Speaker Identification

Speaker 1 - Chip DeBlock, Host: The speaker identifies himself as the host at the opening of the program. The supplied transcript renders his name incorrectly as “Chip the Block”; the established program spelling is Chip DeBlock.

Speaker 2 - Scott, Guest: Introduced by the host as a former Green Beret and Delta Force operative. The raw transcript renders his surname inconsistently; the surname is therefore not supplied as confirmed in the corrected transcript.

Speaker 3 - Prerecorded Sponsor Voice / Advertisement: Voice used for the Galls promotional segment; the transcript does not establish the announcer's identity.

Opening and Program Introduction

Chip DeBlock: Welcome to LEO Round Table at LEORoundTable.com. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I'm your host. We're a group of law enforcement professionals who talk about today's news and issues, but the twist is that we do it from a law enforcement perspective.

We've got - yes, he is a badass - former Green Beret and Delta Force operative Scott on the show. Thanks so much for being on the show, Scott.

I also want to mention our sponsors. Our title sponsor is Galls at Galls.com. Don't forget that discount code: RADIO15. It's nice to know you always have that 15% discount code because of our show. Again, RADIO15 at Galls.com for 15% off.

Also, Comply Technologies is our satellite sponsor. They're helping us get over to SiriusXM. GunLearn.com, MyMedicare.live, and Tobella's are also sponsors; Tobella's built a new online store at LEORoundTable.com.

A shout-out to all the people helping get our show out there and putting us on some great platforms: Brian Burns with the Tampa Free Press, who gets our material out there, including on MSN; Reed Eater with FormerLawman.com; and Travis Yates with LawOfficer.com. Thanks to all of those entities for helping make the show happen.

Because of Scott, I've started doing this: Scott said, “Chip, people don't know how to watch your show. You say you're on podcasts, but what podcast platforms are you on? What social media?” So I've got you covered.

If there is a podcast platform, we're on it. When I was doing it myself, we were on about 20; then it went down to 18 because some sites repurposed or sold. We hired a company to take over podcast operations, and now we're on just about every platform there is, certainly Spotify and Apple/iTunes. Check out our show there.

We're also on social media: Rumble, YouTube, Facebook, X/Twitter, and Truth Social. The best way to find everything is to go to LEORoundTable.com. On the upper menu bar, there is a place where you can find the TV stations we're on, all 47 radio stations, dates and times, channel numbers, social-media outlets, and podcast platforms. We have everything there, so check it out at LEORoundTable.com.

Episode Preview

Chip DeBlock: Now, let's whet the appetite. What in the world are we going to be talking about today?

Scott, we don't have a main topic today. It's almost a relief. Usually we have one main topic, sometimes two, rarely three, and we concentrate on those. Today we get to concentrate on update stories and stories with video components. Some of these titles are pretty substantial.

We have four update stories, if we have time to get to them, which I'm sure we won't. Then we have a choice of five videos. I'll let you tell me if you want to take any out of order. I alternated the lineup: an update, a video, an update, a video.

First, we have a Boston officer charged with manslaughter after shooting at a carjacking suspect. They're saying video disputes the officer's account, but they are not releasing the video. I have an issue with that: show the freaking video. The cop is looking at a manslaughter charge right now, and we'll be talking about that.

Then the Richmond Police Department released body-camera footage after a woman was shot and killed. We'll be talking about that one from Richmond.

Scott, you'll like this next one because it reminds me of the last time you were on the show. You've been great about doing the show every week. Remember last time, when I pretty much had a show dedicated to you because it was all special-forces-related stories? There was the woman formerly associated with Delta who allegedly gave classified information to a reporter, and there was another story involving someone with a military background training Chinese pilots.

Scott: There was an Air Force intelligence woman. She was crazy.

Chip DeBlock: Right. On this next one, they got creative with the title: “Recipe for Trouble.” A DOJ prosecutor allegedly tried to hide a secret Trump report as a Bundt cake recipe. I won't go through the whole thing now; I just want to whet the appetite. This was a high-level DOJ prosecutor allegedly stealing classified information from her work computer, sending it to her Gmail account and another civilian email account, and trying to conceal what she was transferring by naming the PDF files as recipes, including a Bundt cake recipe. She allegedly got caught doing it and is now in a world of hurt. We'll cover that one.

Next, we have dash-camera video showing a fatal Thruway crash involving an off-duty NYPD officer in his personal car. A man stops his car in the middle of an entrance ramp onto a freeway, where drivers are accelerating to merge with traffic, then gets out and tries to run across the highway. He gets hit, and we have video of it.

We also have a Greensboro police officer found justified in a deadly shooting from August of 2025; a Tennessee man jailed for 37 days after posting a Facebook meme mocking Charlie Kirk's death, who received an $850,000 settlement; Illinois State Police releasing video from a trooper's fatal shooting of a suspect; and no charges for Gastonia police officers after shooting a knife-wielding man at a convenience store.

We have a lot to talk about. Scott, if there is anything you want to take out of order, let me know. I'm going to start with the first update article.

Boston Officer Charged With Manslaughter in Shooting of Alleged Carjacking Suspect

Chip DeBlock: This is an interesting one from FoxNews.com. A Boston officer is charged with manslaughter after shooting a carjacking suspect. They say video disputes what the cop is saying, but they are not showing it. That's my first red flag: if you're saying the video disputes the officer's account, why aren't you showing it?

This Boston officer is facing manslaughter charges after authorities said he shot and killed a suspected carjacker last week. This was reported by Boston 25. They say 33-year-old Officer Nicholas O'Malley of Randolph, Massachusetts, is charged with manslaughter. He was arraigned on Thursday afternoon, pleaded not guilty, and had dozens of fellow officers with him in the courtroom.

The judge presiding over the arraignment released this officer on his own recognizance, which is essentially a promise to appear in court. It came with the condition that he surrender all firearms in his possession. I don't think the judge had much choice on that condition, considering the charge, but I'm glad they are not keeping the cop in jail, especially when you're mixing him with a population of people he may have put there.

According to charging documents obtained by Boston 25, investigators determined there is probable cause to believe that Officer O'Malley committed voluntary manslaughter by intentionally firing at 39-year-old Steven King and causing his death. None of that is the contested issue. The disputed part is that they say he did so without acting in proper self-defense or defense of another.

Normally, when you use deadly force, as in this case, you have to be in fear of great bodily injury or death to yourself or someone else, and your actions need to be what a reasonable officer would do in the same exact situation. Even if an officer sincerely believed he was in fear of his life, if no reasonable officer would believe that under those circumstances, that becomes a problem.

Officers were initially responding to a reported carjacking. A woman told police she had been sitting in the passenger seat of a running car when a man, identified as King, allegedly assaulted her, dragged her out of the car, and drove off in it.

The documents state that Officer O'Malley and another officer approached the stolen car with their firearms drawn. They ordered the man to show his hands, shut the car off, and unlock the doors. King did not fully comply. He raised his hands and partially opened the window, but he did not fully cooperate. As Scott knows, that's the first question I ask myself when we have a use of force: did the suspect comply? If he did not, he is contributing to what happens next.

Authorities say that after one officer warned, “I'm going to shoot you,” King reversed into a cruiser and then shifted between reverse and drive in an apparent attempt to flee. As the vehicle moved forward, Officer O'Malley drew his firearm and fired three shots through the driver's-side window, striking King.

At least that tells us something about the officer's position at the time he fired. If he had been directly in front of the vehicle, the rounds likely would have gone through the windshield. There are exceptions: if you're on the hood of the car with your hands off to the side, you could fire through the driver's window. Normally, though, the driver's-side window tells you something about the relative positions.

After being shot, King drove a short distance and crashed into a wall. Officers pulled him from the car and attempted life-saving measures, but he died.

Investigators say Officer O'Malley later claimed the suspect “tried to run us over,” but witness accounts said neither officer was in the vehicle's path at the time of the shooting. They have video, but they are not releasing it, which makes me wonder why. O'Malley told investigators he believed his partner was about to be crushed, and authorities said that belief was not reasonable.

According to the autopsy, King was struck three times. Two bullets were recovered from his torso and another from the passenger seat. Investigators said no weapon was found in King's car. That does not matter to me; the vehicle was the weapon.

Investigators also pointed to a Massachusetts rule prohibiting officers from firing at moving vehicles unless necessary to prevent imminent harm and requiring force to be proportionate to the threat. Boston 25 reported that the Suffolk County district attorney said the video will not be publicly released due to the ongoing investigation. O'Malley is scheduled to return to court in May.

They have enough to charge him, but they say they are still investigating. I have questions. Scott, I was going to start with you, but we're coming up on a commercial break. People watching the show, think about it and type in the stream if you have questions. We're going to our first commercial break. Stick with us; we'll be right back.

Commercial Break: Galls

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Return From Break: Boston Shooting Discussion Continues

Chip DeBlock: Welcome back to LEO Round Table at LEORoundTable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I'm your host. We're joined by former Green Beret and Delta Force operative Scott.

I'm looking at the stream. Sherry Cardell is eavesdropping on us while we talk during the break. She's saying original Sugar Free Rockstar is what she likes. I didn't know Rockstar had a sugar-free version. Then we've got Corporal Paul Bogart, whom I used to work for. He said I just mentioned Richmond, Virginia, where he was with the police department for six years. I did not know that. I've been up to Richmond because my mom is from Hopewell, and I used to go up there all the time. Thanks for putting that in there, guys.

There is a little commentary from a guy named Steve Kamrick. He's one of these Facebook guys who maybe got picked on a lot as a kid. What do you think, Scott? Doesn't like cops?

Scott: I suspect he's probably had some run-ins.

Chip DeBlock: Yes, run-ins with cops. Steve, my advice is that the next time you go out in public, go up to a cop and have him protect you so you don't have to assume the fetal position in the corner of the room and embarrass yourself, your family, and everybody you're with.

That said, we just got done talking about an interesting story. I'd love to get your input, and, if you don't mind, remind the audience what we were talking about.

Scott: This officer is being charged with manslaughter for shooting a guy who was a carjacker. They say the video doesn't match up with what the cop says, but they aren't releasing the video either.

Not being a cop, I look at it like this: the guy clearly ripped an innocent woman out of her car and stole it. At that point, he is a bad guy. As far as whether he is a threat, he wasn't complying. If he had rolled down the window and done what he was told, he would be alive today. But he didn't. Then he tried to back out, ran into a police car, shoved it into drive, and took off.

Who's to say that guy doesn't squeal out of there and run into a family, a mother and her child, or run somebody else over? Then people would be saying, “Why didn't the cops stop him? He killed this family because he was fleeing from the cops.” What do you do? The guy is clearly a bad guy. He ripped a woman out of her car, stole it, and got shot. If you do that kind of stuff and you're a criminal, there is a good chance you're going to end up dead. That's just a fact of life.

Again, it's in Boston, so I'm not surprised they're going to protect the criminals. Maybe, by the letter of the law, they're interpreting every little thing. If that's the way it is, that's the way it is. Maybe it was the way the officer said it: that he was in fear because he thought the suspect was going to hit him. Under stress, who knows? The cop could have been in fear for his life; there's a lot going on there.

I feel bad for the cop. He's out there risking his life every day, going after people like this who are bad, evil people, and yet the cop is the one who gets punished for doing his job. It makes me sick.

Chip DeBlock: I have some observations on this - not from watching the video, because they won't release it. That is going to come back and bite them. No one will know, and there has to be a reason why they haven't released the video yet.

Look, if their investigation was not over, they would not be charging this guy, because there still could be evidence that proves the cop's innocence. I think it is a bunch of nonsense for them to say the investigation is ongoing and they cannot release the video, while they have completed enough of an investigation to charge the cop.

They need to hire Jamie Borden with Critical Incident Review or Bill Lewinski with Force Science. They need to get those people involved. Not releasing the video is going to come back and bite them because we have covered hundreds, if not thousands, of use-of-force cases with video components. There are many instances where, justifiably, an officer does not necessarily know where a vehicle is headed. If you are close to a car, you may not even know where the tires are pointed.

Case in point: remember the woman who was shot by ICE in Minneapolis? The officer was in front of her car, but when he crossed in front of the vehicle, he could not tell where the tires were pointed anymore. When she accelerated, another video showed he was riding on the hood or grille. She was pushing him backward when he shot. In my view, that was completely justified, and I arguably would have shot sooner. People who say it was not justified do not know what they are talking about.

It is very possible that even if the vehicle did not hit Officer O'Malley, the car could have been heading toward him. Maybe he was rightfully afraid for his partner. Maybe the suspect turned the wheels at the last moment. Maybe the wheels were pointing toward the cop and, when the cop got close, the driver turned them. There are many things that could have happened that could make a shooting justified.

Scott brings up an excellent point: if someone steals your patrol car, they're driving a 3,000- or 4,000-pound vehicle, and you may have your handgun, AR-15, shotgun, or other equipment in it. If that happens to me, I'm shooting them. I'm not letting them get away with my weaponry. Here, we aren't talking about a patrol car, but we are talking about someone who did not simply hop into an abandoned car; he allegedly dragged a woman out of it. That is a different level.

I also suspect the article may have misstated the moving-vehicle rule as a “law.” I suspect it is an internal Boston Police Department policy rather than a criminal statute. If it were a criminal law, it could be used to charge someone directly; department policy is a different matter. Either way, we are talking about criminal law here.

Commercial break, guys. Stick with us. It's getting real; we'll be right back.

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Richmond Body-Camera Footage: Woman Fires at Officers and Is Fatally Shot

Chip DeBlock: Welcome back to LEO Round Table at LEORoundTable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I'm your host. We're joined by former Green Beret and Delta Force operative Scott. We've been talking about the officer who got jammed up for taking out a carjacker. Anything else on that, Scott, before we move to the next story?

Scott: I'm ready to go to Richmond.

Chip DeBlock: Let's go to that one. We have good commentary going on. Thank you, MBS, for telling us where Go Fast Beverage is officially available. He knows a lot about energy drinks. Thank you for helping us out.

Our next story has a video component. We're going to Richmond, where our streamer Paul Bogart used to be a cop. From Rumble.com, on our favorite law-enforcement video channel, the Richmond Police Department released body-camera footage after a woman was shot and killed.

[Body-Camera Video Audio]

Officer: Get down! Get down! Get down!

Officer: 211, shots fired! 211, shots fired!

Officer: Right here. I got it. You see her?

Chip DeBlock: This is pretty wild, the way it goes down. The Richmond Police Department released body-camera footage of the events leading up to a police officer fatally shooting a woman earlier in May. It happened on Thursday, May 7, at the Belt Atlantic apartment complex. Jasmine Wood-Mitchell, 31 years old, was killed.

According to Crime Insider sources, Wood-Mitchell was the mother of two. She had reportedly lost the father of one of her children the day before the shooting, implying that she was distraught, which is understandable.

Officers were dispatched to the complex at 6:47 p.m. Two 911 callers reported hearing shots fired in the complex. The first caller believed Wood-Mitchell shot herself inside her apartment. The second caller, who called after police arrived on scene, reported that a woman was outside shooting.

Body-camera video shows officers confirming that they heard a gunshot at about the same time as the second caller. Officers told dispatch that multiple people were running around the complex. They approached the building where Wood-Mitchell was located on an upper floor.

As officers started going up the stairs, a woman coming down the stairs walked by an officer. As the officer's head became visible on the upper level, the shooter began firing in the officer's direction. The officer yelled, “Drop the gun!” and returned fire. She went down. Another officer came up on the other side and told her not to move before reporting that they had someone down.

They recovered a firearm at about 6:54 p.m. Officers then entered the apartment she had reportedly been shooting at. She was ultimately pronounced dead. The report did not say what officers found inside the apartment she had been shooting toward. Scott?

Scott, I never do this during the show, but I have to walk away. I'm smelling something in my house, and I need to check what it is. I'm going to let you take it over from here, and I will be right back.

Scott: Okay. Hopefully the house isn't on fire.

That was pretty scary for the cop. He's very, very lucky. When they finally showed what was probably a Ring camera or similar camera, the officer was well within view of the shooter, probably exposed from the torso up. It sounded like she got three or four shots off. It's unbelievable that she missed.

It reminds me of the movie Pulp Fiction, with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, when the guy comes out of the other room and shoots all around them, and they look at each other as though they cannot believe he missed every time.

The cop is extremely lucky. When you look at the footage from the other camera, it appears evident that he was exposed. At first I didn't see that, but from the other angle it was clear. Kudos to him: as soon as he became aware of the threat, he was on target. He did not retreat down the stairs; he turned around and engaged the target. That's why it worked out. He was lucky, but that is how it is done.

I can imagine some officers panicking or running away, and then who knows what would happen. She was obviously distraught. I understand that losing someone close to you is devastating, but when I'm distraught, I do not think about grabbing a gun and shooting at people. Everybody may have their own way of dealing with grief, but that does not excuse what happened.

At least they stopped her before she did serious harm to anyone else. There is a child involved, obviously, and that is terrible. I don't know why she was shooting into that apartment, but at least they did not find anyone dead inside, based on what we have been told.

Chip DeBlock: For full transparency, my garage is being worked on. They're doing new flooring. They've put everything down, and now they're applying a lacquer or top coat. The fumes are ridiculous right now. I'm all the way at the back side of my house, but I have a parrot in a cage, and, as people know, parrots are very susceptible to things like this. I had to make sure my parrot was okay and tell these guys to keep the doors closed. When the show is over, I'm moving the parrot outside, but I think we're good.

Scott: He is probably going to get a contact buzz and be out there talking up a storm.

Chip DeBlock: You know about canaries in the mines. With parrots, you cannot even cook with Teflon in the house; it can kill them. It is serious stuff.

Former DOJ Prosecutor Accused of Concealing Restricted Trump-Report Material as Recipe Files

Chip DeBlock: Moving along, we have another story, and this is the “Recipe for Trouble” story. From the Tampa Free Press: a former DOJ prosecutor allegedly tried to hide a secret Trump report as a Bundt cake recipe.

A former federal prosecutor is in hot water after allegedly emailing herself a restricted volume of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Donald Trump. Her name is Carmen Lineberger, 62 years old. She pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in a Florida federal court to four charges involving the theft and concealment of government records. She was also allowed to leave without paying bail, according to court documents.

Lineberger used to be a supervisor at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Fort Pierce, Florida. According to the indictment, she received the restricted report by email last year and then forwarded it, along with an internal DOJ message, to her personal Hotmail and Gmail accounts.

The document she allegedly took was significant. A U.S. district judge had reportedly prohibited the public from seeing this specific part of Jack Smith's report. It dealt with the investigation involving classified documents found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

To hide what she was doing, the indictment says Lineberger renamed the government files “chocolate cake recipe.pdf” and “Bundt cake recipe.pdf” before sending them to her personal email. She was allegedly actively trying to disguise what she was doing.

She faces one felony count of obstruction of justice, another count involving concealment of government records, and two misdemeanor counts of stealing government property worth under $1,000. The potential penalty discussed in the report is up to 25 years in prison, although people often receive less than the maximum. What do you think about this one, Scott?

Scott: Didn't they say they did not release what was in the documents, or that someone said it was extremely sensitive or damaging? I would be very curious about what was in the documents.

Everybody is wondering why. What was she doing with them? Was she going to sell them? Was she working for somebody else? I don't know. It is interesting. We probably will never know, but now that they found this, they're probably going to start looking deeper into her messages, her computers, and who she has been in contact with.

You don't take something like this just to put it up on the wall like a painting and look at it when you're old. There was probably a reason. She could have been working for somebody, she could have planned to sell it, or maybe she already sent a copy somewhere. I would be curious to see what they find through computer forensics on her phone and devices, and whether they trace her steps. I hope they do that. I think there is more to it.

Chip DeBlock: Maybe you're right. Guys, we're coming up on our third commercial break. Stick with us; we'll be right back.

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Dash-Camera Video: Fatal Thruway Crash Involving Off-Duty NYPD Officer

Chip DeBlock: Welcome back to LEO Round Table at LEORoundTable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I'm your host. We're joined by former Green Beret and Delta Force operative Scott. We've got some great topics.

Scott, are you ready to move on to the NYPD story? We have some videos, and if you want to get anything out of order, just let me know. We have a little over nine minutes left, but this is the one involving the off-duty NYPD officer getting onto the Thruway.

From Rumble.com, on a law-enforcement video channel, dash-camera video shows a fatal Thruway crash involving an off-duty NYPD officer. It is a sad story, but it lets you know that you have to be aware of your surroundings. I'm not saying this could have been avoided, because I just do not know. In hindsight, you think somebody could have done something differently, but, in my opinion, this is really the fault of the man who was hit.

Footage relating to the death of Bravo Nondo, 45 years old, of Albany, who was struck and killed on Thursday, December 18, 2025, was released on Wednesday, May 20, by Attorney General Letitia James and the Office of Special Investigation.

According to the attorney general's office, the crash happened at 4:40 in the morning. Think about that for a second. It is early; the sun is not coming up yet; it is pitch-black outside. An off-duty NYPD officer, whose name has not been released, is driving his personal car and merging southbound onto the Thruway at Exit 14. He is picking up speed.

You're watching the dash-camera view from the officer's car. He is accelerating, but it is dark and hard to make things out. There is a vehicle stopped in front of him in his lane with its hazard lights on. To the right of it, there appears to be an emergency lane. Why the car is not stopped in the emergency lane, I do not know. It is stopped in the middle of traffic, in an acceleration lane. Anybody in that lane is accelerating and looking around to make sure they can merge into traffic; they are not necessarily focusing every second of their attention directly in front of them.

The off-duty officer is accelerating, sees the vehicle stopped in front of him, and decides he has to go around it. He chooses to go to the right, through what appears to be an emergency lane between the wall and the stopped vehicle. Right when he goes around the right side at a high rate of speed, you see a man running from the parked car, trying to make it across the lane to the shoulder. He does not make it and is struck. The man died, probably instantly. Scott?

Scott: It's tragic. You're right; there is not much to say about that. I probably would have done the same thing, because when you're trying to merge, you're looking ahead, but you're also looking to the side and in your mirror. You're going to lose focus on what is directly in front of you for a second here and a second there.

With it being dark, even in the video I was wondering what was going on. It was just perfect timing in the worst possible way: extremely bad luck for the man who was struck. But it makes you wonder what he was thinking when he stopped there. Cars usually do not stop instantly. I assume he had time to move the vehicle a little farther to the right. All he had to do was get into that emergency lane, and this probably never would have happened.

You do not stop in the middle of a highway or an on-ramp to a highway, especially at night. It is unfortunate.

Chip DeBlock: A lot of cops are good at judging this because we do a lot of high-speed driving training: judging how fast a car traveling at a certain rate of speed can get to you. This man was obviously a poor judge of that.

If you stop on an interstate, even when you think you see a clear path and see cars coming, if you do not have the capacity to judge their speed, you have to be careful. If a car is moving at 60 or 70 miles per hour - and the speed limits can be faster than that on these Thruways - that car can be on you in one second or less. He tried; he was running. It is tragic.

Tennessee Man Receives Settlement After Jailing Over Facebook Meme

Chip DeBlock: Our next options include the sheriff who did not want to work with ICE and ended up getting replaced, the officer justified in a deadly Greensboro shooting, and the Tennessee man put in jail for 37 days over a Charlie Kirk comment. Let's cover that one. It is interesting.

From FoxNews.com: a Tennessee man jailed for 37 days over a Facebook meme mocking Charlie Kirk's death ended up winning an $850,000 settlement. I'll start by saying I think the guy is trash for mocking Charlie Kirk's death. I don't agree with that. But there are things that happened to him in this case that I don't agree with either, and I'm curious about Scott's opinion.

A Tennessee man who was jailed for more than a month after refusing to take down a Facebook meme poking fun at the assassination of Charlie Kirk will be paid $850,000 as part of a settlement with officials. His name is Larry Bushart, 61 years old, a retired police officer. He spent 37 days behind bars under a $2 million bond before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October.

That tells me a few things. First, he refused to take down the post. He could have taken it down and avoided this, but he was making a point or a statement. Second, they gave him a $2 million bond. They clearly did not want to make it easy for him to get out; they were obviously angry.

While in jail, he lost his post-retirement job. He missed both his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter. I know it could have been avoided if he had taken the meme down. I know he did not feel he had to and was making a point. But those were things he could have been present for if he had really wanted to avoid the fight.

Sheriff Nick Weems and the investigator who obtained the arrest warrant were also sued. Bushart said in a statement announcing the settlement, provided by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as FIRE, that he was pleased his First Amendment rights had been vindicated. He said the people's freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy and that he looked forward to moving on and spending time with his family. I agree with that principle.

Fox News Digital reached out to Perry County Mayor John Carroll for comment, but the transcript does not include any comment from him.

Bushart was arrested in September after refusing to remove a Facebook meme that joked about Kirk being killed while speaking to college students in Utah. The meme featured an image of President Donald Trump with the words, “We have to get over it,” and Bushart wrote, “Seems relevant today.”

The meme originated in 2024 in reference to the Perry High School shooting. Some people took it out of context. Trump had made a statement about needing to get past the incident, but it was not, as discussed here, intended in the derogatory manner in which the meme later used it.

The arrest was based on the notion, according to the article, that the meme could be interpreted as a threat against Perry County High School in Tennessee. FIRE noted that Bushart did not create or alter the meme; it already existed, and he reposted it. That's the essence of it. Scott?

Scott: I agree with you. I think the guy is trash for doing that and for posting that meme. But it is his right. He absolutely has the right to do that.

When you start going down the road of punishing someone for saying something you disagree with, that's a tactic you typically see from the woke side or the left: if you say something they disagree with, they shame you, put you in jail, or try to sue you. I think authorities were absolutely wrong to put him in jail.

It worked out well for him in the end. He now has a chunk of money, and I hope he has a good retirement. I hope the law enforcement agency there learned a lesson, because that is wrong. It is a very far stretch to say the post endangered children or instigated another school threat. The man had every right to say it. It was in poor taste and he may be a jerk, but it was his right.

Chip DeBlock: I know we're running out of time and we're wrapping it up, but there is a difference between firing somebody and putting him in a jail cell. This guy is in his sixties. It does not say he was a cop on his way down; it says he was a former cop. Firing him had consequences, but throwing someone in jail over a meme like that is really uncalled for.

Scott, it was great having you on the show. You added some great insight, so thank you so much.

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