Final Paragraph:
Courts distinguish between speech that merely annoys an officer and speech that genuinely impedes their work. While police may resent offensive words, they cannot use their authority to punish individuals for lawful, protected conduct. Determining whether speech is protected or unprotected involves careful analysis of all surrounding facts and circumstances.
Edited to add:
Few of us here would align ourselves with the group trying to suppress information right now, so although I recognize this is not always a smart decision in every situation, I’m not really willing to get onboard with the idea that disseminating topical information from reasonable sources is a problem.
Use your downvotes as you see fit, but I’m not going to apologize for the post. Edit: And am a little disappointed to see information buried so decisively in this community on Lemmy of all places.
they cannot use their authority to punish individuals for lawful, protected conduct.
But they will. They will find excuses to arrest you, and they will claim resist arrest. If you sue them, they get a vacation paid by taxpayers.
Edit: pigs in the US are legally allowed to lie, and they are protected by qualified immunity.
I can attest. Was arrested for “loitering” while exercising my freedom of speech in the vicinity of a cop. Judge threw it out in the end but it was still a hassle.
You should know the difference between dejure and defacto.
I don’t want to alarm anyone from outside the US, but the pigs are pretty loose about how the rules apply to themselves.
Why don’t you try it and find out how much these theoretical legal protections are worth? 🙃
I was alive in 2020 (and before) I’m well aware how little they often care about the rules.
While police may resent offensive words, they cannot use their authority to punish individuals for lawful, protected conduct.
Factually incorrect.
First, consider that regardless of whether they are prohibited from arresting people for insulting them, they do. Those charges are often dropped or thrown out, sure - albeit with no consequences for the police officer - but I would consider having to deal with that hassle “punishment” that they can inflict purely because of their authority.
But there’s also institutional support for an officer to punish you for lawful, protected conduct. If you upset an officer and in response, he cites or arrests you for a minor but legitimate offense that he’d have otherwise not cared about, you’re very unlikely to get that technically legitimate charge thrown out of court. It may be that police are technically prohibited from doing this, but in practice, “He only arrested me for — insert random crime here, let’s say jaywalking — because I called him a pig, said I’d engaged in coitus with his mother the previous night, and asked if he’d like to watch next time or if he had a night in with his partner’s nightstick planned” isn’t going to suffice to get the charge thrown out, even if the judge believes you, if you were actually breaking the law in question. And since pretty much everyone is breaking laws all the time, this means that as long as the police officer can find one that you’re currently breaking, you’re fucked.
There are no laws in this country anymore but what can be gained through force. That goes for individuals and the police and the police get to use force at their leisure.
Telling a police officer to fuck off may not be illegal but it’s still inadvisable. If they don’t like you, they’re more likely to look for a reason to bust you.
And they can kill you without legal repercussions.
So remember kids: Legal !== Lethal
Don’t be so selfish. Some of us have families that could do a lot with the lawsuit money.
Cops can beat the shit out of you too.
You probably should know if you tell an officer to fuck off, you can legally and they can make shit up and detain you legally for a few hours.
Also, a YSK post, shouldn’t include “probably” that’s a YSPK or a YPSK 🤪
LMAO
As somebody who has done it on a few occasions… Sure you can legally do it and they will beat your ass.
So unless you are ready to get your ass beat down, you really should STFU.
OP you really should not be “encouraging” this since idiots generally don’t understand the basic human law of FAFO
Hmm this is a good point, but I don’t entirely agree.
I know that I have wondered many times if I can drop a random (or not so random) ‘eff you’ as I pass, and I’m glad to know I probably can, whether I ever actually do or not. Knowledge is - knowledge.
Few of us here would align ourselves with the group trying to suppress information right now, so although I recognize this is not always a smart decision in every situation, I’m not really willing to get onboard with the idea that disseminating topical information from reasonable sources is a problem.
