The Police Raided My Friend’s House Over a Parody Twitter Account
by Justin Glawe
Vice
April 18 2014
Jon Daniel woke up on Thursday morning to a news crew in his living room, which was a welcome change from the company he had on Tuesday night, when the Peoria, Illinois, police came crashing through the door. The officers tore the 28-year-old”™s home apart, seizing electronics and taking several of his roommates in for questioning; one woman who lived there spent three hours in an interrogation room. All for a parody Twitter account.
Yes, the cops raided Daniel”™s home because they wanted to find out who was behind @peoriamayor, an account that had been shut down weeks ago by Twitter. When it was active, Daniel used it to portray Jim Ardis, the mayor of Peoria, as a weed-smoking, stripper-loving, Midwestern answer to Rob Ford. The account never had more than 50 followers, and Twitter had killed it because it wasn’t clearly marked as a parody. It was a joke, a lark””but it brought the police to Daniel’s door. The cops even took Daniel and one of his housemates in for in-depth questioning””they showed up at their jobs, cuffed them, and confiscated their phones””because of a bunch of Twitter jokes.
Now Daniel”™s panicking. Read the rest of this article here.
via: Peoria Mayor and Police Violate The 1st Amendment Over Twitter Parody; Twitter image: TheStoopKids