Mon, Mar 1st 2021 10:59am
Tim Cushing
You know what s always ripe for parody? Government agencies. You know who s often outlandishly upset about being parodied? Government officials.
Back in 2016, Parma, Ohio resident Anthony Novak created a fake Parma Police Department page on Facebook. It should have been clear to everyone the page was a parody. The fake Parma PD page posted announcements about a roving police van offering free abortions to teenagers, a plan to criminalize helping the homeless, and the PD strongly discouraging minorities from applying for positions with the agency.
Despite it being readily apparent this was not an official Parma PD page, Parma officers arrested Novak in March 2016. The page had only been live for 12 hours, but the PD claimed Novak s page interrupted police operations. The Parma PD made the most of its apparently underutilized resources to stop this resident from making fun of it. To shut down a Facebook parody, the Parma PD deployed seven
The thumbs-up Like logo is shown on a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
CLEVELAND (CN) A police department in Ohio had probable cause to arrest a man who created a parody Facebook page of the department, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, shutting down claims that his First Amendment rights were violated.
Anthony Novak filed a lawsuit against the city of Parma and the Parma Police Department, claiming he was arrested for making the satirical Facebook page.
In his ruling on Wednesday however, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, a Clinton appointee, found that the officers had probable cause to investigate and arrest Novak and were entitled to immunity against his claims for damages.