Then +1 !

Cops need to learn to suck it up and not sweat the small stuff, if the man had been shooting bullets instead of birds then they would have the right to retaliate.


Sigh... due to dumb ass cops with paper thin skin, US, the tax payers are gonna eat the bill for this guys settlement.

 

"Small stuff" is relative.

 

isn't that just an occupational hazard the cop should deal with?

 

Kyushin,

Just so you know this case will probably become your all time favorite. Lewis v City of New Orleans.

Some guy goes off verbally on some police after an arrest and they charge him with further crime for it. The US supreme court ruling said that Police are an arm of the government and to limit what you can say to them violates ones personal right to free political speech. They further noted in the ruling that allowing cops to punish people for verbally abusing them would be ripe for abuse and police would just be able to charge people with crimes when they did nt like them. The ruling stated that police are in a line of work that requires thicker skin and basically, its part of the job.

That ruling allows you to not be punished for telling a cop to go blank himself. I would not adivise is because its probably not worth the trouble they will put you through, but its perfectly legal and protected by the first amendment.


I read up on this stuff after being charged.

 

I don't think either side was right here.

The cop shouldn't have retaliated, but seriously, how mature is it to throw a middle-finger salute to every Johnny Q. Lawman you run into?

 

No, it is not! In which law is it written so? It's not a physical assault because there's no physicality involved; in fact, it's not even a verbal assault. A middle finger doesn't constitute any form of assault. In fact, some foreigners who come over and can wave around the middle finger without any knowledge of what it means. If anyone waves a knife around, it's a universal knowledge of a threat, thus would be considered an assault. A middle finger means NOTHING. Just because it allegedly means "F you" doesn't make it unlawful; after all, it is also part of free speech and expression.

Would it make a difference if someone flips a bird using another method by another society?

 

Like I said, I'm not sure. I was told that it could be interpreted as a threat, and you cannot threaten the police.

 

^ No, a middle finger does not constitute a threat in any law or jurisdiction. To signal a threat, one would have to do a fist pump or a sign of a gun using the fingers or a cut of the throat using the fingers. Those can be interpreted as a threat.

Examples:

 

If he's off duty, no problem. If he is working then it's out of line. The public are his boss, you don't flip off your boss.

 

Figures it's local... lol
fml