"Fuck Trump" Truck Decal

Overview

"Fuck Trump" Truck Decal refers to a sticker on a Texas woman's truck that reads "Fuck Trump and fuck you if you voted for him," referring to President Donald Trump. The sticker went viral after a local sheriff posted about the truck on Facebook, saying he had received numerous calls about it and that his county prosecutor was prepared to file disorderly conduct charges. This led to a debate about free speech and caused the American Civil Liberties Union to offer defense for the driver.

History

On November 15th, 2017, Fort Bend County Sherriff Troy E. Nehls took to Facebook with a censored picture of a truck's sticker that read "Fuck Trump and fuck you if you voted for him." In the message accompanying the picture, Nehls said he had received multiple calls about the truck and that while his prosecutor was willing to accept disorderly conduct charges, he offered to talk to the owner and "come to an agreement" on a modification of the sticker. The post has since been deleted (screenshot shown below). Houston Chronicle first reported the story.^[1]

Developments

The woman was identified as Karen Fonseca, who coincidentally was a former employee of Nehls.^[2] Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, Fonseca stated that the sticker is "not to cause hate or animosity… It's just our freedom of speech and we're exercising it." District Attorney John Healy and the ACLU of Texas disagreed with Nehls' prosecutor's assessment that it could be a worth a disorderly conduct charge. The ACLU of Texas^[3] posted a screenshot of Constitutional Law saying profane and indecent language was constitutionally protected, citing Cohen vs. California where the Supreme Court overturned a conviction of a man charged with disorderly conduct for wearing a jacket that said "Fuck the Draft" (shown below).

The story gained national coverage, with stories written about the incident appearing in Vice,^[4] The Root,^[5] Uproxx,^[6] and more.

On the afternoon of November 16th, the sheriff's office released a statement updating the matter, which read:

"The Sheriff made the post on his Personal page. The objective of the post was to find the owner/driver of the truck and have a conversation with them in order to prevent a potential altercation between the truck driver and those offended by the message. Since the owner of the truck has been identified, the Sheriff took down the post. Due to the hate messages he has been receiving towards his wife and children, the Sheriff will not be commenting on the matter further."

The same afternoon, Fonseca was arrested into the Fort Bend County Jail for a separate fraud charge. As of November 17th, 2017, she is out on bond.^[2]

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