Meet Dillon Shane Webb of Lake City, Florida. Mr. Webb evidently likes to “eat ass”. How do I know? He had a sticker on his truck declaring it to the masses. The 23 year old man was recently driving through Columbia County when he was pulled over by a cop, who spotted the sticker on Webb’s rear window. The police officer believed Mr. Webb had violated Florida’s Statute 847.011, which prohibits the possession of obscene or lewd material, including drawings, pictures, or any other written or printed matter.

The deputy asked Mr. Webb how a parent of a small child should explain the concept of “ass eating” to their offspring. Webb said that it would be up to the parents. He also stated that the words were just a bunch of letters. The police officer then cited Webb for obscenity and gave him a paper ordering him to appear in court. He then asked Webb to remove one of the letters so that the sticker would no longer be “obscene”.

Webb refused to remove any letters, citing his First Amendment rights. The cop responded by arresting Webb and charging him with resisting arrest without violence and possession of obscene materials. He was later released on a $2500 bond. Webb was supposed to appear in court to answer the charges on May 23, but the charges were dropped. Why? Because Webb was correct about his sticker being protected under the First Amendment– right to free speech.

Edited to add: I just read in another account of this story that after the deputy bitched out Webb for his “derogatory” sticker, his colleagues can be heard on the dashcam footage saying that they should “tow his shit”. So not only were they ignorant of the law, they were also massive hypocrites!

Now, it looks like Webb will be suing Columbia County’s Sheriff’s Office. Webb’s lawyer tweeted to Anne Shindler of First Coast News, “Now we transition from defense to offense. The First Amendment was our defense. What is Sheriff Hunter’s defense? We will find out!” 

This is not the first story I’ve read or posted about people driving vehicles with “obscene” messages on them. In fact, just a few days ago, we had a lively discussion on my personal Facebook page about a truck covered with “obscene” things said by Donald Trump. If the U.S. President can’t keep his language clean, particularly when he’s talking about women, why should we expect regular guys like Dillon Webb to keep “dirty” stickers off his truck? I think we’re now living in a less genteel world anyway. It would be nice if everyone kept their language out of the gutter, but that’s not going to happen. Moreover, it’s absurd to ban certain bumper stickers simply because a child might see them. Eventually, most children will hear all of that stuff, anyway.

Now… does this mean I think Mr. Webb is a smart guy? No, it doesn’t. I mean, I can definitely empathize with his viewpoint and he’s probably being truthful when he says the police officer was “rude” and just wanting to arrest him. I just don’t think it’s particularly smart to be driving around with a sticker that reads “I eat ass.” It seems like the type of people who put this sort of thing on their vehicles are almost always truck drivers, too. But as an American, he does have the right to free speech. At least for the time being.