OFF THE WIRE
WASHINGTON -- A police officer can't pull you over and arrest you
just because you gave him the finger, a federal appeals court declared
Thursday.
In a 14-page opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the "ancient gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity."
John Swartz and his wife Judy Mayton-Swartz had sued two police
officers who arrested Swartz in May 2006 after he flipped off an officer
who was using a radar device at an intersection in St. Johnsville, N.Y.
Swartz was later charged with a violation of New York's disorderly
conduct statute, but the charges were dismissed on speedy trial grounds.
A federal judge in the Northern District of New York granted summary
judgement to the officers in July 2011, but the Court of Appeals on
Thursday erased that decision and ordered the lower court to take up the
case again.
Richard Insogna, the officer who stopped Swartz and his wife when
they arrived at their destination, claimed he pulled the couple over
because he believed Swartz was "trying to get my attention for some
reason." The appeals court didn't buy that explanation, ruling that the
"nearly universal recognition that this gesture is an insult deprives
such an interpretation of reasonableness."
