Kansas Man Who Flipped Off Cop Gets $4,000

Kansas Man Who Flipped Off Cop Gets $4,000O


Overland Park man who flashed an obscene gesture at an Olathe police officer after getting a ticket is getting rewarded for his behavior.

The city of Olathe has settled a civil rights complaint filed by Scott Schaper of Overland Park. He was ticketed in September for disorderly conduct for flipping off an officer who had given him a ticket for running a stop sign.

The city of Olathe last week agreed that its insurance company would pay Schaper $4,000, with another $1,000 for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri.

Olathe police also must train its officers that they are required to take such verbal abuse.

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Olathe fared better than Pittsburgh did in a similar case of angry gesticulating.

The Pennsylvania city paid $10,000 to a citizen ticketed for giving a police officer the finger and $40,000 more to the ACLU for legal work, reported the Star.

In that case, the citizen flipped off a Pittsburgh officer who had told him to stop giving the finger to another driver.

Prairie Village's police chief, Wes Jordan, the outgoing president of an association of Johnson County police chiefs and the sheriff, said of such abuse: "We have to just swallow it."

http://cbs2chicago.com/watercooler/cop.the.finger.2.1637601.html

What's that about? Trash-talking from Helen Keller?

I'm reminded of Robin Williams with his frenzied signing about orgasms on some show a few years back...

He spent a night in jail for "disorderly conduct" for being "rude" to an officer during an unnecessary stop.

My first instinct is "screw that guy, he sounds like a jerk." Cooler reflection reminds me being an asshole is not a ticketable offense. :toast:

HE broke the law & could have killed someone and HE'S pissed off at the officer because he got caught??? That's like rewarding your kids for being speaking openly after they called you obscene names and gestured to you! I'm not sure he should have gotten a ticket but I'm sure he shouldn't have been rewarded!

:scared:

Stopped at a stop sign in a manner that was unacceptable to a cop, I know I have.

It is about 1st amendment protections. It may not be pretty but folks have the right to swear at police and flip them off.

I believe in challanging authority but not in disrespecting it. If there ever was an authority that I detestedd enough to gesture, swear at & every other anti action you can think of it was Shrub,, but even HIM, I never would have disrespected his position either face to face or via letter or email.

There have police officers action that have had me call them pigs, AH's, BTD's and much more, but that was in the privacy of my livingroom, not in person!

How ridiculous in the 21st century that ANYONE would associate meaning with a manual gesture, and I'll go so far as to say that includes cocking one's index like a gun or dragging finger across throat, which I also find distasteful, but protected.

Seriously, you could get a ticket for holding your mouth wrong in Kansas, literally. So this is very good news.

Using gestures is one thing, but what if the person was verbally threatening a police officer with assault? That would be a different story.

...and he has four more!