Lake City (WTFF) – A man defending his First Amendment right was arrested Sunday afternoon for a sticker on his truck’s window that one deputy alleged violates a state obscenity law.
23-year-old Dillon Shane Webb faces charges of possession of obscene material, a first-degree misdemeanor, and resisting arrest, also a first-degree misdemeanor, after he refused to remove a sticker on his rear window, according to the Lake City Reporter.
The sticker read, “I eat ass.”
The arresting deputy spotted it on Webb’s brown Chevrolet truck that was traveling west on U.S. Hwy 90.
Webb was pulled over and told the deputy they were “just words.”
The deputy said they violate Florida Statute 847.011, and asked how “a parent of a small child would explain the meaning of the words.”
Webb replied that it would be “up to the parent.”
The deputy issued a notice to appear at the Columbia County Courthouse on May 23, and then asked him to remove one of the letters from the word “ass” so the statement would “no longer be derogatory.”
Webb refused to remove the sticker, on account of his First Amendment right to free speech.
That’s when he was detained and placed into a patrol car.
He was taken to the Columbia County Detention Facility where he was charged with “obscene writing on vehicles and resisting an officer without violence.”
He later bonded out for $2,500.
Webb was interviewed by the New York Post, where he stated:
“I’ve got to fight for free speech. It needs to be kept alive for a reason.”
He said he doesn’t actually dine on the derriere, but is willing to face jail time to protect those who choose to say they do.
“It was the fact that I was standing up for what everybody back in the day fought for — that freedom,” Webb told The Post.
Webb and his friends have been driving around for a week or so, each with a decal spelling the same three words.
“It was part of me and my friends’ group,” Webb said. “We just point and laugh and take pictures and so does everyone else, besides a couple sour apples.”
He plans to drive to his next court appearance on May 21 with the decal intact, saying, “I’d be a fool not to.”
Charges Dropped
On Thursday, the State Attorney’s Office in Columbia County filed court documents saying it won’t prosecute 23-year-old Dillon Shane Webb. (WPTV)
We Floridians stand in solidarity with Dillon Webb:
Maybe he eats Rump Roast
[…] Floridian Arrested for ‘Derogatory’ Sticker on Truck […]
I think there has to be limits set in anything. This fool is showing his ass by driving around with that displayed on the truck like this. Is he gay? One could reasonably Wonder now couldn’t they? I for one don’t want to stifle anyone if the act is reasonable or has a shred of merit but I am sorry, enough is enough already! This is a purely pointless act of blatant stupidity and I do not defend his right to make a mockery out of our rights, many great hero’s fought and died for. In other words grow up and find a cause that has a shred of merit and push it to your hearts delight but not this stupidity!
Free speech gives you the right to voice your opinion without fear of incarceration, such as political opinion, religious opinion etc.. Free speech does not mean you can just say or write anything you want without the fear of persecution. Before one tries to prove this point by riding around with profanity on their vehicle, you might want to, at minimum, check the laws in your city. People really need to educate themselves on the true meaning of the freedoms this country provides and stop trying to prove points with things that end up taking us 10 steps back and provide fuel for the nay sayers.
Really sad that some people here posted that. This person has the right to drive around with this sticker. Or that the government should not tell us what to do. Sad day when people stick up for this moron.
Reading through the comments, you all can’t say you believe in free speech. Free speech should not have limits. Just because you don’t like what a person says or writes, no matter the surface it’s on, it should be allowed. When you start giving up one right the rest will fall. Look at Venezuela. That’s total socialist government control. Wake up now before it’s too late.
It should not be up to police officers to determine what is obscene speech; nor should obscene speech be censored because that is a slippery slope when the government starts telling you their imposed limits on the 2nd amendment. I would be OK with it if they also applied it to pornography-but they don’t, instead they acquiesced to the perverts who put out that trash and state that they have a right to free speech therefore their pornographic perversion is permitted by the Second Amendment. You can’t have it both ways-you can’t censor some people for innocuous speech yet allow a billion dollar industry to thrive on degradation of women and children. We should have a right to put anything we want to on our own private vehicles, but whether doing so is a good idea may be another question. Give the government an inch and they will take a mile and your freedom with it!
There are certainly more appropriate ways to express one’s commitment to the First Amendment; a way that will gain people’s respect and not their disdain.
I don’t think the first amendment was meant to protect obscene speech, but political speech. Seems kind of simple.
PLEASE have him wear the decal on his prison jumpsuit. He’ll have a completely different opinion on posting his habits on his window from then on.
Too bad there are idiots like this who live in our country. I do believe in free speech but there is a time and a place to do it. A car where children can see it, is not the place. Anyone with 1/2 a brain could understand that. This person is a jerk.