David Hackbart, 35, will be awarded $50,000 after being ticketed in Pittsburgh for flipping the bird in traffic.
Pittsburgh City Council approved the settlement of a free speech lawsuit filed by Hackbart. Hackbart flipped the bird at another driver in 2006 and then did it again to a second driver who turned out to be a police officer.
It is again astonishing to me that the police persisted in this litigation to the point of a trial. If the public is upset, it should be directly that anger told the officials who persisted in litigating this issue.
For the full story, click here
Pittsbird, home of the flippin’ lotto.
From posting: “is again astonishing to me that the police persisted in this litigation ”
The linked article says that the lawyer for the city won’t comment because the matter is pending; they can’t be thinking about appealing this can they? It must be a nice place to live though, what with no other criminal activity to worry about but rudeness.
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OT Rudeness:
Dana Perino is still bashing Obama and defending George Bush, now claiming that there were no terrorist attacks on GB’s watch! This AFTER Obama nominated her for a job in his administration last week. I resented havo pay her salary when she worked for GB, It’s going to make me crazy to pay her salary wiorks for Obama. Acting like Lincoln is one thing, Lincoln tapped smart people from the ranks of his critics; this is scrapeing the bottom of the barrel, this is a farce.
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/bush-spokesperson-forgets-911-attacks-occurred-bush/
“havo” should have been “having”
Damn. I should have let that Lenexa cop arrest me for giving the finger.
Yikes! I flipped off a cop once. I came to a dangerous intersection that I was familiar with – a multi-street, funny angle intersection where it’s hard to tell where to stop and which light controls which lanes of traffic. There was a brown American make sedan with a dumb looking white guy behind the wheel sitting out in the middle of the intersection. (In other words, in a location that endangered himself and approaching traffic) I flashed my lights, waved my hand trying to get him to get out of the intersection. He clearly saw me and refused to get out of the intersection. I was pretty aggravated at this dangerous moron, so I flipped him off and drove off. Yep … flashing lights behind me. I came pretty close to receiving an on the spot “enforcement action”.
I’ve got to remember .. doltish looking (usually white in Chicago) guy driving clunky brown American sedan .. give wide berth … expect/tolerate stupidity…
Why isn’t “flipping the bird” a protected form of free speech? The police are being granted way too much deference in light of the multiple instances of police brutality that we read about almost every day on Prof. Turley’s blog.
Lottakatz,
I am with you on the Perino matter. I can agree with nominating fair minded Republicans(there must be one or two around), but not Dana fricking Perino!
lottakatz & rafflaw–
I’m thinking to myself: Is Dana Perino the bottom of the Republican barrel? Not sure. After all, there’s Sarah Palin…Dick Cheney…David Addington…Richard Perle and others.
To be sure, she sure ain’t well endowed with gray matter.
You gotta love how Hannity let Perino off the hook when she said: “But we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”
My daughter one time walked by the TV one day when Bush was on TV. I think she was 8 almost 9. She put her Three Middle Fingers together and said hey “Georges Read between the line.”
Elaine,
Perino may not be the bottom of the Republican barrell, but she is in the ballpark. She is the Bush equivalent to Bagdhad Bob!
rafflaw–
Maybe we could call Dana the Beltway Boob?
Elaine,
The name just seems to fit her.
“This AFTER Obama nominated her for a job in his administration last week.”
LK,
I’ve got to agree. what could possibly be the motive for this nomination and if there is one do I really want to hear it. She made Arie Fleisher look like a genius and George W like a man of thoughtfulness, in comparison to her gross stupidity.