Sometimes a little publicity is all the defense you need.
Unless you think that calling a police officer a bitch is a felony.
If you're going to request personal information for a legitimate reason then you should word it in a non threatening manner.
And given the context of calling a police officer a "bitch", do you think the requester was doing so to accurately file a complaint... or doing so in the hope that armed with the cop's identity, somebody would engage in harassment of that man and/or his family?
Being charged with a felony for the tweet is absurd.
But painting this as an innocent request for information is almost equally so.
There may be rules about how people and organizations aren't supposed to hold it against you, but if records are retrievable then it won't go away.
Someone with more legal knowledge might chime in, but I feel like I've seen questionaires asking something like "have you ever been arrested, charged, or convicted of a crime..."
It's like in court when the judge tells the jury to disregard something, can they ever really do that 100%?
https://nypost.com/2020/08/07/nypd-backs-down-from-bust-of-c...
