How Defamation Suits Are Used to Stifle Free Speech
Tags U.S. History
06/07/2021Ryan McMaken
The average American can be forgiven for assuming that he or she can freely criticize the government and government personnel without fear of being sued by the government for libel or slander. This is indeed true most of the time. But it doesn't mean that government agents with hurt feelings won't sometimes try suing private citizens who have the temerity to criticize how government bureaucrats do their jobs. Such was the case earlier this spring when Louisville Metro Police officer Cory Evans filed a lawsuit against the "DUI Guy"—an attorney named Larry Forman who has a YouTube channel—for defamation after Forman accused Evans of planting evidence.
As Louisville’s WDRB reports:
Forman posted body camera footage to his YouTube channel from a 2018 incident where LMPD Officer Cory Evans searched a man's vehicle following a suspected DUI. The video depicts officer Evans and another unidentified officer searching the vehicle for alcohol. Evans looks in the center console without finding anything, but the video jumps forward to the view of the other officer, who opens the console and finds a bottle of liquor minutes later.
https://mises.org/wire/how-defamation-suits-are-used-stifle-free-speech
