Flipping off a cop isn’t reason enough to get stopped and busted, a Manhattan appeals court ruled yesterday.
In an unanimous ruling, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a civil-rights suit filed by an upstate man charged with disorderly conduct after flipping the bird to a cop using a radar gun to catch speeders.
John Swartz, 62, admitted during a deposition that he gave St. Johnsville Police Officer Richard Insogna a middle-finger salute while riding through town with his wife on Memorial Day 2006.
Swartz, a Vietnam vet and retired American Airlines pilot, said he had never given a cop the finger before, but “something snapped” after years of watching “the police just sitting there, trying to collect money from people who can’t afford to give it.”
The cop’s lawyer said Swartz was arrested only for yelling obscenities on a public street.