To get Bushart jailed, Weems allegedly collaborated with an investigator, Jason Morrow, to omit a key detail from the affidavit that served as the entire basis of his arrest. Morrow supposedly left out the fact that the meme referred to a 2024 school shooting, allegedly helping Weems manufacture probable cause. Including that detail would’ve made Bushart’s arrest less likely, as the reviewing magistrate—a nonlawyer who has no legal education—would’ve possibly understood that cops were trying to arrest Bushart for protected speech, his complaint said.

As much as the justice system in urban areas can be systematically brutal, there’s something uniquely fucked up about the small town “he ain’t got no learnin’ to run a court, but he’s good folk” version of it.