Friday, January 04, 2013

“Perhaps there is a police officer somewhere who would interpret an automobile passenger’s giving him the finger as a signal of distress...

...But the nearly universal recognition that this gesture is an insult deprives such an interpretation of reasonableness."

That was Second Circuit Judge Jon O. Newman in an opinion all about the middle finger.  Here's the intro to the opinion:

An irate automobile passenger’s act of “giving the finger,” a gesture of insult known for centuries,1 to a policeman has led to a seizure of two persons ordered to return to an automobile, an arrest for disorderly conduct, a civil rights suit, and now this appeal. Plaintiffs-Appellants John Swartz (“John”) and his wife, Judy Mayton-Swartz (“Judy”), appeal the July 8, 2011, judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (David N. Hurd, District Judge) granting summary judgment to Defendants-Appellees Richard Insogna, a St. Johnsville, New York, police officer, and Kevin Collins, an officer with the Montgomery, New York, Sheriff’s Department.

Accepting, as we must at this stage of the litigation, the Plaintiffs’ version of the facts, we vacate the judgment and remand for further proceedings.


The NY Times has more:



Anonymous said...

The right to flip off the authorities is as American as eating apple pie at a baseball game.

BTW - I thought the bird came from a time when rival armies would cut the middle finger off a captured prisoner to prevent them from using a bow and arrow against them. An enemy combatant who still had his missle finger would show it to the enemy as a taunt.

Anonymous said...

The right to flip off a cop I say hell yea! Most Miami cops are pompous, arrogant and believe they are above the law.

Rumpole said...

2:39, while I agree in principle with your thoughts, my suggestion is not to engage in such behavior without live coverage by CNN, lest you end up arrested for disorderly conduct and battery on a police officer. Your arraignment would be postponed several weeks as surgeons at Jackson struggle to rebuild most of your facial features which would have been dis-arranged- according to the testimony of the officers- when you repeatedly banged your head against the cell doors while they begged you to stop.

Best of luck in your future endeavors.