A man in Florida was taken into custody for showcasing an inappropriate bumper sticker on his truck, which either reflected his sexual preferences or his affection for a four-legged animal.
When Dillon Shane Webb was informed that the sticker was deemed “derogatory,” he asserted that his freedom of expression was being infringed upon. The deputy’s office even inquired if he was using his free speech to convey his desire to “eat a donkey.”
In 2019, a sheriff’s deputy from Columbia County was following a pickup truck when he spotted a crude sticker prominently displayed in the center of the rear window. Dashcam footage captures Deputy Travis English stopping his cruiser in a parking lot behind the brown pickup, driven by 23-year-old Dillon Shane Webb, with the bumper sticker clearly visible.
The bold white letters on the sticker read, “I EAT A**.”
In the video, the deputy walks up to the passenger side of the truck and greets the occupants with, “Hello, gentlemen.” He then clarifies that he stopped the vehicle because of “the derogatory sticker” displayed on its rear.
In Florida, the law prohibits “any sticker, decal, emblem, or other device affixed to a motor vehicle that contains obscene descriptions, photographs, or depictions.”
“How’s it derogatory?” Webb questions from inside the vehicle.
The officer responds, “How’s it not derogatory?”
“Some 10-year-old kid sitting in the passenger seat of his momma’s vehicle looks over and sees ‘I eat a**’ and asks his mom what it means,” Deputy English explains. “How is she going to explain that?”
In a sharp retort, the driver gives a misguided response: “That’s the parent’s job, not my job,” Webb says before he’s asked to present his driver’s license and registration.
After exiting the vehicle, Webb is searched, and the deputy informs him that the sticker constitutes a “misdemeanor violation of Florida’s obscene materials law.”
“I have four kids…if my 6-year-old was to look at me and like, ‘dad what does I eat a** mean?…he’s curious…and the way [you] handled this situation, I’m not pleased with,” English said before suggesting that Webb should explain his sticker to the court.
Next, the deputy advises Webb to remove one of the letters from “A**” so it would read “AS.” However, Webb declines, insisting on his constitutional right to free speech.
A few minutes later, the situation escalates for Webb.
After confirming with his supervisor that he was acting within legal boundaries, English exits his cruiser and approaches Webb, who is leaning against his car and looking at his cellphone.
“All right, Mr. Webb. Please place your hands behind your back,” the deputy instructs. When Webb asks why, he learns, “Because you’re going to jail.”
“Why for what?” Webb inquires, and English responds that he had the “option to take that off” the window but chose to “refuse.”
Webb was subsequently arrested and charged with an additional offense of “resisting an officer without violence.”
‘Perverted mind’
“They’re just words,” Webb later shared with First Coast News. “If that’s how they feel, if they have a perverted mind, that’s on them.”
However, Sergeant Murray Smith from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office clarified that it wasn’t merely the words on the sticker that Deputy English deemed illegal.
“It was the obscene phrase depicting what the deputy thought was a sexual act, which is obscene by definition,” Smith explained. “What would a reasonable citizen think? Is the guy eating a donkey or is he doing a sexual act?”
The incident drew significant attention on social media, with most users coming to Webb’s defense.
“So what if he eats donkey. What’s the big deal?” questioned one user. Another, commenting on the officer’s concerns about his child’s possible reaction to the sticker, stated, “Since when are a cop’s feelings deserving of an arrest?”
“I live here and as soon as we heard he got arrested we all went and got the sticker and put it on [our] trucks,” wrote a third user.
A man in Florida was taken into custody for showcasing an inappropriate bumper sticker on his truck, which either reflected his sexual preferences or his affection for a four-legged animal.
When Dillon Shane Webb was informed that the sticker was deemed “derogatory,” he asserted that his freedom of expression was being infringed upon. The deputy’s office even inquired if he was using his free speech to convey his desire to “eat a donkey.”
In 2019, a sheriff’s deputy from Columbia County was following a pickup truck when he spotted a crude sticker prominently displayed in the center of the rear window. Dashcam footage captures Deputy Travis English stopping his cruiser in a parking lot behind the brown pickup, driven by 23-year-old Dillon Shane Webb, with the bumper sticker clearly visible.
The bold white letters on the sticker read, “I EAT A**.”
In the video, the deputy walks up to the passenger side of the truck and greets the occupants with, “Hello, gentlemen.” He then clarifies that he stopped the vehicle because of “the derogatory sticker” displayed on its rear.
In Florida, the law prohibits “any sticker, decal, emblem, or other device affixed to a motor vehicle that contains obscene descriptions, photographs, or depictions.”
“How’s it derogatory?” Webb questions from inside the vehicle.
The officer responds, “How’s it not derogatory?”
“Some 10-year-old kid sitting in the passenger seat of his momma’s vehicle looks over and sees ‘I eat a**’ and asks his mom what it means,” Deputy English explains. “How is she going to explain that?”
In a sharp retort, the driver gives a misguided response: “That’s the parent’s job, not my job,” Webb says before he’s asked to present his driver’s license and registration.
After exiting the vehicle, Webb is searched, and the deputy informs him that the sticker constitutes a “misdemeanor violation of Florida’s obscene materials law.”
“I have four kids…if my 6-year-old was to look at me and like, ‘dad what does I eat a** mean?…he’s curious…and the way [you] handled this situation, I’m not pleased with,” English said before suggesting that Webb should explain his sticker to the court.
Next, the deputy advises Webb to remove one of the letters from “A**” so it would read “AS.” However, Webb declines, insisting on his constitutional right to free speech.
A few minutes later, the situation escalates for Webb.
After confirming with his supervisor that he was acting within legal boundaries, English exits his cruiser and approaches Webb, who is leaning against his car and looking at his cellphone.
“All right, Mr. Webb. Please place your hands behind your back,” the deputy instructs. When Webb asks why, he learns, “Because you’re going to jail.”
“Why for what?” Webb inquires, and English responds that he had the “option to take that off” the window but chose to “refuse.”
Webb was subsequently arrested and charged with an additional offense of “resisting an officer without violence.”
‘Perverted mind’
“They’re just words,” Webb later shared with First Coast News. “If that’s how they feel, if they have a perverted mind, that’s on them.”
However, Sergeant Murray Smith from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office clarified that it wasn’t merely the words on the sticker that Deputy English deemed illegal.
“It was the obscene phrase depicting what the deputy thought was a sexual act, which is obscene by definition,” Smith explained. “What would a reasonable citizen think? Is the guy eating a donkey or is he doing a sexual act?”
The incident drew significant attention on social media, with most users coming to Webb’s defense.
“So what if he eats donkey. What’s the big deal?” questioned one user. Another, commenting on the officer’s concerns about his child’s possible reaction to the sticker, stated, “Since when are a cop’s feelings deserving of an arrest?”
“I live here and as soon as we heard he got arrested we all went and got the sticker and put it on [our] trucks,” wrote a third user.
Another user chimed in, “He better keep his kids off the internet. They will see far worse than this.”
The State Attorney’s Office referenced the First Amendment, leading to the dismissal of charges against Webb. Subsequently, Webb filed a lawsuit claiming violations of his First and Fourth Amendment rights. However, U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida ruled that the arrest was “arguably justified under Florida’s obscenity law,” granting the officer and his supervisor “qualified immunity,” which protects them from the lawsuit.
Another user chimed in, “He better keep his kids off the internet. They will see far worse than this.”
The State Attorney’s Office referenced the First Amendment, leading to the dismissal of charges against Webb. Subsequently, Webb filed a lawsuit claiming violations of his First and Fourth Amendment rights. However, U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida ruled that the arrest was “arguably justified under Florida’s obscenity law,” granting the officer and his supervisor “qualified immunity,” which protects them from the lawsuit.
