2026年5月20日 美国东部时间上午9:00 / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：德文·科尔
拉里·布什哈特因分享与查理·柯克枪击案相关的模因表情包入狱一个多月后，提起了诉讼。
图片来源：LadyJay Creations LLC/FIRE
摘要
- 一名田纳西州退休执法人员因在脸书上发布模因表情包，被监禁37天后，以83.5万美元的金额达成诉讼和解。
- 拉里·布什哈特因分享一张涉及查理·柯克遇刺的模因表情包被捕，当局认定该内容为校园威胁。
- 布什哈特因无力缴纳保释金在狱中度过一个多月后，指控最终被撤销。
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一名田纳西州退休执法人员因在脸书上发布与查理·柯克遇刺相关的模因表情包被捕并被关押一个多月，现已就“非法监禁”诉讼获得83.5万美元和解金。
根据周三宣布的和解协议，拉里·布什哈特同意撤销这场已持续五个月的诉讼。诉讼指控田纳西州佩里县官员去年秋季将他关押37天，侵犯了他的宪法权利。
“我很高兴我的第一修正案言论自由权利得到了伸张，”布什哈特周三在一份声明中表示。“民众参与民间讨论的自由，对于一个健康的民主社会至关重要。”
布什哈特在个人言论自由基金会（Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression）律师的协助下提起了这起诉讼，原定于7月底在孟菲斯联邦陪审团面前开庭审理。他在诉讼中并未要求具体赔偿金额。
布什哈特的律师在去年的法庭文件中表示，他们的当事人是家庭的主要经济支柱，因入狱时间丢失了退休后的工作，且这一事件让他“不敢再参与线上政治讨论，因为担心类似的逮捕和监禁会再次发生在自己身上”。
事件的起因始于2024年9月10日，长期支持唐纳德·特朗普总统、曾助力其2024年连任竞选的柯克，在犹他谷大学的一场户外活动中遭枪击身亡。十天后，布什哈特在脸书上分享了一张关于田纳西州为柯克举办守夜活动的模因表情包。
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“这在当下似乎很应景，”该模因配文写道，配图中包含特朗普的照片，以及这位前总统2024年在爱荷华州得梅因佩里高中枪击案后发表的一段引语。
模因中引用特朗普的话称：“我们必须翻过这一页。”这句话针对的是此前的高中枪击事件。
次日，四名警官来到布什哈特家中，以“威胁在学校实施大规模暴力”为由将其逮捕并带往监狱。根据法庭记录，当局当时表示，该帖子在当地被解读为对一所与2024年枪击案发生地同名的地区学校发出的威胁。
布什哈特因无力缴纳200万美元的保释金，被关押了37天。10月下旬，田纳西州一名地区检察官提出撤销对他的单项指控，他随后获释。
他的诉讼将佩里县、该县警长尼克·威姆斯以及参与调查布什哈特的县调查员杰森·莫罗告上法庭，指控其一系列宪法侵权行为，包括侵犯其言论自由权，以及违反第四修正案中“禁止非法逮捕、非法起诉和非法监禁”的规定。
根据和解协议，该县、威姆斯和莫罗均未承认在去年这一事件中有任何不当行为。和解金将由该县的保险公司支付。
“作为警长，没有任何职责比保护我们社区的儿童更为重要，他们是我们当中最脆弱的群体之一，”威姆斯在和解协议公布时联合发布的一份声明中表示。“保障他们的安全不仅是本办公室的职责，更是我每一天都铭记于心的承诺。我很高兴此事得以解决，并期待继续为佩里县民众服务和守护他们的安全。”
Retired cop jailed over Charlie Kirk meme settles unlawful incarceration lawsuit for over $800K
May 20, 2026, 9:00 AM ET / CNN
By Devan Cole
Larry Bushart is filing a lawsuit after sharing a meme related to the Charlie Kirk shooting landed him in jail for over a month.
Courtesy LadyJay Creations LLC/FIRE
Summary
- A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer settled his lawsuit for $835,000 after being jailed for 37 days over a Facebook post.
- Larry Bushart was arrested after sharing a meme about Charlie Kirk’s assassination that authorities interpreted as a school threat.
- The charges were dropped after Bushart spent over a month behind bars unable to pay the bond.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer who was held in jail for more than a month after police arrested him over a Facebook post of a meme related to the assassination of Charlie Kirk has settled a “unlawful incarceration” lawsuit for $835,000.
Under the deal announced Wednesday, Larry Bushart, agreed to drop the five-month-old case alleging that his constitutional rights were violated when officials in Perry County, Tennessee, held him in jail for 37 days last fall.
“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement Wednesday. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy.”
The case, which Bushart brought with the help of lawyers from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, had been set to go to trial in late July before a federal jury in Memphis. He had not asked for a specific amount of money in the lawsuit.
Bushart’s lawyers said in court papers last year that their client, who is the primary breadwinner for his house, lost his post-retirement job because of his time in jail and that the episode had stifled his “participation in online political conversation because he is afraid that something like his arrest and incarceration might happen to him again.”
His legal woes first started 10 days after Kirk, a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump who worked to get him reelected in 2024, was fatally shot during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University on September 10.
Bushart shared a meme on Facebook about a vigil being held in Tennessee for Kirk.
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“This seems relevant today,” read the meme, which included a photo of Trump and a quote the then-candidate made in 2024 following a shooting at Perry High School in Des Moines, Iowa.
“We have to get over it,” Trump is quoted as saying in the meme, regarding the high school shooting.
Four officers came to Bushart’s home the next day, arrested him and took him to jail for “threatening mass violence at a school.” Authorities at the time said that the post was understood locally to be a threat to an area school that has a similar name to the one where the 2024 shooting occurred, according to court records.
Bushart was held behind bars for 37 days because he was unable to pay the $2 million bond imposed on him. In late October, a district attorney in Tennessee moved to drop the single charge brought against him, and he was subsequently released.
His lawsuit charged Perry County; Nick Weems, the county’s sheriff; and Jason Morrow, a county investigator involved in the probe into Bushart, with a series of constitutional infringements, including violations of his free speech rights and his Fourth Amendment right against “wrongful arrest, wrongful prosecution, and wrongful incarceration.”
Under the settlement, the county, Weems and Morrow are not admitting any wrongdoing in last year’s ordeal. The county’s insurer will pay the settlement.
“As Sheriff, there is no responsibility I take more seriously than protecting the children in our community, who are some of the most vulnerable among us,” Weems said a joint statement released as part of the settlement. “Ensuring their safety is not just a duty of this office, it is a commitment I carry with me every single day. I am happy to have this matter resolved, and I look forward to continuing to serve and protect the people of Perry County.”
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