Justin Carter: Jailed For FB Comment

[Your Computer]

It does not, and nobody said it did. Wikipedia lists a fine example of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater for the express reason of causing panic and not to warn people. That's one example of free speech being justifiably restricted that I don't think anybody would disagree with. Making admittedly insensitive statements for the purposes of comedy is covered by free speech. People have said much worse things and not even gotten a warning for it. The reason? They got paid for it.

I would agree that the concept of jokes in relation to free speech is handled inconsistently. If it were handled consistently, however, the argument that the kid shouldn't have gotten arrested because of his "rights to free speech" would not have been valid. After all, if you can't joke around and scream "fire!" in a theater, then neither should you be able to joke around and claim you're going to murder people (which would also apply to paid comedians).