“Whoppergate” Embroils Georgia Sheriff
A Georgia Sheriff who sent deputies to a local Burger King when displeased with its service endured weeks of taunts on his department’s Facebook page in October 2024. It was then that Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens, Sr. (D) blocked the page’s comments section to David Cavender, his Republican challenger, who lost the election on November 5, 2024. Undeterred, Cavender filed suit in federal court for the Northern District of Georgia on November 13, 2024, accusing the Sheriff of violating his constitutional rights with the social media block.
The March 2023 incident was captured by the body-worn camera of deputies who responded to a call from Owens at the Burger King in Mableton. The Sheriff, who was not in uniform, had complained about his order to staffers, who responded by locking him outside the doors. Owens told the deputies to get the name and number of the manager; an assistant manager then told them that the doors had been locked to prevent Owens from threatening staff the way other irate customers sometimes did.
“You didn’t tell him who I was, did you?” Owens demanded of the deputy, who responded that he had not.
Cavender posted the video to his campaign website on October 11, 2024; 18 days later, Owens restricted comments on his Facebook page, prompting the suit from Cavender just over two weeks after that. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that public officials may not block citizens from social media accounts on which they “speak on the state’s behalf.” See: Lindke v. Freed, 601 U.S. 187 (2024). Cavender’s suit against Owens remains pending. See: Cavender v. Owens, USDC (N.D. Ga.), Case No. 1:24-cv-05205.
For his part, Owens admitted that he “probably should have just drove off and took the bad service and left and came back another day.”
Additional source: Washington Post
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