"But no: What you find instead in the case of Larry Bushart is one of the most plain and egregious examples of police overreach and punishment of free speech you'll hopefully ever encounter. The injustice of it is both frightening and deeply relevant to our current sociopolitical landscape ... as is the curious indifference of national news, who seemed to largely miss the story entirely."
"Larry Bushart is a resident of the small town of Lexington, Tennessee (Henderson County), roughly halfway between Nashville and Memphis. A 61-year-old former police officer himself-another aspect of this story that is deeply strange-Bushart retired from the Tennessee Department of Correction in 2024. Perhaps unusually for his age, field and local demographics, Bushart also seems to be pretty strongly liberal in his political beliefs."
Larry Bushart is a 61-year-old resident of Lexington, Tennessee and a retired Tennessee Department of Correction officer who retired in 2024. He maintained active social media accounts and regularly posted political memes and reposts. On Sept. 10, following reports about the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, Bushart posted various memes and opinions on his Facebook page. A local law-enforcement response led to Bushart’s arrest; he spent more than a month in jail across September and October on a $2 million bond. The case is presented as an example of police overreach and punishment of free speech with limited national media attention.
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