00:01Can you just start off by introducing yourself?
00:05My name is Anthony Novak, and I'm not a stand-up comedian or anything,
00:10but I've made a lot of goofs online for sure.
00:14So on March 1st, 2016, this idea came to my head.
00:18I should make a parody Facebook page, making fun of my local police department.
00:23All the posts, they're insane.
00:25The City of Parma Police Department will enact a pedophile reform event
00:29in an attempt to reform pedophiles to normality.
00:32It was going to have puzzles and quizzes at a no-means-no station.
00:37Anyone who passes all the stations will be accepted as an honorary police officer.
00:41I was expecting to make people on my Facebook laugh.
00:44I didn't expect them to gain traction, and especially didn't expect to be arrested.
00:50Ultimately, I was facing a fourth-degree felony of disrupting public services,
00:54which carries up to 18 months in prison.
00:58They took cell phones and USBs, and they actually pointed guns at his roommate.
01:04They treated his house like God named Bin Laden was living in there.
01:06At this point, we started feeling like his cards might be stacked against us a little bit.
01:11We're really going to trial.
01:13There's a lot of just tension and pressure raising through my body and my head.
01:17Oh, I hope they show him and kill him for the rest of his life.
01:21You know, really, folks, untighten your sphincters.
01:25It was parody.
01:27It was satire.
01:28This is about the right to free speech.
01:32At that point, I thought, there's no bigger name and parody in the United States than The Onion.
01:38Maybe they'll be interested in weighing in on this case.
01:41What's most frightening about this is that the police could come and detain any of us.
01:46The fact that he was arrested and criminally charged for something so benign really does make a point.
01:53We are living in a moment when fundamental rights are under assault by the most powerful people.
02:02We're not just talking about free speech.
02:05It's important for us to understand the full scope with these issues.
02:09My high school classmate, Omar Arrington Bay, was killed by the Bedford police.
02:14His mother lives with the reality of that every day.
02:17I just wanted justice.
02:19I wanted somebody to admit they were wrong.
02:23Every case is actually a story about a person.
02:26Each was arrested and led outside.
02:28The things that have happened to them are things that inform the way that we look at the world around
02:32us
02:32and the way that the world could be made better.
02:34Because the through line is that our rights do matter.
02:38Our rights must matter.
02:39We needed to do something to make it clear.
02:42This isn't right.
02:43A victory for Anthony could be a victory for everyone else.
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