Let us not forget that a judgement against a government agency is a monetary loss for the taxpayers of that state or town. I think cops would be much more careful if that money came out of their pensions!
It's supposed to so the victim actually receives compensation and the community, rightly upset, makes sure the cop that caused the damage stops being a cop. Unfortunately we don't have communities anymore and the damage gets hidden by the insurance policy.
I remember when those cops were prosecuted for violating Abdul Louima's civil rights in NY. The news of the ruling was announced and I could see one of the ladies outside my office celebrating. She comes in and tells me about the ruling and the first thing I said to her was "you know the tax payers are paying for that, right?" Her: Oh.
Why did the same government agency waste money fighting this as legal all the way to the Supreme Court? While the trooper made an unlawful arrest due to the First Amendment, his employer/the state backed him up on it. Pay the state back? They were the ones to push the issue. Flipping the bird or other gestures are not always free speech but they are when targeted against the government.
@@tvc1848 Because the taxpayers pay for the lawyers too, and they don't care about the money, and I guess they believe that the victim will run out of time or money before the state does.
Right. But if you break the law your court case with be a few months later. There is absolutely no reason it should take 6 years just for the tax payers to get punished for this idiotic cops actions.
@@Gratefuldeadgriffin --In a 1983 case, as this was, legal fees are awarded by the Court. --He was represented by ACLU. --Attorney fees were 75000. I have no doubt they earned it.
VSP is the worst. As a Vermonter I remember a time when our troopers weren't so offended. Now as a paramedic we can't even get them to help. They are utterly useless to law-abiding citizens.
As a fellow Vermonter, you're completely correct. I listen to local VSP dispatch (they aren't bright enough to have encrypted comms) and all they do is run plates all night.
A cop gets flipped the bird, and they arrest the person. That's a First Amendment violation, AND evidence of an ego that does NOT belong in a police department.
I teach this in the police academy. It is very clear, freedom of speech against the government is allowed…. within limits. Making threats, disrupting a courtroom, etc., are not free speech but certainly flipping off a cop is. Disorderly Conduct charges are valid but not against the police.
@@ColtonRMagby What is weird about it? Disorderly Conduct laws don’t stop people from criticizing the government but those same laws can be filed if directed at a private citizen. To yell profanity at the police is protected. Go into a shopping mall and start causing a disturbance in public by yelling profanity (what the US Supreme Court calls “fighting words”) and those same comments can be a crime.
Many officers do set their ego aside. My cousin was a Maryland State Police for 20 years and he had numerous slurs thrown at him by various people and he never lashed out at them because of it.
Cops know that anything is legal, or illegal, that they can get you to believe. This culture of lying to people all the time, and having people lie to you all the time may be a major reason we get some of the law enforcment people we do, up to an including DAs and the Attorney General of the United States.
Then you have to keep them employed. Make them carry insurance and start an international data base for offenders. Change hiring practices and training practices.
I’m not saying it’s right. But you have no idea what kind of day the officer had prior to this. He could have just saved a family from a psycho killer and his thanks was the bird.
they don't care if it's legal or not . the whole arrest , jail , stress , bond , lawyers , stress , court dates , time off work to go to court and more stress is the punishment.
What irks me is they don't care if the charges stick. They get great pleasure out of taking you to jail and towing your vehicle all because you didn't reverence them as the kings they think they are.
@clbcl5 that's true but if you keep doing it weekly, you won't have to wait for 6 years between each win. Start now, do it every week, and in 6 years, the wins will consistently stream in without the long wait between. All of them will roll in weekly in theory after the initial 6 years, so long as you work hard to be arrested each week. Still have to have a good work ethic to maximize your income potential, as in most career choices.
@@peterhineinlegen4672 Unfortunately, admission of wrongdoing is usually something cops, along with businesses and other government agencies are adamantly opposed to.
@@brianbagnall3029 $175,000 but your point holds. And don't forget whatever settlement the person in Michigan got paid. And the thousands of others in similar rights violation cases. The protests of 2020 have reached in excess of a billion dollars for rights violations. My question is why isn't the DOJ charging these cops under 18US241 and 18US242. Makes no sense to burden the tax payers with footing these bills just to let the cops off to go do it again.
I agree. I have my own horror stories involving cops needlessly injuring and traumatizing me when I was NOT under arrest and I had just called them for moral support. I was also charged once with my aggressor's crime because the cops couldn't be bothered to check the CCTV cameras to see if she was lying which she was. I got my charges dropped because there wasn't enough evidence. The trauma this caused me will take longer than 6 years to heal from. I'll probably never get justice and I was way more beat up by cops than most people. Especially an innocent person. No warrant.
175k. Dude got 100k, legal group representing him got 75k. And that doesn’t account for all the time and expense the state put into it. I’m sure the total is way over 200k.
Who says it isn't affected? There is absolutely a mention of this on his record and doubt any higher-up will keep him if there's another. Usually people get second chance, or at least i thought that was a thing in the US? Everybody should get a second chance? Now, immediately someone is thinking about writing something like "cops are pigs and they protect each-others because they all are corrupt a-holes" and honestly that just isn't how the world works. There are people lining to take that guys job so keeping him with all the negative press is straight-up stupid, it's just easier to kick him and hire a new one.
Because delaying justice = withholding justice And that's the plan, to try to let their goons get away with crimes. If they delay it enough it might go away. In this case they paid up but justice was never served to the goon in question.
The state settled out of court. The guy accepted the settlement, indicating he's satisfied with the outcome, even if it doesn't require the state to release a public comment. If he'd wanted them to admit fault, he could've held their feet to the fire by demanding they release a public statement to that effect as part of the settlement. IOW, their refusal to comment was a refusal to cooperate (with him), until he decided it wasn't. As much as you and I would like to know more, we don't have standing to ask. (OTOH, the people of Vermont, since they're the ones who will be paying for this, can launch an investigation and demand further consequences for the parties involved if they wish. I suspect this isn't over yet for the VSP.)
Reminds me of when my brother was in a motorcycle/SUV accident. The SUV was pulling into traffic, the passenger saw the bike and alerted the driver! The driver then stopped in the eastbound lane of traffic. My brother laid the bike down and was wearing a helmet. He had three options, in front and into possible oncoming traffic and whatif shewentforward. , Behind, and what if she reversed or lay the bike down and pray! He passed away eight days later from head injuries. The news articles about the accident said that the bike was going too fast. Officer never investigated if the female driver was under the influence of anything because "She didn't seem impaired." Nephews insisted on reopening the accident, and my brother was not at fault, but there was no correction in any news articles. 😠
@@donnavandezande3905 My condolences about your brother. A similar thing happened to my parents' friend when I was a child. She drove like a grandmother - slow and super careful - but got into an accident which put her in a coma for 2 months and crippled her for life. When she woke up, she claimed the two teens in the other car ran a red light. The teens claimed she ran the red. Police said 2 people's testimony > 1 person's testimony, and gave her a ticket for running the red light. Many drivers will lie when it's in their own self interest. Get a dashcam. When I told that story, someone else said there was a similar story where a guy went off the road, hit a tree, and was killed. Two witnesses in another car said he'd been driving erratically for a while before going off the road. When police were cleaning up the scene, they found a dismounted dashcam in the wreckage. And the footage revealed that the two "witnesses" had actually been road raging at him and ran him off the road.
It isn't only the cops, it's their supervisors and city and state management. It always starts at the top. If their supervisors weren't corrupt and/or lazy and if the city/state management wasn't corrupt or lazy, there wouldn't be a problem.
It seems the courts have found that qualified immunity is unconstitutional. With zero legal obligation to serve and protect while benefiting from qualified immunity we get an occupying Force of under educated bullies. We need reform, higher standards and better educated public servants.
@@msromike123 Law enforcement comprises a heavily armored group that has been militarized. They number upward of 900,000 nationally. I would call that an occupying force.
If you want better educated public servants, pay us to stay in our jobs. I make 40k/year in my position at a state legislature. When I give up on sticking to believing in the mission and finally take any private equivalent position, I’ll immediately make $80-120k. Got another offer for a position this week. To have highly qualified public servants, we need to pay them adequately.
Over fifty years ago, when I used to drive street legal hot rods on the street, the local cops would pull me over. They would go over the whole car, waste my time, make sure my state inspection sticker was up-to-date, and everything was legal. When they couldn't find anything that they could cite me for, I'd get a ticket for "following too closely." After the third time of this in two months, I went to court and fought it. I had witnesses, and the people in front of me were friends of mine.The people behind me were friends of mine. We were on the way to the drive-in. They were my witnesses. The judge threw it out. That cop ended up getting thrown off the force because he pulled over and sexually harassed someone who turned out to be that judges daughter. KARMA
@mustbetrue1602 You must be a cop or an ex cop to think like this. This was in a small south florida Redneck town. The cop was a douchebag and harassed everybody. You weren't there, and you didn't live with it and have to deal with it. Not all cops are bad , but this one was. After the third ticket, the judge threw it out. Also, the douchebag cop sexually harassed the judge's daughter when he pulled her over one night. We didn't have cameras back then.But if we did, I would love to be able to show you the footage.
@@mustbetrue1602Because cops or security are *never* wrong? If that cop has the narrative in his mind that any kid driving a car like that “needs to learn his place,” that’s abuse of power. In the dark ages, when I was in high school CB Radio was the craze. Our local CB community used to have “Coffee Breaks “ at a local eatery with a large parking lot. A lot of us got rides with older CBers or our parents. There was also a group of motorcyclists that came the same night of the week. We took up fewer spaces, and were inside yakking and buying food. The cyclists rarely came in, except for beer (yep, they sold that). They’d be doing burnouts in the parking lot, nearly running others over, and getting loud. Guess who “Security” was always busting on? They come up to a table of 26 years old and scream at us for not buying food (the table was filled with our food) and being too rowdy. Why didn’t they do anything about the bikers? 1) They made a lot of money on that beer 2) as one county cop once told us, they Security knew WE weren’t going to shove them, and they could push us around. After a few months of this, they lost the business of every CBer for 50 miles. The bikers were there years later, but others stopped going Friday nights since the atmosphere seemed scary. By the time I was out of college, they’d finally gotten up the nerve to trespass the bikers. Who weren’t all causing problems, but hey.
Once again, the cop walks away and the taxpayers clean up the mess. America, we have a police problem. If we don't take control of our servants now, they'll get worse later.
A Pennsylvania state trooper thought it was a good idea to cite me through the mail for disorderly conduct and fighting with first responders. At the magistrates hearing that I requested, the magistrate in front of a fairly large audience Explained the first amendment to the constitution to not only one Pennsylvania state trooper, but two of them. Somehow, they managed to lose the in car camera video they said they had. Imagine how humiliating getting caught lying at a magistrates hearing where these Pennsylvania state troopers see the magistrate on a regular basis probably at least weekly. I handled it Pro se. The gift that they gave me was that recently that Pennsylvania state trooper was arrested for domestic abuse and is awaiting trial. I warned his captain at the barracks, this guy is easily triggered and he’s going to be in trouble in the future.
@@Auguur Just in the last year and a half or Pennsylvania, state troopers have been discharged for various reasons starting with child pornography, kidnapping, a former girlfriend, domestic abuse, and beating a man who required extensive reconstructive surgery and threatened the man with burning his house down if he told anyone. Two chief of police fired from their jobs, one for arranging drug transfers and the other one for trafficking humans. 18 miles apart from where I live… there’s plenty more, but I’ll stop.
Yes sadly so. Once you know this its hard to not see it. Knowing what triggers them is helpful in diffusing and encounter. You have to be very careful with this type of individual. Do not fear them but know what your up agaisnt ..be smart and dont get baited by them. Thanks for the response. 😊@ScooterFXRS
I suspect they already do. Just that most of them understand it's every American's right to do so. And that there's no such crime as "disrespecting" a cop.
This incident is horrifying! That it has taken four years to resolve is equally horrifying! This cop ought to be fired and prevented from ever working in law enforcement again. And he should have had any qualified immunity revoked and be held personally liable for damages. These kind of events seem to happen even more frequently in recent years. And cops continue to violate our rights even on camera!
Wasn't fired. They were allowed to retire. So not only did they cost tax payers on the settlement, they are now taking a pension from tax payer dollars too.
The government is targeting and torturing people in the privacy of their own homes and stalking in public. Why is this attorney NOT addressing these horrible crimes ?!
In general? No, they cannot. On a case-by-case basis? Yeah, they can be. I have local police who I know personally and they are good people who have never been alleged to be abusive ever... even when they could have gotten away with being abusive like the one officer who was nearly run down by a fleeing suspect.
I live on a border of two "large" towns (pop. 70k-ish in both). My police department are macho, steroid using a holes, Minneapolis rejects. Even the women... The cops in the town across the street however are great guys. Caring and helpful.
I have seen the video, it shows how self important that that state police officer thought he was. The video was from the state police dash camera. It had full audio. Lack Luster is the channel, if I remember it correctly. If the local jurisdiction still have decency laws on the books, they are actually void and unenforceable. A case in Louisiana had 2 cops trying to do that, the DA told them “No” and explained it. The cops still filed it and it was eventually thrown out by the state Supreme Court.
Audit the Audit had this video on about three days ago, complete with the video dashcam. You know, if I could buy that cop for how important he really is and sell him for how important he THINKS he is, I wouldn't need to play the lottery, I would be set for life.
@@johntalbert8227 Yep, me too. Even with good faith, errors happen. And none of the nurses I worked with ever retaliated against a patient. I’m sure it does happen, but very rarely.
I was arrested in MS for flipping off a cop, spent the weekend in jail. Charge was public use of profanity. Judge dismissed the charges Monday morning.
Every day I'm reminded of how I was too qualified to be a cop A few weeks ago, it was by finding the guy my hometown hired instead of me, in jail again on felony gun charges, yet again, after getting caught on his way to assault someone, again.
I saw this incident on Audit the Audit two or three days ago and was left thinking a) that cop needs his credentials revoked b) he also needed to be thrown under the jail and c) why was the court case not done yet? I'm glad it has been settled and settled in the driver's favor.
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Excellent advice. Paul, from the Bible, had similar things to say, "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial."
Vermont State Police stated that Trooper Riggen retired from the force on May 31. That was before the settlement was made.😮 This happened back in 2018 my thinking is. The state dragged their heels until the trooper was able to get full retirement.
Steve said one finger salute and it reminds me of the time we taught our Iraqi interpreter to do that to officers. This dude did it to Major General Gaskins in on Fallujah. 😂😂😂
When I was a kid, a cop stopped our school bus because he said somebody flipped him off. He pulled the kid off the bus and spoke to him for several minutes. Then the kid got back on the bus and we went on our way. I have no idea what the eventual outcome for anyone involved was, but it definitely discourage all of us for expressing those kind of feelings while on our bus towards police officers in the future.
This is why I don't send any articles or videos to Steve anymore. He gets flooded w/ the same breaking news, thereby this channel actually becomes a news source for me!
"Do you want to go through a $100,000 dollars of trouble?" Only someone that wasn't struggling living day to day...like a successful lawyer, wouldn't think a week in a jail cell was worth it. In fact, $100,000 would probably save my life.
About 20 years ago, I flipped off a cop in Washington, DC. And he arrested me for disorderly conduct!! And I was jailed for 4 hours. Are you telling me I could have gotten paid for that? Dammit!! Has the statute of limitations run out on that?
That defunding isn't really helping with the demands in increase in training and screening of people... That's the one thing people don't get: you can't get good stuff with bargain price. You can get by, you even might be ok but assuming people will get premium Nordic-style service with pennies? Nope, not gonna happen. More accountability WITH more budget is the way to go. Ditch the qualified immunity and sink more money to pick better officers and train them well.
Thank you, Steve, for covering this! I was just watching another YT video covering this too. If you search YT for 'Man arrested for flipping off state trooper awarded settlement' it will also show the actual trooper's dashboard cam video of the original arrest. The police officer (trooper) seemed tyrannically arrogant and acted on his personal feelings.
Years ago, my mom, brother, and I were pulled over by an off duty cop in Atlanta. My mom was driving, waiting to turn right at a dangerous intersection that included a blind curve. The cop was behind us honking his horn repeatedly, which led my brother sitting in the back to flip him off. This led to the cop stopping us while he parked in the middle of the intersection to tell at us. The only resson i didnt pursue a complaint my mom was afraid of retaliation. I still regret not taking down the tag number and filing a complaint. It's fine to be angry at being flipped off. Stopping a whole intersection to yell at a family and make vaguee threats about bring armed not so much.
As a retired railroad engineer, I was used to getting this 'salute, especially all the time I worked in a small railroad yard that had a major street crossing at one end, the end we had to do almost all of our work. We'd get honked at, too, which reminds me of the time we had a guy honking at us on a night we had a pair of locomotives. My conductor stopped us in the middle of the crossing, got up in the other locomotive and we both whistled back at the motorist. It was a stellar moment but the mororist turned around a left. AS far as returning the salute - I didn't as that could have repercussions from our employer so I'd blow them a kiss.
Just remember, one middle finger at a time while driving. If you give both middle fingers, that means you’re not holding the steering wheel. For that, the cop can stop you for careless driving.
Runaway power Trip due to qualified immunity, protection from repercussions for their actions due to the fact that taxpayers pay for their mistakes. Inflated egos due to badges, guns and the power of violence being given to them. I think that about covers it.
I had some cop tailgate me for a mile, I gave him the bird, he pulled me over so he could show off his costume. After he finally left me alone I went and filed a report with his superior.
And that's the problem with settling out of court, the city doesn't accept culpability. It needs to go to trial, and all parties exposed....bigger payout... potentially.
I know that in some places, if you reject a settlement and go to trial and are awarded less than the settlement amount would have been, you owe the governments legal fees for the trial.
The more this nonsense happens the more convinced i am you should need to go to law school for at least a 2 year degree before you're allowed to be a police officer
Why do these cases keep getting settled without any admission of wrongdoing or firing the offending officers. The only ones punished are the taxpayers, the city/state just shrugs and the officer keeps on working and violating other peoples rights up to their retirement.
I know you often say it's not as simple as "I would happily go through this if I got X amount of money for it", but I think I would happily go through this one for 100K.
I had this old man come up to me one day in the movie theater I was doing extra duty for. He was getting kicked out for being unruly to the staff. He said,'I heard it's not illegal to flip off a cop. Is that true? " I told him it's not illegal. He said, well, flipping me off with the right hand f..k, then the left, you. I asked if that made him feel any better? Evidently, it did not, and his son, probably 50s, said I'm leaving before you get yourself arrested. I escorted him to the door, he turned around and flipped me off again, and I went back to eating popcorn. No arrest. No ticket. No running or even asking for his ID. It didn't hurt my feelings. It didn't bait me into violating his rights. It ended well enough.
I’ve seen numerous filmed instances of this occurring that have appeared on YT (I think Audit the Audit covered at least one of them), to say nothing of those that were not filmed; one would think agencies would issue instructions to their officers that ‘contempt of cop’ is not a charge, but then it doesn’t come out of their budgets or pensions.
Unless that money is coming out of the officers salary, the judgement is meaningless.Cop gets a slap on the wrist (maybe) and the taxpayers get punished for his arrogance.
A long time ago, I had a cop pull me over because my friend in the back seat gave him the finger. The cop didn't mess with me, but he did have my friend get out of the car and he spent about 15 minutes grilling him. He let us all go, but I suppose it could have gone the other way. Of course, this was all just a few years after 9/11, so every cop was still riding high on the whole Uniform Worship phase this country went through. The idea that anybody would dislike them was just unreasonably egregious to them.
I'm sure the comments section is going to quickly fill up about people whining about this man getting a $175k paycheck at the expense of the taxpayers. To all of those people: If you don't like it, elect a better police commissioner.
Steve, The best response I ever made , and was let go ( I had some indoor growing equipment that I was being accused of growing prohibited plants, which did not exist) I said something to the effect that if our County D.A. was dressed to the 9's or 10's and was standing on the street corner. Would you arrest her for being a prostitute? They didn't steal my stuff.😂😂😂
That trooper needs to be in jail for life. Battery, armed robbery, kidnapping, perjury and grand theft auto. The case law goes back to before that trooper was born and that is well established. He should not be allowed out of prison in his lifetime
