It really doesnt take much at all to threaten a cop, they are threatened by words, old women, kittens and even their own shadows.

 

middle finger is protected free speech. it is not assault, or 'fighting words', or anything else. vader1 already gave the case that is used as the precedent.

/thread

 

It could be used as an emotional(mental) assault

An assault is when someone intentionally attempts to inflict immediate injury or offensive contact onto you and you suffer injury (physical or mental) as a result. Although physical contact is not absolutely necessary to an assault, the immediate threat of violent or offensive contact is required.


but cops need to have thicker skin and stop worrying about the small stuff.

 

you could attempt a civil case for causing emotional distress but i'm guessing that would require a hell of a lot more than a middle finger.

i'm not a lawyer though.

 

Everybody sue!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTxHuUGG_2c [/media]&feature=fvw

 

its the same as a loud exhaust, tinted windows, etc. why give a cop a reason to pull you over? seems pretty dumb and calculated to me.

can't you see this fat fawk sitting there hoping to get pulled over and ticketed so he can sue? this is the kind of a-hole that would intentionally spill coffee on himself @ mcdonald's.

i don't feel bad for him, nor do i support his lawsuit. this is teh ghey...

 

In my teen years I was riding in the back seat of my friend's car and gave two cops the finger. They pulled us over and harassed us, put my friends in the cop cars like they were going to be arrested for simply having me in their company, threatened to tow the car, etc. I asked them what crime my friends had committed and what violation did the driver of the car they were attempting to tow had committed specifically to justify that and their response was, I quote, "shut up. Don't you watch cops? You punks always lose." I apologized for missing the part where he stated what law I or my friends had violated and just stared at them. They got extremely irritated and continued on their rant before letting us go. I wasn't even sure whether I had broken the law or not; all I wanted was to either be charged or let go, not just "held" for 45 minutes for no reason. I'll never forget those morons, "Don't you ever watch cops?" Idiots.

Disclaimer-I do not condone flipping off cops and 95% of them, including several friends of mine in the Houston PD, do a great and honorable job. Nor was I in the right in my actions and originally I apologized to the cops sincerely before they went on a power trip.

 

I posted my initial reaction before I watched the video. After watching it, it does appear to me that he is trying to pick a fight so he can sue. And that will proabably be reflected in his ability to recover damages.

I do think a peson who gets upset with someone and flips the bird is totally different to a person looking to pick a fight by just flipping the bird to some cops for no reason.

BOTH acts are protected by the first amendment and I don't think a person can be convicted of a crime, but I think a civil jury is going to view both in an entirely different light. I would almost guess this guy saw the settlement of $50k in Pittsburgh for Hackbart flipping off the cop and decided he could make some money.

People could say the same of my claim if they like, but I was ticketed for flipping the bird to a woman who had just disengaged from a road rage incident with another driver that went on for almost four miles. When I finally got the opportunity to pass this woman she must have thought I gave her a dirty look, (which I probably did) and she put her minivan about two feet from my bumper and stayed there screaming and giving me the bird so I put my arm on my window sill and extended a digit until she finally left me alone. The officer who did not witness the event came to my house and told me I randomly came up to a car with a woman and a car load of children (there were no kids in the car, the lady was embellishing the story) and decided to harass them by giving them the bird. When I told him what happened he called me a liar and refused to look into it further. I am not asking for a ton of money, only to recover my costs and giving them every opportunity to do so. But if they don't want to, my attorney will be able to soak them for whatever he can get and keep it, minus the amount I seek now. (about $1200 for my defense attorney and missed work for 6 court appearances over a six month period).

If anyone wants to think that would be wrong to try to recover money, you can have that opinion. But when people seek money for things like "intentional infliction of emotional distress", I would suggest you have a police officer charge you with a crime that carries jail time that is total baloney(and he is both yelling at you, taunting and grinning at you the whole time), gives you a criminal history, makes you ask your boss for time off for your arraignment and things like that, well......just wait until it happens to you and find out it really is a big deal.

When the case got to court and I requested the police car video of my interaction with him through the discovery process, the police officer lost interest in the case
real quick. When a cop wants to be an ass to someone thinking they will just take a plea bargain and pay a $300 fine to make it go away, they will do lots of nasty things to people they have no power to do. Its the people who go through the trouble of calling them to account that makes cops have to follow the rules.

The guy in Pittsburgh fought his deal for a full 2 years and it can take a lot out of you. In the end he nets $10k (in my mind basically nothing) and his laywers from the ACLU get the rest. That may sound unjust, but in my opinion he goes through all the trouble to get back rights taken away from him that he should have had in the first place,and the cop knew it, and to prevent it from happening to others in the future. The guy in the OP's video looks like a dope looking for a quick buck. But you would hope the cops would figure that out and just let it go.

 

Dont be giving me any ideas

 

Well I wouldn't flip off a cop because I don't want to go through what they might put me through BEFORE I get in front of a judge and they toss the case.