Louisiana man arrested over zombie-apocalypse COVID meme posted on Facebook
Waylon Bailey was arrested by Rapides Parish sheriff's deputies in March 2020 for a Facebook post jokingly warning that deputies had orders to shoot 'infected' people on sight, referencing the film World War Z. The Fifth Circuit ruled in 2023 that the arrest violated the First and Fourth Amendments.
On March 20, 2020, Waylon Bailey of Forest Hill, Louisiana posted a Facebook joke in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office had ordered deputies to 'shoot the infected on sight,' with a Brad Pitt 'World War Z' reference and laughing emojis. About a dozen armed deputies arrested him at his home under Louisiana's anti-terrorism statute (La. R.S. 14:128.1). Prosecutors declined to pursue charges. Bailey sued, and in Bailey v. Iles, 87 F.4th 275 (5th Cir. 2023), the Fifth Circuit held the post was 'obvious hyperbole,' protected by the First Amendment, and that the arrest violated clearly established law — denying qualified immunity. The case is now a leading precedent on social-media-post arrests.