Authorities in Tennessee have dropped a felony charge against Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old former law enforcement officer who spent more than five weeks in jail over a Facebook post he made about the killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Bushart was arrested on a charge of threatening mass violence at a school after posting a meme featuring Donald Trump with the words “We have to get over it,” a quote the president made after a school shooting in Iowa last year. Bushart captioned the meme: “This seems relevant today …” Kirk was killed on 10 September.
Perry county sheriff Nick Weems told news outlets that most of Bushart’s “hate memes” were lawful free speech, but residents were alarmed by the school shooting post, thinking it threatened the local high school, even though Weems said he knew the meme referenced a school in Iowa. Weems said investigators believed Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community. He added that Bushart was arrested after refusing to delete the post, and bail was set at $2m.
The case alarmed free speech advocates, who said Weems had targeted Bushart because of his political views. Bushart was released on Wednesday after prosecutors sought to dismiss the charge. Neither Weems nor Hans Schwendimann, the local district attorney, immediately responded to requests for comment on why the charge was dropped.
After his release, Bushart told local radio station WOPC-FM: “Very happy to be going home. I didn’t seek to be a media sensation, but here we are.”
