Georgia
Critics accuse Georgia sheriff of silencing them on social media in lawsuit
Three Georgia residents are accusing Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens of violating their free speech rights, alleging in a lawsuit that he silenced their critical opinions on Facebook following a viral incident in which he called deputies to a Burger King over a botched order.
The legal filing in U.S. District Court lists David Cavender – a Republican who unsuccessfully ran against Owens for the sheriff position this election season – as one of the plaintiffs.
“Defendant Craig Owens was displeased that certain persons, including the Plaintiffs, were publicly criticizing his performance as the Sheriff of Cobb County, Georgia,” the lawsuit says. “Instead of upholding the First Amendment and stomaching speech he found personally distasteful, Owens decided instead to utilize the powers of his office to censor the speech of Plaintiffs, and others, based on viewpoint.”
An attorney wrote that in October, in the weeks leading up to Election Day, a video that emerged of “Owens utilizing Cobb County Sheriff deputies to intercede in a personal dispute with Burger King employees became viral” and that the plaintiffs “had been leveling harsh criticism against Owens” over it and other matters.
GEORGIA SHERIFF CALLS DEPUTIES FOR HELP AFTER BECOMING UPSET THAT BURGER KING GOT HIS ORDER WRONG
READ THE FILING BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE
In that March 2023 incident, three deputies were dispatched to the fast-food restaurant in Mableton with sirens blaring.
“Hey, do me a favor. I need to get, all I need is the owner name of whoever owns this damn facility or the manager,” Owens is heard telling one deputy who showed up on scene.
“I wanted her [to get his female passenger] a Whopper, no mayo, cut in half, right?” he continued.
The sheriff added: “I don’t need no damn money back no more. I just need to find out who owns this place so I can do an official complaint.”
The lawsuit says on Oct. 29 of this year, Owens put in place “sweeping restrictions” over who can post comments on the Cobb County Sheriff Office’s Facebook page.
EX-GEORGIA POLL WORKER INDICTED FOR MAILING BOMB THREAT TO POLLING PLACE: FBI
Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens called his deputies to the Burger King on Veterans Memorial Highway in Mableton on March 4, 2023. (Cobb County Sheriff’s Office)
“On information and belief, these restrictions were put in place because of the viewpoint of commenters’ posts grew increasingly critical of Owens and his performance as Sheriff; in other words Owens put the restrictions in place to prevent the expression of a viewpoint,” the lawsuit says, adding that some of the posts made by the plaintiffs were deleted or hidden by the Sheriff’s Office Facebook account.
The Sheriff’s Office then wrote on Nov. 1 that it is “committed to providing a safe and respectful space on our social media channels.
“To keep our posts focused on community safety updates and educational info, we’ve turned off the comments feature,” it added.
The lawsuit is asking a judge to “declare the actions of Defendant Owens… to be view-point based restrictions in violation of the First Amendment”, prohibit his “unlawful practice of retaliatory censorship” and to prevent him “from deleting comments, blocking posters, or restricting commenters to those who are friends or referenced within posts,” among other damages.
The lawsuit against Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens states the plaintiffs posted critical comments of him online following an incident involving the sheriff at a Burger King in Georgia last year. (Getty Images)
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Both the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office and the law firm that filed the lawsuit did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.
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Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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