Excuse me, officer, I have a 'gift' for you!
I no longer give "drivers" THE FINGER!
I prefer to give THEM an exaggerated SALUTE!
I know exactly what my thoughts are and THEY have to guess my action!
Oldcatman
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****ACLU Defends Driver's Right To 'Flip Off' State Trooper!
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. -- The ACLU is defending a 35-year-old motorist's right to "flip off" a Colorado state trooper.
Shane Boor was cited April 19 for misdemeanor harassment involving an obscene gesture after another trooper tracked him down at his workplace, according the American Civil Liberties Union and court records.
"It’s rude to flip off a cop, but it’s not a crime," Mark Silverstein, ACLU legal director, said in a Thursday statement.
"The protection of the Constitution is not limited to speech that is acceptable in polite society. The First Amendment also protects expression that may be disrespectful, coarse or even vulgar," he said. The ACLU is providing Boor free criminal defense services.
Colorado State Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Heather Cobler said a trooper did cite Boor for harassment. She said the State Patrol will issue a statement on the incident Friday.
She noted that patrol officers were already in the area working on speed enforcement with a patrol plane alerting ground units to speeding vehicles. So the officer who tracked down and cited Boor was not dispatched from outside the area, she said.
Boor was driving to work near West Bowles Avenue and C470 in Jefferson County at about 10:05 a.m. when he saw a state trooper on the roadside, writing a ticket for another driver, the ACLU said.
"As he passed by, Mr. Boor extended his middle finger in the trooper’s direction, a gesture that quietly expressed Mr. Boor’s disapproval of what he regarded as unjustified harassment by members of the trooper’s profession," the ACLU statement said.
Soon after Boor arrived at his work, another trooper showed up and questioned Boor about the hand gesture, the ACLU said. Boor was issued a criminal summons charging him with harassment, which carries a possible penalty of six months in jail.
The summons stated: “Mr. Boor with intent to harass, annoy, alarm Trooper White did unlawfully in a public place, make an obscene gesture to or at said victim.”
“We will urge the DA’s office to dismiss this unjustified criminal case and we are confident they will,” said Dan Recht, a private attorney working with the ACLU, who is defending Boor in court.
"The police obviously need better training concerning our country’s time-honored constitutional right to free expression," he said. "Their training must teach them to shrug off insults and disrespectful comments from the public. In essence, they need to develop a thicker skin so that our constitutional rights prevail."
TheDenverChannel
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