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Inmates tortured by Baby Shark music at OK County Jail finally file lawsuit

12:59 PM EST on November 11, 2021

Although it wasn't as attention-grabbing as the tale of the backwoods, black market castrators from the hill country of Southeastern Oklahoma, one of the most clickable stories to come out of our state in 2020 was the sad story about some inmates at the Oklahoma County Jail who were handcuffed to a pole and forced to listen to Baby Shark for hours on end...

It's been nearly a year since that original story broke, and now, just in time for a regurgitated click cycle, the inmates who were tortured doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo have filled a lawsuit doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo in federal court.

News 9 scored an interview with one of those inmates – John Basco:

One of the men accusing Oklahoma County jail employees of cruelty in a federal lawsuit last week said he hopes the detention center makes changes due to the abuse that occurred.

John Basco, 47, was a pre-trial detainee when he said he was tortured in the middle of the night at the Oklahoma County jail.

He said he was afraid and didn’t know what was going to happen to him.

“I feel violated,” Basco said as he described the incident...

“You hear something like that over and over again, it drives you, you know what I’m saying, to the point that you want to scream. Like, what are you doing this for?” he said.

As a parent of a three and half-year-old, I do know what Basco is saying. Whenever my daughter asks to watch videos on YouTube, I begin to pant and pace like a nervous dog that just watched its owner open the closet door where the vacuum cleaner is located, fearfully waiting to see what psychological hell the YouTube algorithm brings forth.

That being said, at least Basco's torturers had a heart. They could have played this on repeat instead:

Or they could have been really sadistic and cued up this song on repeat:

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how much money Basco and the other inmates walk away with. I know they're victims and everything, but once they get their settlement check, I bet they'll be totally okay with how everything worked out. Seriously, how much money would you accept to listen to Baby Shark for four hours while strapped to a bar? $50? $100? $1,000? I think we may have a new TLO Contest in the works.

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