it literally says all in capital letters I eat it's it's about five to six inch letters bold capitalized in white letters on the back window it takes a it's as big as this third brake light in May of 2019 Florida man Dylan Shane Webb was pulled over by Columbia County Sheriff's deputy Travis English who objected to the sticker on the back window of Webb's truck which said in all capital letters I eat ass Deputy English ordered web to remove one of the letters during the traffic stop Webb refused deciding his first amendment rights but he was arrested and booked in jail for obscene writing on vehicle and resisting an officer without violence did Webb have a First Amendment right to have that sticker was the arrest unconstitutional what happened to the criminal charges was there a lawsuit if so was it successful you might be surprised as someone out there in the public is a content creator and a lawyer I want to make sure that my personal information isn't out there floating around on the web if you didn't know your personal information is being bought and sold online privacy has always been a concern for me which is why I now use incogni who is today's sponsor you know the other day my personal cell phone rings and I answered it and it's just some stranger I asked how he got my phone number Bernie said he found it online along with a lot more information such as my home address and information about my relatives another time I signed up for a store loyalty card and then a few days later started receiving spam in my mailbox and spam phone calls after signing up for incogni I discovered that there were 78 data Brokers that potentially had my private information I had never heard of most of these companies but they had definitely heard of me and cogni forces these companies to delete your data there are laws that allow you to do this but if you want to do it yourself you'd have to figure out the applicable laws write letters in a specific legal way and follow up to make sure that your instructions are followed even if you had the legal expertise like I do it would be incredibly time consuming but incogni handles this for you the same day I signed up incogni had already gotten my private details removed from three of these data Brokers with 71 more in progress and I didn't have to do anything after signing up so check out incogni using the link below or go to income agni.com civil to get an exclusive sixty percent off an annual incognity plan again check out incogna using the link below or go to incogni.com civil to get an exclusive 60 off an annual incognitive plan now back to the video on May 5th of 2019 Dylan was driving his vehicle in Columbia County Florida Deputy English pulled up behind him at a stoplight and noticed the sticker the deputy testified that he stopped Webb's vehicle because he believed that the sticker was obscene in violation of Florida statutes section 847.011 10 26. I'm pretty pulling into Columbia glass tent come on gentlemen my name is Deputy English hey man reason I'm pulling you over zero derogatory sticker on the back of your truck what is that how's it not derogatory it's words okay what does those words mean I eat ass okay so something you're a little kid sitting in the passenger seat of his mama's vehicle looks over and reads at IE asked and asks mom what it means how is she gonna explain that okay let me see your driver's license on your registration so you got ID on you also yeah anything illegal inside the vehicle sir any drugs guns are knives large amounts US currency dead bodies and Hand Grenades all right hang tight for me after speaking with Webb Deputy English returned to his Patrol vehicle to run Webb's information when he returned to Webb's vehicle Deputy English asked Webb to step out and consent to a pat down search of his person Webb consented and Deputy English performed the pat down search Deputy English then explained his reason for the traffic stop and issued Webb a notice to appear in court which Webb signs Mr Webb step out of your vehicle please do you have any weapons on you step out can I attack you for weapons is there a problem what's that is there a problem with everything is there a problem yeah I'm going to explain it to you step back here 's your driver's license back here's your buddy's ID back all right did you prove your insurance and your registration okay listen to me what you have on the back of your window okay is a misdemeanor in the State of Florida okay I have four kids a 14 year old a 10 year old a six-year-old and a four month old if my six-year-old was to look at me and like Dad what does IE ass mean okay I'll be furious all right and the way that we handle this situation okay I'm not pleased with so what I did is I issued you a court date all right so you can go explain it to the Columbia County Court System okay all right so what I need you to do I need you to sign right here all right this isn't saying that you're guilty is just saying the fact that I gave you a copy of your notice to appear okay you're gonna have a court date it's gonna be on May 23rd at 8 o'clock Monday Deputy English then directed Webb to remove one of the letters from the sticker so that it would no longer be obscene in his opinion Webb refused citing the right to free speech under the First Amendment I'm going to have you uh take off one of those letters so that the word you're not refreshing My First Amendment right you're not doing that I'm gonna need a copy your uh prior to making the arrest Deputy English returned to his Patrol vehicle and called his supervisor Corporal Chad Kirby with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office the two then discussed section 847.011 and weather Webb's sticker violated the obscenity law hey so I pull this Mr Dylan Webb over because he has a statement on the back of his trouble says I.E ass okay it's a misdemeanor in the State of Florida all right I issue him a notice to appear I asked them to take one of the letters off so that it is no longer derogatory and he is refusing is that not resisting I'm charging him with obscene writing on a vehicle it says except it has provided in paragraph one Charlie a person who knowingly has in his or her possession custody or control any obscene book magazine periodical pamphlet newspaper comic book story paper written or printed story or article writing paper card picture drawing photograph Motion Picture film film any sticker decal emblem or other device attached to a motor vehicle containing obscene descriptions photographed or depictions any figure image photograph record wire tape recording any written character goes on goes on goes on goes on or any or perpetrating to be for an obscene use or purpose without the intent to sell Lynn give away distribute transmit show transmute or advertise the same commits a misdemeanor of the second degree oh it's a it's a misdemeanor like there's it's in the the um quick reference guide but it's not a citation like when you go to issue a citation board it won't let you issue a citation so I did um 847 .011 subsection two it literally says all in capital letters I eat like covering the entire windshield is it small it's it's about five to six inch letters bold capitalized in white letters on the back window it takes a it's as big as the third brake light yeah already I already got the pictures okay and then and then what do I do for the noticeable period do I just change it to a one affidavit and then request yeah well I haven't transmitted it yet so I'm saying change section 847.0112 makes it a misdemeanor offense to possess quote any sticker decal emblem or other device attached to a motor vehicle containing obscene descriptions photographs or depictions Florida law further defines obscene as material which a the average person applying contemporary standards would find taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest which means sort of sexual interest depicts or describes an a patently offensive way sexual conduct as specifically defined herein and C taken as a whole lacks serious literary artistic political or scientific value that's Florida statute 847.001 subsection 10 and that basically tracks Supreme Court case law the two also discussed whether Webb's refusal to remove one of the letters from the sticker constituted a separate offense of resisting without violence under Florida law under section 843.02 of the Florida Statutes whoever shall resist obstruct or oppose any officer in the lawful execution of any legal Duty without offering or doing violence to the person of the officer shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree the conversation between Deputy English and Corporal Kirby ended an agreement that the proper course of action was to arrest Shane Webb and tow his vehicle Deputy English then arrested Webb and placed him in the patrol vehicle he then performed a search of the vehicle which revealed no contraband foreign because I gave you the option to take that off your window okay that is a violation of a Florida State Statute and it is a misdemeanor okay and then I asked you to take it off and you refuse to step back here nope you're gonna step back here let's see is there anything illegal inside the vehicle okay I am searching it because I'm towing it get inside the vehicle a tow truck removed the vehicle from the scene and towed it a short distance away to a parking lot where Webb's mother Corporal Kirby and the tow truck driver resolved to have the vehicle released to her for 225 dollars okay your son's um so he has these obscene words on the back of his truck that says i-e-s okay I wrote him a notice to appear so that he could go explain it to a judge okay I gave him the opportunity to remove one of the letters so that it was no longer obscene okay he refused and whenever I asked him to do it he was resisting and so he's getting um charged with obscene riding on a vehicle and resisting meanwhile Deputy English transported Webb to the Columbia County Detention Facility where he was processed and strip searched he was incarcerated for a little more than an hour and forced to pay 250 dollars to a bail bondsman and a 15 jail fee the state attorney's office for the third judicial circuit ultimately determined that Webb had a valid defense to the charges under the First Amendment and as such dropped both charges against him on August 21st of 2019 Webb filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the individual officers involved in the arrest but on September 23rd of 2021 the federal court issued a memorandum opinion granting qualified immunity to the officers why well if the sticker depicted a sexual act it would be protected under the First Amendment only if it has serious literary artistic political or scientific value that's Miller versus California from 1973. however in such an instance Deputy English and Corporal Kirby had to make a valued judgment on the spot of whether the sticker had such serious literary artistic political or scientific value when they decided whether or not to arrest wet here Deputy English and Corporal Kirby's determination that the sticker lacked such serious value under Florida law was not inherently unreasonable under the circumstances the Court held as such the court found that reasonable officers in the same circumstances and with the same knowledge as English and Kirby had at the time could believe that web sticker was obscene making it an arrestable offense under Florida law 847.011 then because the court found that Webb's arrest was arguably Justified under Florida's obscenity law the court did not need to separately address whether the arrest for resisting without violence was unconstitutional since arguable probable cause for any offense would borrow Webb's false arrest claim on all charges likewise qualified immunity was granted on the First Amendment retaliation claim because there was no Supreme Court or 11th circuit case that was analogous to this one in the facts there are some other cases out there with swear words being protected under the force under the First Amendment but none where the allegation pertained to Words which were arguably sexual in nature like this one which the plaintiff did admit at several times during his interview there was a 2019 Supreme Court case that could have saved this lawsuit on the grounds that the cops don't normally arrest people for the obscene sticker statute and they just did so here because they were retaliating against Webb's protected speech however the judge in this case held that that case was too recent to the web incident and that therefore that holding wasn't clearly established under the law so qualified immunity was granted so the answer is no we know for a fact having essentially time traveled that the lawsuit was not successful and that the police officers were granted qualified immunity however that doesn't mean that if they did it again that the results would be the same just because qualified immunity was granted does not mean that the first amendment was not violated it just means that there was not a prior sufficiently similar case before this one occurred the prosecutors were right that there was a successful First Amendment defense to prosecution but that's not the same thing as a successful lawsuit because of the judicial activism that is the doctrine of qualified immunity but if you're in Florida and you really want an ie ass sticker on your truck you may get a different result now in 2023 since the right to do so may now be clearly established at least a judge could find maybe who knows as always thanks for watching please subscribe we're almost over 400 000 subscribers and I really appreciate it also follow me on the blog at the civil rights lawyer.com as well as the other social media sites all Linked In the description remember Deputy English freedom is scary sometimes there's lawful stuff out there that you don't want your kid to see deal with it just like the rest of us who do not get to arrest people for seeing things that offend us foreign