TERRELL JERMAINE STARR, ALTERNET
Being rude is not illegal, even if some of us
sometimes wish it were. Being rude to cops, including cursing them out may be
ill-advised, but it is protected speech.Yet that doesn’t mean you won’t end up
in bracelets anyway.
As the Marshall Project reports, many citizens
are illegally arrested for cursing at cop, when in fact, their speech is
protected. A police officer from the McKinney, TX police department was
captured on the now infamous pool party video throwing a 15-year-old girl to
the ground after he accused her of mouthing off. He was later fired for his
actions.
Last week, the Washington Supreme Court threw out
an obstruction case against a man who cursed at cops after they were called to
investigate a disturbance at his home in 2011. In December, a Georgia woman was
awarded a $100,000 settlement after cops arrested her in 2012 and placed her in
solitary confinement for cursing at them and flipping the officers the bird.
Threatening speech is a different matter. If someone
threatens violence against a cop (“I’ll fuck you up!”) or challenges a law
enforcement officer to a fight, those are “fighting words.” Whether or not they
are meant seriously, fighting words can lead to a legal arrest. Other than
that, cursing at cops in frustration after being stopped or dealing with an
unpleasant police situation should not get you locked up.
Eric Guster, a civil rights defense attorney
based in Birmingham, Ala., told AlterNet that people should record verbal
interactions with officers because it will be a matter of “he said, she said”
if a cop slaps handcuffs on you for cursing at him.
“By the time a police officer gets his story
together, the police report will read, ‘The person said, I’m going to kick your
ass.’ Just like the South Carolina shooting where Walter Scott was accused of
reaching for the cop’s taser. Then we saw what really happened when the video
came out,” Guster said. “That is why I encourage people to record all of the
interactions they can. Sometimes, they can’t get video, but at minimum, you can
turn on your recorder, put it on your car seat, put it in your pocket, just to
record the events.”
There are no statistics available to determine
how many citizens are arrested for cursing at officers, but courts around the
country consistently rule in favor of defendants who find themselves behind
bars for using profane, but protected speech against law enforcement.
Last Thursday, the Court of Appeals in Manhattan
overturned the conviction of Richard Gonzalez, who had been charged with
disorderly conduct and possession of a weapon after he ranted and raved
expletives at cops. He was convicted and sentenced to three and a half to seven
years in prison. The appeals court ruled Gonzalez wasn’t engaged in disorderly
conduct just by virtue of shouting obscenities, and that this behavior wasn’t a
“potential or immediate public problem.” And because he didn’t commit a crime,
the cops had no probable cause to search him.
Eric Sanders, a civil rights attorney who served
as a police officer in the NYPD for more than 12 years, told AlterNet that most
of the cops making these arrests should never have been given a badge and a
gun.
“There are too many people who don’t belong in
policing,” said Sanders, who has spent much of his legal career suing the NYPD
for various civil rights allegations.“That is never addressed by anybody.
You’re supposed to have thick skin. They teach you that in the police academy.
You represent the government, and when you represent the government, it is not
always favored by the people. So what? As long as they are following the law,
who cares?”
The use of vulgar speech against police officers
came to a head during the late 1980s when N.W.A. released Straight Outta
Compton, which featured a track titled, “Fuck the Police.” Many officers who
served as security for music concerts refused to protect the young hip hop
group when they toured the country. During a Detroit concert, policerushed to
the stage after Ice Cube started speaking lyrics from the song. The group fled
the stage and were later questioned by the cops. No one was charged. Asked why
the officers rushed the stage, one was quoted as saying, “We just wanted to
show the kids that you can’t say ‘Fuck the Police’ in Detroit.”
Sanders believes the reaction to N.W.A. was
purely racial. White America, he says, wasn’t ready to hear a group of young
black men use music to express speech that challenged police authority—and it
still isn’t.
“Privileged white people talk about the
government all day long on television,” he said. “Rush Limbaugh and others say
all kinds of things about the government. You see them being arrested? They’re
not going to have street encounters. The average person walking around in the
neighborhood is likely to have street encounters because the police
interactions with them are diametrically different than what would occur on the
Upper East Side.”
People are often charged with disorderly conduct
for cursing at officers. In 2012, the ACLU of New York found that black
students in city schools made up a majority of the disorderly conduct summonses
for the 2011-2012 school year. Last year, the New York Daily News reported
that, between 2001 and 2013, a disproportionate number of minorities were
arrested for disorderly conduct under “broken windows.” In Minneapolis, a black
person is 8.86 times more likely to be arrested than a white person for
disorderly conduct, according to the ACLU.
While it is not known exactly how many of these
arrests are the result of profanity being used toward police officers, it does
reveal a trend of hyper-policing that troubles Sanders.
“As long as they are not breaking the law, people
are allowed to have their First Amendment right to say, ‘Fuck the police.’ It’s
reality. ‘Fuck the police. I hate all cops.’ Is it a nice thing to hear? No.
But is it legal? Sure it is. There is no law against that,” he said.
That may be so, but Guster warns that it’s still
smart to keep your cool during a stop or interaction with law enforcement. The
hassle going to court to fight the case, pay bail and secure a lawyer may not
be worth it.
“You can cuss at them all day, but they can
arrest you, although it’s not legal,” he said. “It’s just the trouble of
dealing with it later on that is the problem. And the police know that.”
THESE COMPANIES SUPPORTED THE FAIRFAX COUNTY COPS SPORTS GAMES
John Geer is still dead
The cop who killed him is still on a paid vacation after two years
The cops refuse to wear body cameras
and the companies saw to fit to underwrite the cops....thanks for nothing
HI!
I'm John Faust
I am on the board of supervisors and I have never, not once, ever, spoken out or spoken up about the Fairfax County Police. When they shot and killed two unarmed men...I said nothing...and now I want you to reelect me.
YOU GET THE GOVERNMENT YOU DESERVE
