A hearing-impaired Georgia woman has won a $100,000
lawsuit after police arrested her for swearing.
Cobb County police arrested Amy Barnes (above) in 2012 after
she cursed and made crude gestures at officers while riding her bike.
The cops were in the process of questioning a man outside a convenience store as
Barnes rode past, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
"They came after me like it was some action movie," Barnes told WSB.
Police arrested her on disorderly conduct charges
and put her in jail for 23 hours.
Barnes said police told her that they put her in
solitary confinement for six of those hours because she was hearing impaired.
A judge dismissed the charges against Barnes in
2013. She sued the county, claiming her First Amendment rights were violated.
A judge found that Barnes didn't pose a threat to
the officers as she cursed at them and rode by.
"The defendant’s statements, although offensive
to this court, clearly constitute political speech,” Judge Melodie Clayton
wrote in her acquittal of Barnes.
“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the
First Amendment, it is that government may not prohibit the expression of an
idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.
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