Last year an Exodus fan named 31-year old James Evans was arrested for posting violent lyrics from the band to his Facebook. Ultimately the case was dismissed in October despite Evans spending a little time in custody, because you can't just go around arresting people for what they say and the whole thing seemed to have blown over! Evans was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at the time, which is why the organization is now suing the Greenville, Kentucky police department on Evans' behalf.
So says ACLU of Kentucky cooperating attorney Brenda Popplewell to Blabbermouth.
"This case is not only about Mr. Evans' right to engage in non-threatening speech online, but also his right to be free from unlawful police tactics in securing his arrest and prosecution for a crime he did not commit." She added, "We look forward to representing Mr. Evans in this case, and we hope that by doing so we will not only vindicate his rights but help ensure that others' rights are protected in the future."
Even Exodus guitarist Gary Holt calls bullshit on this one!
"It goes to show you that we live in a very paranoid society, and in a lot of ways rightly so, because of so many tragedies — non-stop shootings and such. But my problem with James Evans being arrested primarily lies in the fact that it would've taken, like, 20 minutes of research to realize that this guy was not a threat. He wasn't a depressed 17-year-old posting diatribe after diatribe on Facebook about how bad he hates his school and hates his classmates and then the posted lyrics, and I'd see it. He's a 30-year-old man, and I bet if you searched his Facebook page, you'd find nothing but other metal references and typical Facebook stuff. It does show you that the written word can be frightening to some."
Again, I get that today we're a little touchy about violent lyrics being spewed onto social media. That's fine. Who knows what kind of nutjobs are out there? Yet at the same time, you can't just run around jailing people because they said something off color online… that's fucking ridiculous.
So we'll see how well this goes for the police, but I highly doubt they're winning this one.
