welcome back to the civil rights lawyer Channel you're about to see brand new video footage you
won't see anywhere else showing my client here in West Virginia getting arrested for
giving the middle finger to a police officer check it out you're not going to believe how
it ended up Marshall City Police Department what's the middle finger is that a certain
hand signal that you got to give away just just to do it because I want to all right where's your
driver's license registration driver's license registration proof of insurance is that why you
pull yes driver's license registration proof of insurance I can you're in the middle of a traffic
stop listen driver's license registration proof of insurance so you pull me improper
hand display driver's license registration if I had to say it one more time to provide me with
the documents and want to place you under arrest under arrest for what get out good
on February 10 2023 Corey Lambert was driving down the road and he gave the middle finger to a police
officer who was driving by that police officer then in response to the middle finger initiated
a traffic stop this occurred in Martinsburg West Virginia the officer was Kobe Engel from
the Martinsburg Police Department here's what he wrote in his report I witnessed a white male
driver later identified as Corey Lambert driving a Chevy pickup truck traveling eastbound on Mall
Drive when I passed Corey I witnessed him giving an improper hand signal prior to turning left
onto Mall access road I then turned around and initiated my emergency lights and sirens
and conducted a traffic stop in the parking lot of Grand Home Furnishings on Mall Loop [Music]
1037 here in front of the Grand Home Furnishing West Virginia 28.
three two Victor seven zero nine three two V seven zero
come on
when I approached Corey I advised to him the reason for the Stop Corey later
stated that he was not indicating his direction of travel in his vehicle with
his hand signaling and that he was simply giving me the middle finger
margin City Police Department
just to do it because I want to all right where's your driver's license
registration driver's license registration proof of insurance is that why you pulled yes driver's
license registration proof of insurance due to this being a municipal violation of hand and
arm signals 339.10 I then asked Corey multiple times for his driver license registration and
proof of insurance he told me multiple times that he didn't have to provide me with these
documents I can you're in the middle of a traffic stop listen driver's license registration proof
of insurance improper hand display at this time patrolman first class bore squat told
Corey again that if he didn't provide us with these documents that he would be placed under
arrest Corey continued to not comply with our demands driver's license registration
if I had to say it one more time to provide me with the documents I'm going to place you
under arrest under arrest for look get up Corey was then placed under arrest at this
time and transported back to the Martinsburg City police station for processing get out of the car
you're violating my rights you know that right
get your [ __ ] off at him down
kick a few apart
let's go
the other thing on the stick right is your body cam on
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box Believe It or Not Corey was then held on a cash only bond for four days and three nights
following his arrest he was charged with Municipal violations of improper hand signals and two counts
of obstruction then because the charges were Municipal instead of a real court and a real
judge it went to a municipal court which so they told us on the phone claims not to be a
quote Court of record and as such apparently keeps no paperwork but they told us that the result of
the case was that the improper signaling charge which doesn't appear to be a crime at all was
dismissed one count of obstruction was dismissed and he was convicted on one count of obstruction
thank you so we're 95. [Applause]
stupid
no I am is he coming you took the keys or what no let's have Harbor standby for lessons
you guys
yep
[ __ ] stupid
um
foreign
just because I felt like it I'm staying on you ready
um now
all right
2311 can you actually Slide by here please if you
don't mind just because we gotta leave the vehicle the keys with the vehicle
so then the officers apparently together conspired to turn off the audio of their
body cam while leaving the video running since we can't hear what they're saying
I'll just speed up the rest of it and then we can discuss the really really
tricky question of whether it's illegal to give the middle finger to a police officer
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you
foreign [Music]
what all was said there well we have no idea because the audio was intentionally turned off
by both officers for officer safety reasons of course but they did for some reason want to leave
the video playing that also probably is because of Officer safety so the compelling legal question of
our time can police officers pull you over and arrest you for giving them the middle finger
just the basics here the protections of the First Amendment are not limited to just spoken words but
rather they include gestures and other expressive conduct even if vulgar or offensive to police
officers for example cone vs California 1971 U.S Supreme Court it held that an individual wearing
a jacket that had the words F the draft the full word the Supreme Court held that an individual
wearing that jacket and a courthouse Corridor could not be prosecuted for disturbing the
peace consistent with that precedent although the gesture generally known as giving the finger is
widely regarded as an often offensive insult not just to police officers it is a gesture that is
generally protected by the First Amendment there's a couple big cases out there I will put those in
the blog post but they hold this any reasonable police officer would know that a citizen who
raises his middle finger engages in speech protected by the First Amendment a plaintiff
raising his middle finger at a police officer is a rude and offensive gesture the court says but
nonetheless under Federal current precedent it's a constitutionally protected speech activity and
I found this Really Great Law review article that goes all through the history and the nuances of
the law of giving the police the middle finger but the point is is there's really no question
at all that you have a constitutionally protected right to give the middle finger to police officers
but if police officers are going to pull you over for that they can't admit that they can't
document evidence on their body Cam that that's why they pulled you over because that would be an
illegal and unconstitutional stop and if they do an illegal and in unconstitutional stop they have
no right to detain you and if they have no right to detain you what can they not do they cannot
force you to ID yourself to give your registration and proof of insurance and if they can't do that
what else can't they do they can't arrest you for obstruction for not doing it quickly enough
but what was this really we know what this was this was a classic case of First Amendment
retaliation the police officers did not like being given the middle finger so they decided to abuse
their Authority and abuse the Constitution abused the trust that has been placed in them as police
officers that are sworn to uphold the law and they used the law or misused the law for their own
personal malicious purposes of getting payback on this person who dared give them the middle finger
and clearly set up a bogus obstruction arrest even if it was a Justified stop pull them out
harder than they had to put them in handcuffs when they didn't need to shove them in really
hard gave set up a cash bail sort of situation where they probably intended for him to be in
jail for up to three days just for giving the cops a middle finger imagine having that kind
of power to abuse so this guy Corey Lambert came to me and he told me this story so I foiled the
footage and I just got it a couple days ago and sure enough it was just like he said and
you always know that the the footage you get via foia is going to be really good when it comes on
the letterhead of a big Law Firm so clearly when somebody with some brains saw this footage they
knew that they were going to have a problem so I am going to rip present him and we are going to
file a big lawsuit here so be looking for updates make sure to subscribe both here and at the blog
at the Civil Rights lawyer.com if you want to follow along and look at other cases such as
videos I've done on similar cases flashing lights at the police or wearing a F the police t-shirt
I think was one of them a bunch of different ones so remember freedom is scary deal with it foreign
foreign