The city of Lafayette, Louisiana is suing one of its citizens for trolling police and right-wing activists with satirical anti-fascist events.
"Lafayette Consolidated Government is suing the man who created fake Antifa social media events, claiming the hoaxes have cost the city 'considerable sums of money.' The lawsuit, filed in the 15th Judicial District in Lafayette, alleges John Merrifield cost the city-parish government money when he created two fake Facebook events that said ANTIFA would show up in the city's high-end River Ranch community and the Acadiana Mall," the Daily Advertiser reported Thursday.
The lawsuit is seeking damages of less than $75,000.
"I think he should bear the brunt of some of the costs, if not all of the costs, that his actions cost the taxpayers," Mayor-President Josh Guillory said. "We will always take these threats seriously, but we’re not just going to always respond and say, ‘OK, thank you. Let us pay all this overtime from the taxpayers.’ Heck no. We will stop at no measure to recoup the costs that the taxpayers have to pay for this kind of stuff."
The newspaper interviewed Merrifield.
"Fool you once, shame on me. Fool you twice, shame on you," he said. "I’m not going to apologize to the citizens of Lafayette who were gullible enough to fall for a satire event created by a comedy meme page run by a satirist and comedian twice."
In the lawsuit, the city reportedly cited President Donald Trump tweeting that Antifa, which is short for anti-fascist, should be declared a terrorist organization.
