What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? 2nd circuit
In a long dead and locked thread (https://forum.freeadvice.com/other-crimes-federal-state-4/flipping-bird-disorderly-conduct-316664.html) regarding a ticket for flipping the bird, I remember a comment by Carl that stuck in my craw a bit.
Personally, I see someone flipping me off as someone trying to flag me down ... I suppose they might need some assistance so I will go and cotnact them. On more than one occasion this has led me to wanted persons ... go figure! (It's a bad idea to flip off a cop if you have a warrant or a suspended license!)
Apparently, the 2nd circuit also would also have a bit of a problem. (Swart v. Insogna, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 186 (2d Cir. January 3, 2013)[http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/3c970e8e-2149-4978-a16f-5c00b6806944/1/doc/11-2846_opn.pdf]) To getting the finger, the officer said:
The officers gave a different account. In his deposition,
Insogna said that after he saw John give him the finger, he decided to
follow the car “to initiate a stop on it.” As reasons he stated: (1)
John’s gesture “appeared to me he was trying to get my attention for
some reason,” (2) “I thought that maybe there could be a problem in
the car. I just wanted to assure the safety of the passengers,” and
(3) “I was concerned for the female driver, if there was a domestic
dispute.”
To which the court replied:
Perhaps there is a police officer somewhere who would interpret
an automobile passenger’s giving him the finger as a signal of
distress, creating a suspicion that something occurring in the
automobile warranted investigation. And perhaps that interpretation
is what prompted Insogna to act, as he claims. But the nearly
universal recognition that this gesture is an insult deprives such an
interpretation of reasonableness. This ancient gesture of insult is
not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or
impending criminal activity. Surely no passenger planning some
wrongful conduct toward another occupant of an automobile would call
attention to himself by giving the finger to a police officer. And if
there might be an automobile passenger somewhere who will give the
finger to a police officer as an ill-advised signal for help, it is
far more consistent with all citizens’ protection against improper
police apprehension to leave that highly unlikely signal without a
response than to lend judicial approval to the stopping of every
vehicle from which a passenger makes that gesture.
In other words, um, no.
