Posted on 06/26/2024 6:55:15 PM PDT by TomServo
ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was charged with a crime for giving a state trooper the middle finger in 2018, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by the ACLU of Vermont on behalf of Gregory Bombard, of St. Albans. It says Bombard’s First Amendment rights were violated after an unnecessary traffic stop and retaliatory arrest in 2018.
Trooper Jay Riggen stopped Bombard’s vehicle in St. Albans on Feb. 9, 2018, because he believed Bombard had shown him the middle finger, according to the lawsuit. Bombard denied that but says he did curse and display the middle finger once the initial stop was concluded.
Bombard was stopped again and arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, and his car was towed. He was jailed for over an hour and cited to criminal court, according to the ACLU. The charge was eventually dismissed.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Back the blue, till it happens to you.
“Have you been following the Karen Read trial in MA?”
Wall to wall, it’s in deliberation right now. I thought at first and thru most of the trial she may have been guilty but that elements of law enforcement may have been putting their foot on the scale of justice to ensure conviction but after the two FBI hired reconstruction experts I’m convinced of an outright frame now by some in law enforcement.
Jackson is an amazing lawyer.
The cop in this video sounds just like Lally, would you agree, lol.
I watch those videos too.....the cops are just so STUPID....instead of backing off like they should they get all “butt hurt”.....
I flipped off a cop back in the ‘80s, but didn’t know he was a cop — was in plain clothes.
Going to my brother’s wedding, Dad was driving in a big city he’d never been in before, so his pace was slow, jerky, and a little off looking at street signs. I was in the back seat. Some guy behind us was tailgating and making Dad even more nervous. So I did the finger thing. (Dad had his “Clergy” sticker on the car, too - LOL!)
The guy motioned Dad to pull over, which he did. Asked Dad if he needed help with directions — which he did. As the cop walked by the rear window where I was, back toward his car, he smiled and winked at me.
Have your been following the Karen Read trial in MA?
I have been keeping up with it enough to believe she is being framed by the cops.
I totally agree...not just the cops, but the DA brought a case they had to have known was crooked to begin with.
Illegal stop. That said some people don’t know when to shut up.
There are these two guys out in AZ who drive around and flash a flashlight at cop cars as they drive by. Inevitably there will be A cop who falls for it and pulls them over. Naturally they video the whole thing. Refuse to get out of the car, taunt the cop etc. Its actually pretty hilarious. Eventually the supervisor shows up and tells the cop its not against the law to flash a flashlight and everyone goes home.
The FR BLM cop hater chapter will hate this story, but in my local small town we had a local officer get flipped off and cursed at a red light and he turned and followed the car and in a few minutes lit them up and they started in on him about the first Amendment and abuse of power and he replied simply your tags are expired and they were according to the plate. They raged and demanded a sergeant and one appeared and they started up again about being abused and he asked them, is your registration expired? Yes, but...
In the end their registration was expired as well as their insurance for their troubles they got their car towed as under state law it couldn’t be driven. All this just so they could flip a cop off they hated and the Norman Einstein’s did it with clearly expired plates. Brilliant!
There have been a number of cases testing the free speech protections of “flipping the bird,” including a couple at appeals court level (most recently Cruise-Gulyas v. Minard, No. 18-2196 [6th Cir. 2019]), and I can’t recall a single one that didn’t hold that giving somebody the finger — even the PoPo — was protected by 1A.
You mean the taxpayers of Vermont are on the hook for this nuisance lawsuit.
“Hopefully that officer is fired.”
No such luck. According to the video i saw he retired.
because they can.
You fix the problem by requiring them to have insurance to cover their bad behavior that they must pay for out of pocket. If they are problems, remaining a cop becomes increasingly expensive to them.
In Arkansas, they treat people who run with tender care, even when they yell that their leg is broke.
Looks like we may be headed to a hung jury...It would be interesting to know what's going on in that jury room. I followed this pretty closely. I don't see how the Commonwealth's case is getting any serious consideration.
Back years ago I had a girlfriend that her middle finger got broken and was in a finger brace, taped up and all that. She was driving to work and at a traffic light made a left turn and her hand was on the steering wheel with that finger pointing upwards while she was turning the steering wheel and there was a cop in the oncoming lane waiting for the lights to change and he pulled her over thinking she was flipping him off. She pulled over and rolled the window down as he was walking up to her and started in on her about obscene gestures and she stuck her hand out the window for him to see. He said never mind, turned around and walked back to his car.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.