#AssholeOfTheDay Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis sent the police after someone mocking him on Twitter http://t.co/p0sMlyezPi pic.twitter.com/EK7bfQKceW
— Some Asshole (@assholeofday) April 25, 2014
High on crack, Mayor of Peoria caught having a three-way w/Rob Ford & a donkey. Just kidding. http://t.co/QLimcMOBs4 pic.twitter.com/7NHI6WuCNs
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) April 25, 2014
BREAKING: Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis caught masturbating to topless photos of Vladimir Putin http://t.co/QLimcMOBs4 pic.twitter.com/WIVCihC7nK
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) April 26, 2014
If you’re a politician, you have to accept that you’re going to be a target for some folks. As a public figure, many will take their shots at you- some justified, some not so much, some humorous, and some just plain mean. Regardless of what it is, a politician needs to accept that they have very little control over what the public says or thinks about them. Go about your business, do the job your were elected to do to the best of your ability…and hope for the best. In the age of Twitter, virtually anything a public figure says or does can be the trigger for a parody Twitter account. There’s no way of knowing what will set some folks off, so it’s best not to live in fear of being skewered. It WILL happen; the only uncertainties are when, how, and why. It’s what happens in a society that has freedom of speech and expression embedded in its Constitution.
Unfortunately, Peoria, IL, Mayor Jim Ardis didn’t get the memo. Upset by a parody Twitter account (which wasn’t labeled as such originally), Ardis did what any self-respecting thin-skinned politician would do: he sent in the police.
I can only imagine what the good people of Peoria think about their police force (and their tax dollars) being used by the Mayor to carry out a personal vendetta.
In Peoria, Ill., however, there appears to have been a severe lack of humor exhibited toward the creators of a parody Twitter account — @peoriamayor — that purported to have been written by the local mayor, Jim Ardis.
As the Peoria Journal Star reports, the account was suspended by Twitter several weeks ago. This happened even though it had reportedly been labeled, at some point, as a parody account.
In total, the account had emitted around 50 tweets. However, for reasons best known to those in officialdom, as many as seven police officers descended on a house, claimed to have a warrant, and took away a number of phones and computers.
Three people were questioned (two were arrested at their workplaces). Only one was charged, but even this charge had nothing to do with the Twitter account. Instead, 36-year-old Jacob Elliott was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
The most important aspect of this story is that NO CRIME WAS COMMITTED, and the State of Illinois is refusing to press charges. It appears that the sole basis for the raid was Ardis’ indignity over the fake Twitter account…which had been shut down by Twitter BEFORE the raid even took place.
Ardis sent the police on a fishing expedition armed with an overly broad warrant authorizing a search for drugs, drug paraphernalia, or any electronic equipment that could have been used on the fake Twitter account. There was no basis for the suspicion of drug use, but that “suspicion” allowed the police to search, confiscate, and arrest as they saw fit.
Who knew that using social media was a crime?
The raid sparked national outrage for abusing police and government power for what was clearly a joke. Ardis defended his actions on Tuesday, saying, “As a person, I felt a victim of sexual doggerel and filth. It was filth. It was absolute filth.”
Yet in the Peoria case, “there was no underlying crime — parody is protected by free speech under the First Amendment,” David Greene, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco told ThinkProgress. The problem arises, however, when police think using social media itself is the crime, Greene said.
Under current law, what users publicly post online is akin to having a conversation in a public park — anyone, including the police can use and interpret it, Greene said, but “whether it reveals anything is another issue.” Police often struggle to differentiate crimes that happen in real life from online speech.
Ardis may well have been offended by the fake Twitter account, which portrayed Ardis as living the Rob Ford lifestyle…albeit in Peoria, which in itself is pretty humorous. The Twitter account wasn’t verified, which means that anyone on Twitter should’ve known the account couldn’t be trusted. It may well have been unreconstructed “filth,” and Ardis might justifiably have taken offense at how he was parodied…but that’s not evidence of a crime…or that he was a “victim.” He certainly had no legal basis for squandering police resources and tax dollars on a raids any police state would have been proud of.
Surely I’m not the only one smelling a lawsuit here. I’m guessing an enterprising attorney will offer to hang Ardis out to dry…and Ardis will richly deserve whatever the judgment against him may be.
Before I go, here’s a question no one seems to be asking: where was Peoria’s Chief of Police? Even if he serves at the pleasure of the Mayor, surely he should have weighed in on the egregiously unconstitutional nature of the raid? Are there no checks and balances in place…or does Ardis get to run Peoria as if it’s his personal playground and fiefdom?
Gentleman, start your lawyers!
