Kansas Man get $5k for flipping off officer

[WilliamTomFrank]

Cops flip me off all the time. What do I get for that?

[retdetsgt]

In NYC flipping the bird is considered disorderly conduct under the subsection "In a public place, he uses abusive or obscene language, or makes an obscene gesture."

NYC must be one of the last places in the US that where that hasn't been found unconstitutional.

Of course flipping off a judge is a whole new ball game as long as they can use vague "contempt of court" rulings.

[Cat_Doc]

Cops flip me off all the time. What do I get for that?

Nothing. Don't you know that dispatchers are required to take more abuse than cops?

[Samuel]

It's "funny" how we are supposed to put up with lots of different types of **** that regular folks and especially judges, lawyers, politicians, and other big cheeses don't... Pathetic...

[Cat_Doc]

I know a cop who would just flip a bird back at them, with a smile on his face. Ain't that right, RKT?

[Samuel]

I know a cop who would just flip a bird back at them, with a smile on his face. Ain't that right, RKT?

Wouldn't work for me. We have a "no happiness at work" policy and a smile would get you 30 days in the hole...

[Cat_Doc]

Wouldn't work for me. We have a "no happiness at work" policy and a smile would get you 30 days in the hole...

Ha! I remember me and my brothers playing around in the kitchen making all sorts of fun noise and my dad walking in saying, in the meanest voice he could muster, "Just WHO said you could have fun?"

[cntryboy0531]

NYC must be one of the last places in the US that where that hasn't been found unconstitutional.

Of course flipping off a judge is a whole new ball game as long as they can use vague "contempt of court" rulings.

Kind of the same thing with Immunity from civil damages.. We as LEO's have "qualified immunity" which means we have to qualify for it, in front of a judge. However, judges have "Sovereign Immunity" and are given it automatically.

Odd how we have to take the crap, but those that can make the rules, don't....

[CelticSmackdown]

In Texas its the same way. As Public Servants we are required to take the abuse.


However, if an "innocent" bystander just happens to get offended by said gesture, well then....

Where I work, you would have to get the bystander to sign the city citation which would require them to show up for court. Not gonna happen. We just have to shrug it off.

[retdetsgt]

We lost the ability to arrest for that not long after I came on. It used to fall under disorderly conduct, but our disorderly conduct law was so vague that just about any contempt of cop would fall under it. The courts threw out the statute sometime in the early 70's and the legislature never got around to deleting it from the books and writing a new one.

Oregon has untold number of criminal laws that have been found unconstitutional over the years and the legislature has been too lazy to repeal them. If a new cop reads the state statutes, he will believe he can arrest for all sorts of things.

A couple of DA's over the years have beseeched them to clean up the mess, but they won't bother.