Woman with warrants draws attention to herself, thinks it's an abuse that she got arrested

The right thing to do if you have warrants is to turn yourself in to the cops and deal with whatever the issue is. But if your objective is to avoid the issue rather than dealing with it honestly, it's generally considered smart not to draw attention to yourself, especially on the roads where traffic patrols might notice you. But what's a Trump-hating citizen to do when she feels an overwhelming need to let the world know how much she hates our president, and to do so in the crudest possible terms? You can't become a hero on Twitter by hiding out in the shadows!

Poor Karen Fonseca didn't quite find a way to split the difference to her advantage:

The driver of a pickup displaying an expletive-filled message to President Donald Trump and his supporters in the Houston area was arrested Thursday on an outstanding warrant. Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office records show Karen Fonseca was arrested about 2 p.m. Thursday on an outstanding fraud warrant issued in August by the Rosenberg Police Department. She was in the county jail Thursday night with bond set at $1,500. Fonseca was released from jail Thursday night after her husband posted her bond, CBS affiliate KHOU reported. "I'm almost certain it does have to do with (the truck decal)," she said after her release. "People abuse the badge, and in my opinion, money talks. When you're in politics, people know how to work the system." A sheriff's spokesman has not answered a message seeking details behind the warrant. Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls had threatened Fonseca with a disorderly conduct charge over the decal. However, District Attorney John Healey said he didn't think it would have been a prosecutable case.

---

Fonseca had said she would not remove the decal. She said she had been stopped by law officers, but that they have no grounds to issue a citation.

And they didn't issue a citation. They arrested her on the perfectly valid warrant for which she was responsible. I suppose there's a civil liberties argument that her exercise of her First Amendment rights should not be the action that leads to her arrest. But that argument completely misunderstands the First Amendment. She wasn't charged for her opinion, nor was she charged for the manner in which she expressed it. She was arrested because she was suspected of fraud, and her little attention-grabbing stunt told police how to find her. Once the fraud issue has been adjudicated one way or the other, assuming it doesn't result in a prison sentence, she is free to continue driving around with a sign in her window that says F half the country, and way more than half of all Texas voters. No one is going to stop her from doing that. It's not a crime. But the Constitution doesn't guarantee you the right to get away with other crimes just because the manner in which you were busted involved legal activity. I'm sure there are some who will say they "just don't like it" that free speech led to an arrest. I am not one of those people. I don't like it that she tried to skate on a valid warrant, and when you're trying to do that and the cops have been tipped off on how to find you, they're going to bust you. That's how law enforcement works. Maybe instead of asking the cops to justify the manner of the arrest, they should ask this woman why she allegedly committed fraud. They're enforcing the law. She's breaking it.