested Bouchard on a felony charge.Bail was set at $2 million and he sat in jail for 37 days.he got out, he had missed the birth of his granddaughter, missed his wedding anniversary, and lost his post -retirement job.

The charges, they were eventually dropped in October, but the damage was done.

One of the craziest things is that Sheriff Nick Weems publicly conceded that most of his charts posts were quote, lawful free speech, but he arrested him anyway.And his reasoning was that locals thought Bashar was threatening their Perry County High School, even though Weems himself confirmed he knew the meme referenced Iowa.And so the sheriff knew it was protected speech.He knew that the meme was about a different state, but he locked up a 61 -year -old retiree for over a month anyway.And key thing, the $835 ,000 settlement, it comes out of Perry County taxpayer money, and the sheriff, who knowingly violated the First Amendment, still on the job.