A Texas woman has found herself at the center of a free speech debate thanks to an anti-Trump decal on the back of her pickup truck. Photos of the truck went viral when they were posted to Facebook on Wednesday by Fort Bend County, Texas Sheriff Troy Nehls, who wrote that he had received numerous calls about the decal, which reads in bold, capitalized letters: “F*ck Trump and f*ck you for voting for him.”
Nehls was seeking the owner of the truck, hoping to work out an agreement to modify the display in lieu of disorderly conduct charges.
The owner of the truck was soon revealed to be Karen Forsenca, a mother of 12 (!) who adamantly refuses to alter her vehicle. Forsenca told KPRC Click 2 Houston that she’s had the decal on her truck for about a year now, and has never had an issue with it before now. “I thought the whole thing was totally crazy,” she commented. “It’s been on there for such a long time and we have so much positive out of it — more positive that outweighs the negative.”
In the comments of his post, Sheriff Nehls cited Texas disorderly conduct laws as: (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly: (1) uses abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place, and the language by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace; (2) makes an offensive gesture or display in a public place, and the gesture or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”
Others see Forsenca’s display covered under the umbrella of free speech, however. KPRC 2 spoke with a legal analyst who cited the 1971 Supreme Court case Cohen v. California, which overturned a man’s conviction who had been charged with disturbing the peace for wearing a jacket that proclaimed the message “f*ck the draft” in a public courthouse.
It’s unclear whether or not the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Department will proceed with disorderly conduct charges now that Forsenca and her truck have received national attention.
(Via KPRC Click 2 Houston)