"In March 2016, Novak set up a Facebook page that purported to be that of the Parma Police Department." Honestly why does anyone think this is not wrong? Here

"In March 2016, Novak set up a Facebook page that purported to be that of the Parma Police Department." Honestly why does anyone think this is not wrong? Here is a link to some of his posts [1] The guy was straight up impersonating the Parma Police - he used their branding/badge and started posting 'as them'. There are some trying to defend that as justifiable because some forms of comedy require that the comedian be 'in character' and not overtly flag it as parody from the start, but I suggest this is a very bad argument - especially when people could confuse the target as 'real' - and imperatively when we're dealing with Emergency Services. There is a 100% chance that some members of the community would have inferred this to be a 'real' account, there's hardly a reason to believe otherwise. The headlines were a bit nutty, but not entirely unbelievable to the point the parody was clear. There is no reasonable argument he could make as a 'comedian' that he couldn't just put 'parody/satire' on the logo, and, there's every reason to believe that people would have confused it as real. He's literally using Police Badges! What would happen if he 'parodied' actual police officers, with a real uniform, but as a joke wore a 'red nose'. Would that be sufficient for people to be sure he was not a real police officer? Would it be legal to use Amazon's brand/logo and misrepresent yourself as them? I'm a bit disturbed by all of the people arguing this man was maligned, I suggest this is upside down and that it's irrational that someone should be able arbitrarily impersonate Emergency Services and the justice system and then just hide under the 'I'm a comedian' moniker. I'll bet $100 the Police found out about it because they were getting calls around the confusion. Nobody confuses 'Bush/Obama' impersonators as the real thing, the parody is implied, and those parodies are not creating a disruption. Nobody confuses 'Reno 911' as 'real' police officers. I'm sure he didn't realize the extent of possible disruption and I would hope that he doesn't get some kind of record for this, but I do suggest he committed a crime and at very least this should not be allowed. And can't fathom how people could think this ok to do. [1] https://ij.org/case/novak-v-parma/ https://ij.org/case/novak-v-parma/