and welcome back to the civil rights lawyer channel is there a protected First Amendment
right to give the middle finger to Cops to flip them the bird I think I've done at least one
video possibly several on this well just today A video popped up on YouTube Somebody sent me
a link to it showing a guy who was in I think Riverside California and apparently flips off
a California Highway Patrol guy that guy then turns around and follows him into a parking
lot and then this incident occurs in the parking lot take a look at the footage and let's go over
this yet again any reasonable police officer has to know according to the case law that a citizen
citizen who raises his middle finger engages in speech protected by the First Amendment foreign
so all I know about this is what this guy put on his YouTube channel and this is from joshingyou
I'll put a link to his channel in this in the description so you can see for yourself
and watch for yourself the raw footage that he uploaded but this is what he says CHP officer
Nico LeBeau got flipped off and did not like it he chased me into a parking lot and attacked me when
I defended myself I got charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest the judge
says I'm quote going to answer for this if you he then goes on to say if you feel any sort of
way about this he gives the contact information to the Riverside in California Highway Patrol
station and says that the captain is Levi Miller and his direct supervisor is Sergeant Rogers
so there's actually dash cam footage which does not have any audio and then there's the officer's
body cam footage which after a certain point does have audio here the dash cam footage is important
because it shows the guy passing by Joshua I guess his name is passing by in his truck you
can't quite see him flipping the bird but you can see the truck pass and then immediately you see
the officer wheel his Cruiser around and quickly turn to follow him in response to whatever that
police officer saw and then he follows him in to this parking lot immediately pulls in
behind the guy and blocks him in when he Parks into a parking spot and gets out of his Cruise
hello stay in your car stay in your car what are you doing okay I mean at this point we know what's
about to happen this is about to go south really quickly so just first things first the side of
the road or in the middle of a traffic stop is not the place to argue constitutional law with
police officers the place to do that is with your lawyer after the fact and your lawyer taking them
to court so it's not a good idea ever to fight with the police on the side of the road that's
a separate issue over whether or not this was a legal or illegal stop so as I've explained
numerous times all that's required for the police to stop you is reasonable suspicion that some
crime or traffic offense has been committed now if the Undisputed facts are that this police officer
saw this guy flipping the bird and he got angry and in retaliation for that pulled in behind them
and performed the traffic stop a detention for no reason other than flipping him the middle finger
that is going to be unconstitutional now that's a separate question then well what are the facts
of this case the protections of the First Amendment are not limited to spoken words but
they include gestures expressive conduct even conduct that is vulgar vulgar or offensive to
some for instance it could be wearing a jacket with the words F the draft inside a courthouse
okay the gesture generally known as giving the finger although widely regarded as an offensive
insult is generally protected under the First Amendment any reasonable police officer has to
know according to the case law that a citizen citizen who raises his middle finger engages in
speech protected by the First Amendment even though it's rude and offensive and they get
really butt hurt about it so now the question is is that what has happened here although I
did have a prior video where the police officer admitted that that was the reason for a stop
and that was here in West Virginia because he did know any better generally police are
smart enough to know that you're not supposed to admit that they're pulling you over because
you flipped them the finger they are going to follow you and come up with some other reason
to stop you or at least lie about doing so so was that the case here actually if you look at maybe
in slow motion or if you look at it closely when the truck is passing although you can't see him
flipping the finger if I were this police officer his lawyer I would say if you look closely at that
video it sort of looks like he's going right of Center over the white fog line and then he sort
of quickly comes across the lanes to make a left-hand turn into the shopping center and
when he does so was he using his blinker it's hard to tell from this video I tried to look
closely that is going to be the intelligent way to defend against one of these if you're a police
officer who likes to violate the constitution and then get away with it that's what I think
the issues are going to be here are the factual disputes about whether or not that was the reason
for the stop because generally police officers are not going to admit that stay in your car
so obviously what happens here is there is a use of force the guy is physically resisting
and this officer takes him to the ground and there's apparently another retired off-duty
officer who's off the side he then jumps into The Fray and assists in the handcuffing and there's
also a lady a third party like an older Karen lady who's watching off to the side you'll see
at the end she comes up and she congratulates the officer and shakes his hand but that's what
happens here they get him handcuffed and now he's laying on the ground and he's really pissed off
could you please stop flipping 702 a week too another unit's here two more you attack me pal
yeah when you got out of your car yeah when I got out of my car
what the [ __ ] am I doing what did I do a tattoo [ __ ] he came up to me
[ __ ] right here thank you we're gonna walk to the back of the car Wait do the motorcycle cops in
California actually wear those uniforms I thought that was just in the the TV show from the 80s
plates on your vehicle buddy oh yeah yeah oh yeah and you think that's a crime and there we have it
this should have been the part where the guy said you pulled me over for flipping you off and you
beat me up for flipping you off and that's where the cop could applied or perhaps admitted it but
instead he says well you had no plates on your car and then the guy's like well yeah I guess you're
right but that's not a crime not a great case for the guy who was going to basically fight the
officer on that constitutional Hill nothing was said about flipping the officer off so what about
the officers claim that he pulled him over because of the lack of a license plate it apparently is
true if you look at the truck it does not have a license plate on it I don't think in California
they have front plates do they if they have front plates in California then the officer could have
seen from the front of the vehicle that he did not have a plate but if you watch the footage assuming
there's not supposed to be a front plate the officer already starts to turn immediately upon
seeing the front and side of that vehicle I don't think he could have seen the rear of the vehicle
and the lack of a plate on the vehicle so that would corroborate a later claim that the officer
in fact performed an illegal stop in retaliation for a protected First Amendment activity
in California are you sure sit down the reason I'm stopping
it's that guy's phone I think so okay yeah
freaking guy oh and you're mad fell at him oh [ __ ]
it sounded to me like right there he was about to be like you know this guy flipped me off
whatever because sometimes they make the mistakes of discussing it after the fact creating evidence
that can be used against them to establish civil rights violations but this guy I think he started
to and then he thought the better of it because he remembered that his body cam was recording
oh no I appreciate it thank you very much for your help appreciate it at least it's
beautiful okay I need to get your info here in a second yeah thank you appreciate it
for just a minute okay
foreign so that's it thanks for watching I'm sure there will be many more of these to come
but that's the law there is a protected First Amendment right to flip the bird to
police officers or other government officials and they cannot use that as the basis for a
detention for a traffic stop but they can use it to have some motive to follow you and look
for some other Reasonable Suspicion to detain you or some other probable cause to arrest you
some of the defense I've heard from Cops some of the cops planing I've heard with this is
oh so you think that you can go rob a bank you just have to flip a cop off first and then you
can break any law you want no of course not but that's where they go with this they say oh yeah
you flip me the bird but then that just you got the attention that you wanted then I started to
follow you and I saw some other violation so we have to look at the facts like we did in
this case did he start to pull the guy over before he saw the other alleged Reasonable
Suspicion it does appear that he did that in this case so it's good to review the body cam
footage it would also be nice to see the police report if that were available I haven't seen
it as always if you like going through these sorts of cases Please Subscribe both here and
at the blog at thecivilrightslawyer.com remember freedom is scary deal with it
foreign