Okay, so Peoria, Ill. has no sense of humor.
Jonathan Daniel is now suing the city of Peoria after his house was raided, his possessions were seized and he was arrested … over a joke Twitter account. Doesn’t that seem like something that would happen in, I don’t know, Lebanon and not the U.S. of A.?
Daniels created a fake Twitter account of his apparently uptight mayor, Jim Ardis, that referenced Ardis doing drugs and partying with hookers (seems like Daniels should have been promoted to PR guy). Ardis decided to invoke a law regarding impersonation of a public official and had Daniels’ house raided and property seized with no warrant. Yikes.
Of course the ACLU got involved in the case, posting with Daniels: “The joke of the account was to have my fictional mayor saying things that no one would possibly think that Mayor Jim Ardis would say. If the Mayor was concerned, all he had to do was tell the public that this was not his account and not his words, rather than involving the police.”
Daniels could face up to a year in jail — but hopefully the world comes in and delivers a series of kicks to this mayor’s groin and he wises up. What an asshole.
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