Two Florida 18-year-old males were arrested after taking part in what Ocala Police called a "social media stunt" last weekend.

And what did our heroes do, exactly?

'You know what they say: They don’t arrest the smart ones. Somebody needs to take a lawnmower and a leaf blower to those haircuts though, good Lord.'

Well, police said Janek Szkaradek drove a lawnmower through a Target store on SW College Road on Saturday while Luke Charske recorded the hijinks on video.

Szkaradek's questionable driving skills resulted in a damaged door at the store.

If that weren't enough, Szkaradek the previous night used a leaf blower inside a Culver’s restaurant on SW College Road, police said.

Law enforcement officials weren't amused.

"These actions endangered people and caused property damage," police said. "They are crimes, not harmless videos. Think before you record — it’s not worth an arrest and a criminal charge."

Police said Szkaradek was charged with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct for the incident at Culver’s and disorderly conduct for the incident at Target. Police said Charske was charged as a principal to disorderly conduct for the incident at Target.

Many commenters under the Ocala Police Department's Facebook entry about the lads' bad behavior were at once merciless and hilarious:

"You know what they say: They don’t arrest the smart ones," one commenter wrote. "Somebody needs to take a lawnmower and a leaf blower to those haircuts though, good Lord."
"Beavis & Butthead 2026 Edition," another user reacted.
"I’m surprised natural selection didn’t take them with the mower," another user observed.
"They ought to make them take the mower and blower and do everyone’s yard work!" another commenter declared.
"Congrats boys — now you have something to put on your resume," another user quipped.
"I want to know the brand name of the leaf blower. Left out that important detail," another commenter noted. "Mine hardly moves the leaves off my patio ... inquiring minds want to know."

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Fights erupt, deputies hurt after more than 1,000 teens descend upon Florida amusement park in planned 'takeover'

Fights erupted and sheriff's deputies were hurt after more than 1,000 teenagers over the weekend descended upon a Florida amusement park in a planned "takeover."

The location of the takeover was ICON Park in Orlando, and it occurred Saturday evening, WOFL-TV reported. As is often the case with such teenage takeovers of public places, word spread online about the ICON Park takeover.

'Massive amount of teenagers just flooding the streets.'

The Orange County Sheriff's Office told the station that numerous fights broke out among the teens and deputies had to step in and break them up.

Nine teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 were arrested on charges ranging from trespassing and resisting to battery on a law enforcement officer, WOFL said.

Two deputies were hurt, taken to the hospital, and released, the station said, adding that the sheriff's office said the deputies are expected to be OK.

The sheriff’s office said that it was "aware" that some sort of event had been planned for Saturday evening at ICON Park and that several deputies were assigned there in anticipation of it, WOFL reported in a separate story.

Witness Virgil Goodson told the station he saw a "massive amount of teenagers just flooding the streets. The sheriff's office chasing some down, seemed chaotic in some areas; other areas, teens just walking around aimlessly."

Goodson told WOFL he noticed at one point hundreds of teens running away from the park, and he said he "didn't know if it was an active shooter." Others were unnerved, he told the station, and took cover and ran inside businesses.

Another consequence stemming from the teen takeover is a new ICON Park chaperone policy requiring adult supervision for minors, the station said.

Park attendees 17 and younger must have a parent or guardian who is at least 21 years old with them to enter and stay at ICON Park, WOFL said. One chaperone can accompany up to six kids into the park and must stay with them during the entire visit, the station said.

What's more, ICON Park warned parents and guardians that they may be held legally liable for what minors do while under their supervision, WOFL said.

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6 thugs just 12 to 14 years old accused of beating up, robbing mentally disabled man riding his bike on Easter night

Darrell Norman Williams told KTRK-TV he was riding his bike on Easter Sunday night in Wharton, Texas, when a group of boys approached him and began throwing objects at him.

"The dudes were just chucking bottles at me and rocks and stuff," Williams, who is mentally disabled, told the station.

'They treated him like a piece of trash.'

Williams told the station the group of boys soon knocked him to the ground.

KTRK added that one of his attackers recorded video of the brutal assault, and it shows them kicking and punching Williams as he tries unsuccessfully to block the blows.

"They kicked him all in his head and all in his gut, all of that," Diondre Brown, who's cared for Williams for nearly 15 years, told the station. "They literally took the bottom half of his pants down and ripped them apart."

Brown added to KTRK that "they took his bike, they took his shoes."

Police told the station the video of the attack was sent to them four days later, and on Tuesday, police announced they had identified all six of Williams' attackers — and they're all 12 to 14 years old.

"They treated him like a piece of trash," Brown added to KTRK

Williams noted to the station that "I do nothing to them. I said nothing to them."

Police told KTRK that four of the suspects are being held in juvenile detention while the other two were released to their parents.

They're being charged with aggravated robbery and engaging in organized criminal activity, the station said, adding that their names aren't being released because of their ages.

"I feel so, so sorry," Brown told KTRK, adding that "I was sorry with myself as well because I wasn't there to protect him when he needed me most."

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$167 million Powerball winner arrested for 4th time since winning lottery after allegedly stealing cash during burglary

A Kentucky man who won a $167.3 million Powerball jackpot less than a year ago has been arrested for the fourth time since winning the lottery, according to multiple reports.

James Shannon Farthing, 51, and his mother won the $167.3 million Powerball lottery on April 26, 2025, which was the largest prize ever awarded in Kentucky.

The woman later reported to officers that she feared for her life while at Farthing's house, according to police.

The Courier-Journal obtained an arrest citation saying Farthing "unlawfully entered" a residence in Lexington around 7:16 p.m. March 28.

The citation noted that the resident of the house said she witnessed Farthing on a security camera before hearing a "loud noise that sounded as if the door had been busted open."

The resident informed police that she was missing $12,000 in cash, according to the citation.

WLEX-TV reported that Farthing fled the crime scene in a black Porsche.

Police said they located Farthing in his vehicle in a parking lot.

The arrest citation revealed that officers observed a burnt marijuana blunt in an ashtray, which led them to search the vehicle, where they discovered additional marijuana and blunts.

Farthing was charged with possession of marijuana and burglary.

Farthing's $10,000 cash bond was posted March 29.

WKYT-TV reported that Farthing has entered a not guilty plea to the charges.

Farthing is scheduled to appear in court April 27.

The Courier-Journal previously reported Farthing was arrested on Feb. 11 for allegedly intimidating a participant in a legal process, citing records from Scott County District Court.

The Scott County Sheriff's Department said Farthing picked a woman up from her Lexington home for a get-together.

"The woman allegedly told law enforcement Farthing gave her a 'gummy' she felt pressured to take, though she was not sure what was in the gummy," the Courier-Journal reported.

The woman later reported to police that she feared for her life while at Farthing's house, according to police.

When deputies arrived at the house, they noticed a firearm and ammunition "in plain view" on Farthing's bedside table, the citation stated.

Due to her intoxication level, the woman was transferred to a local hospital.

The citation noted that while at the hospital, the woman showed text messages to officers she was actively receiving from Farthing.

Officers who were still at Farthing's home seized his cell phone, police said.

According to the citation, one text message Farthing wrote to the woman read: "Why would you do this to me unreal id never hurt you."

The citation said Farthing told police that the woman had been "perfectly fine" before she disappeared and that he sent her multiple text messages in an attempt "to locate her."

Farthing was arrested and charged with attempting to influence the woman "by means of harassing communications."

Farthing was ordered not to contact the woman, according to court records.

Farthing was arrested in November 2025 in connection with a hit-and-run collision in Fayette County, according to the Courier-Journal. Farthing was charged with wanton endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident/failure to render aid or assistance.

As Blaze News previously reported, Farthing was arrested in Florida on April 29, 2025, just one day after he and his mother claimed the $167.3 million lottery jackpot.

Police released chaotic bodycam video of Farthing appearing to assault a deputy.

He was charged with battery and resisting an officer.

WLEX previously reported that Farthing pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of battery and obstructing or resisting an officer without violence on Feb. 27, 2026.

Farthing received a sentence of time served after spending nine days in jail, according to court documents.

WLEX noted that Farthing was ordered to pay a total of $1,000 in fines, including $151 to the Rape Crisis Trust Fund and $201 to the Domestic Violence Trust Fund.

Citing online court records, People magazine reported that Farthing is awaiting arraignments in two separate cases in April, but it could not confirm the charges in those cases.

The Scott County attorney and the Fayette County Commonwealth’s attorney did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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The new censorship doesn’t say ‘no’ — it says ‘no one can see it’

Free speech isn’t dying in one dramatic moment. It’s getting shaved down in two different ways — both deliberate, both dangerous.

The first track is blunt-force censorship. It looks like platform bans, coordinated deplatforming, demonetization — and in some countries, handcuffs.

The First Amendment requires vigilance — and a culture and an infrastructure that respect not only the right to speak, but the ability to be heard without invisible manipulation.

When Joe Rogan reacted to reports that more than 12,000 people in the United Kingdom had been arrested over social media posts, he said the U.K. has “lost it.” Hyperbolic? Maybe. But the concern is real. Americans still recoil at the idea of police knocking on someone’s door over a tweet. In parts of Europe, that line keeps moving.

Take the arrest of Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan over posts criticizing trans activists. Agree with him or not, the point stands: Government shouldn’t referee online speech disputes. Speech that would receive constitutional protection in the United States is treated elsewhere as a criminal offense. That isn’t progress. It’s just regression dressed up as “social responsibility.”

We aren’t immune in the United States. We just do it differently.

The First Amendment still blocks direct government suppression in most cases. But a parallel system has grown up alongside it — one where Big Tech companies act as speech gatekeepers. They decide who can speak, who gets heard, and who disappears into digital exile. You may have the right to talk, but if you can’t reach anyone in the modern public square, what does that right mean?

That’s the predictable result of handing global communication infrastructure to a handful of corporations with opaque rules and shifting political winds. Platforms remove accounts, throttle content, suspend monetization, and slap “misinformation” labels on disfavored opinions. The rules move, enforcement varies, and appeals are a black box.

Jeff Dornik, founder of Pickax, a fast-growing platform branding itself as a free-speech alternative, puts it bluntly: “You can’t have freedom of speech without freedom of reach. It’s quite literally written into the First Amendment: ‘abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ If you limit reach, you abridge speech.”

That brings us to the second track — subtler and arguably more insidious.

It’s algorithmic manipulation. It’s the Overton Window nudged by code instead of Congress. It’s the illusion of free speech paired with the quiet denial of reach.

Dominant platforms defend themselves by insisting they support “freedom of speech.” Ask conservatives who’ve watched Big Tech suspend them, kneecap their businesses, or bury their content, and they’ll translate it the same way: Say what you want — we decide who sees it. Freedom of reach is optional at best.

Algorithms decide what trends, what goes viral, and what gets buried on page six of your search. They shape perception, reward some views, starve others, and then hide the rulebook. Users adapt. They soften language and avoid topics entirely. They self-censor — not because they got banned, but because they learned the cost of crossing invisible lines.

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dornik argues that algorithms can be more corrosive than outright censorship: Instead of punishing speech the powers-that-be don’t like, they dangle engagement and monetization to train creators to censor themselves — “essentially getting you to rewire your own brain.”

“Almost all of the Big Tech platforms are using algorithms to manipulate us,” Dornik says. “The byproduct of this form of censorship is that it’s almost impossible to create community.”

He’s not wrong about the incentive structure. When creators wake up to find engagement cut in half after an unpopular opinion, they get the message. Stay inside the narrative. Don’t challenge the consensus. The window narrows — not because voters demanded it, but because code enforced it.

That’s why the free-speech debate can’t be reduced to arrest statistics. It’s about who controls visibility. It’s about whether speech is meaningfully free when distribution gets manipulated behind the scenes.

America still has the strongest constitutional speech protections in the world. But constitutional protection is only part of the story. Culture matters. Platform design matters. Incentives matter. When creators depend on systems that can quietly demonetize or suppress them, speech becomes conditional.

That’s the gap platforms like Pickax say they want to fill: no shadow bans, no algorithmic throttling, no opaque moderation. The feed is chronological and long-form content is encouraged. Creators own their content, and monetization is simple and direct.

Pickax held a launch event on February 24, with an all-day livestream featuring many of its creators. Dornik called it more than a rollout: “One of our primary missions with Pickax is to build human-to-human connections. We do this by eliminating the computer-driven algorithms ... allowing our users to become the algorithm.”

Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Skeptics will say alternative platforms stay niche or ideological. Maybe. But the fact that they keep gaining traction tells you something: People sense the digital public square has been curated, filtered, and sanitized in ways that don’t feel organic.

Free speech has always been messy. It has always included opinions we dislike and arguments we reject. Far from a flaw, that’s the system as it is supposed to work.

The alternative is a world where governments arrest people for posts — and corporations erase dissent with code. One is loud and authoritarian. The other is quiet and corporate. Both undermine open discourse.

The First Amendment is not self-executing. It requires vigilance — and it requires a culture and an infrastructure that respect not only the right to speak, but the ability to be heard without invisible manipulation.

No algorithms and no more shadow bans. No “reach dropped — try boosting.”

If we lose that fight, we won’t lose it all at once. We’ll lose it post by post, throttle by throttle, until only approved voices remain.

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Unhinged females caught on video going absolutely ballistic at Wendy's drive-thru window as employees take cover

Three females were caught on video going on a rampage at the drive-thru window of New Jersey Wendy's fast-food restaurant recently — and now they're facing criminal charges.

Police in Ewing Township said the incident occurred just before 3 a.m. Feb. 21 at the restaurant in the 1700 block of Olden Avenue. It is open 24 hours a day.

'Insane.'

Police said they received a report about disorderly customers who broke a drive-thru window.

An investigation revealed that three females damaged property, attempted to assault employees with items, and fled the scene before officers arrived.

However, police said employees recorded video of the incident, and as a result, police were able to identify the suspects: 18-year-old Saniyah Brittingham, 19-year-old Leah Williford Stevens, and 23-year-old Honesty Harrison, all of whom hail from neighboring Trenton.

Police said Brittingham and Williford Stevens are facing charges of burglary, criminal mischief, and unlawful possession of a weapon, while Harrison is facing charges of criminal mischief and burglary.

Brittingham and Harrison turned themselves in Friday, but Williford Stevens was still at large, according to WPVI-TV.

In the station's video report below, the females are seen chucking drinks and other items at employees as apparent food is splattered around the drive-thru window — as well on the suspects. It appears toward the end of one clip that the trio get a taste of their own medicine as a huge batch of liquid flies in their direction as they take off running.

WPVI said police didn't indicate what may have sparked the incident, and a handful of people the station interviewed seemed deflated by the whole thing.

"I kinda get depressed about seeing young people just do that," Rupert Johnson of neighboring Lawrence, N.J., told WPVI.

"This is not something that should be happening," Dawn Hemsey of Ewing Township told the station, adding that the actions caught on video are "insane."

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Teen robbers open fire on victim behind Texas Family Dollar, but victim also has a gun — and turns the tables lethally

Armed teenage robbers opened fire at a victim behind a Family Dollar in Beaumont, Texas, last week, police said.

But the victim also had a gun and turned the tables — lethally.

'I just think that it's sad that our babies are just dying left and right, and nobody's doing anything.'

Police said its investigation — helped by witness accounts and video surveillance — determined that Jayson January and Brenden Earnest, both 17, as well as two juveniles acted together in a plot to rob the victim near Avenue B and Harriot last Friday, KFDM-TV reported.

All four suspects attacked the robbery target and fired shots at him, police told the station.

However, the victim also was armed and returned fire at the suspects, KFDM reported.

One of the suspects — January — was hit by gunfire and died in a grassy field near the store, the station said.

KLVI-AM reported Monday that Earnest turned himself in and was charged with aggravated robbery — but the two juveniles, ages 15 and 16, were still at large.

Earnest was being held at the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on a $1 million bond for the aggravated robbery charge as well as a $10,000 bond for unlawfully carrying a weapon, jail officials told KMBT-TV.

By Wednesday, the two juveniles also turned themselves in, police told KBTV-TV, adding that there had been warrants out for them on aggravated assault charges.

Detectives are continuing to investigate and complete their findings so the case can be submitted to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, KBTV said.

One woman reacting to the incident told KFDM during an on-camera interview that "I just think that it's sad that our babies are just dying left and right, and nobody's doing anything." The woman asked, "What are they doing about these kids getting out of school and being in the streets during school times?" She also declared, "Something is not right here. Make it make sense."

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Brawl breaks out when police chief in street clothes tries to arrest HS girl protesting ICE. Now some want chief to resign.

A brawl broke out late last week after a police chief dressed in street clothes tried to arrest a high school girl who allegedly was causing trouble amid a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and now some residents in the southeastern Pennsylvania borough of Quakertown want the chief to resign.

The Bucks County Courier Times said a probable cause affidavit provides the first official police account of what led to the arrest of five Quakertown High School students.

'Everybody was confused because nobody knew it was a policeman. He was in regular clothes. We were just like, "Why is the man attacking us?"'

At least 35 students participated in the Friday walkout to protest ICE, the Courier Times said, citing the affidavit.

Quakertown police had been monitoring the protest “from a safe distance” and assisting with road closures after students left the high school campus and headed into the downtown business district, the paper said.

14-year-old car thieves slam stolen vehicle into Baltimore cop who opens fire as he's hit — and the crooks get away

A trio of 14-year-old car thieves slammed a stolen vehicle into a Baltimore police officer who opened fire as he was hit — and while the teens managed to get away from the scene, police said they arrested them days later.

Officer William Cole responded around 12:05 a.m. Sunday to an attempted break-in call, WBAL-TV reported.

'I need a medic!'

Police released Cole's body-worn camera video, which showed the officer arriving at the location on West Lombard Street; he soon encountered multiple people in a Kia sedan that backed up and struck a parked vehicle, the station said.

When Cole ordered the driver to stop, the driver backed up again and struck the officer, WBAL said, citing the video.

Police said Cole fired his gun once at the car as he fell, the station said, adding that the driver fled the scene and hit another vehicle as well as the officer's patrol car in the process.

Video then shows an injured man approaching the officer from across the street and collapsing.

The officer is heard saying on the bodycam video, "I need a medic! You good, bro? I got you. What's wrong, bro, you OK?"

Police said the officer rendered aid to the 21-year-old injured man who was assaulted by multiple people before the officer's arrival at the scene, WBAL reported; the victim wasn't taken to a hospital.

However, the officer at the scene injured his ankle and was treated and released from a hospital, the station said.

Police told WBAL that officers found the Kia in question abandoned on South Arlington Avenue and that the vehicle was reported stolen Saturday from East Chase Street.

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Unhinged females caught on video going absolutely ballistic at Wendy's drive-thru window as employees take cover

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Brawl breaks out when police chief in street clothes tries to arrest HS girl protesting ICE. Now some want chief to resign.

14-year-old car thieves slam stolen vehicle into Baltimore cop who opens fire as he's hit — and the crooks get away

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