He flipped off a trooper and got charged. Now Vermont is on the hook for $175,000

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apnews.com

Vermont has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was charged with a crime for giving a state trooper the middle finger in 2018, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday. 

The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by the ACLU of Vermont on behalf of Gregory Bombard, of St. Albans. It says Bombard’s First Amendment rights were violated after an unnecessary traffic stop and retaliatory arrest in 2018.

Trooper Jay Riggen stopped Bombard’s vehicle in St. Albans on Feb. 9, 2018, because he believed Bombard had shown him the middle finger, according to the lawsuit. Bombard denied that but says he did curse and display the middle finger once the initial stop was concluded.

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Vermont State Police did not have a comment

LOL, the pigs fuck up, the state shuts up and the taxpayers pay up.

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Obligatory: end qualified immunity. Let them get "malpractice insurance".

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This is settled law. It's been this way for a long time. Multiple people have had huge monetary settlements in multiple states for being arrested for flipping off a cop.

My father-in-law smiled and waved at a CHP cop when driving through California and got pulled over and told that was illegal, but was let off with a warning. Which I always thought was bullshit. Sounds like it is.

But the guy liked cops. He was literally just saying hi to a cop because he liked cops.

Did he like them after that?

He was a white evangelical (but never preachy) Republican from Indiana who was born in 1931. So not even a boomer, someone who had kids who were boomers. He died loving cops. He didn't even hold it against that guy because he assumed he'd broken the law and was glad the nice cop let him off with a warning.

He was an old man and had some very archaic ideas about the world. When he was home, he watched old Westerns, sports, or Fox News. I assume he voted for Trump in 2016. But he was also super nice to everyone no matter who they were. He was just not a judgmental sort of guy on an individual level. He was the sort of person who would would have a friendly conversation to find out when the restaurant waiter got off their shift and what they were planning to do that day and said he hoped they had a good time doing it.

So he probably (I never asked) believed in the "gay agenda," but would also be happy to have a friendly chat with some people hanging outside a gay bar if he happened to walked by and saw that people were standing there. Even if he knew it was a gay bar.

[It's his birthday today, so he's been on my mind.]

That's really nice.

We've also lost a lot of this, which is a shame.

I'd love to be part of bringing back being able to disagree with people on issues but still treat each other well. Like people.

I do try to remember to try. We all should.

That's the biggest thing this country is missing right now. It's OK to disagree with other people, but for some reason, people seem to think they are enemies because they disagree. We are all individuals, with our own views on everything. There isn't a single person in the world that I agree with 100% on everything. To assume that anyone I disagree with is somehow evil, or my enemy, is insane.

for some reason

Definitely one major reason has been that there's been an incredibly effective propaganda machine constantly telling people that's the case. It started taking off in the 90s.

Part of the problem, and I don't remember who summed it up this way but it's as accurate a description as I've ever seen, is that the conservative mindset is exactly this: "I'm allowed to tell you what to do, but you are not allowed to tell me what to do."

You mean the conservatives trying to make me and others illegal and shined from society? I should just agree to disagree?

Happy Birthday, Flying Squid Sr (in-law). 🎂

In-law. Not my dad. Although they were both born in 1931 coincidentally. Both no longer with us unfortunately.

Yeah but cops don't care about the law.

Cops are government employees, and hopefully the government cares about losing $175k over bullshit their employee did.

Yeah, they can afford to lose one or two, but if we all start flipping off cops and start getting charged, it's going to add up.

Historically? No, not really. Arpiao was losing millions of dollars for his contracted cities before they started dropping contracts with him and forcing Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to operate only in unincorporated areas.

Ironic how if something is your job to care about, that it often leads to the opposite reality. Sure, cops are especially shitty but I have a lot of lax coworkers. Feels very common

Flipped off a cop when I was a teenager and that fucker tried following us home.

Tried? Like you somehow escaped a cop following you?

He didn't turn on lights and sirens and had to wait on a few cars before he could turn around so it wasn't that hard but we saw him driving slowly around the neighborhood looking for my friend's truck. Fortunately it was in the garage with the door shut before he was on the right block.

I did way back when I was 18/19... I was riding my bike home from work, and a cop directing traffic yelled at me to get out of the street. Without even thinking, I yelled back "go fuck yourself". He called to his partner across the intersection, "Mike, get him!". Mike was on a motorcycle. I was sure I was fucked, but I knew the neighborhood, so after salmoning up a one way street full of double parked cars, and taking a couple turns, one being into a narrow alley that's almost invisible unless you already know it's there, I got behind him - figured that was the best place to be... He never looked back, just slowed down, looking in doorways, between/under parked cars, until I got within a couple blocks of my house, then I hauled ass and locked myself (and bike) in the basement for the next half hour.

I was riding my bike home from work, and a cop directing traffic yelled at me to get out of the street.

Wait what did he want you to do? Ride in the pedestrian area with your vehicle?

Yeah, this was in Boston, Beacon Hill to be specific, not known for wide sidewalks... I was in good shape in those days, I could cruise all day at 15mph, for my half hour commute I could maintain 20mph easily, I would pass cars pretty much continuously in downtown areas, the street was where I belonged...

The American Gestapo exist to enforce their feelings and advance the interests of wealthy property owners.

And persecute minorities. Don't forget that they're racist.

A couple of days ago I watched a tiktok vid about a lady being arrested for flipping the bird to a cop and then proceeding to turn without signaling... yep that was the charge.

Glad the cop I flipped off when I was three didn't charge me. Despite what my brothers taught me, that is not how you wave hello to police.

Who was harmed here to the tune of $175k? The ACLU should have settled for something much less.

Can you put a dollar figure on the violation of your constitutional rights? The settlement should have been much higher. Sometimes it's the only way to get power tripping cops to stop breaking the law.

I think we're still missing the mark because it's tax payer money.

Rip immunity from that fucker and let it come out of his pension (if he's got one) or garnish his wages like everybody else.

Hit the individual, but also pull funds from the department. Make it hurt everyone and maybe they will start hold each other to some semblance of accountability.

Dude was deprived of his freedom, put in a life threatening position, etc.

Those are serious things

If you read the article, you'll learn that he was wrongfully arrested and the legal fees involved in clearing up the whole matter were pretty high.

In law it is the defense who is supposed to argue the amount is too much, and the plaintiff should ask for as much as possible because at that point it is punitive. Second, while you may not feel threatened by any single interaction with police, this officer was angry and had to have exhibited aggressive behavior. These ingredients have resulted in lots of interactions going south.

Thirdly, let's put you in this man's position, we will make one assumption - that you know flipping a cop off is settled law and protected free speech. You're driving home and you get pulled over. For what? You were just driving and not speeding, what gives? "Licence and registration. Do you know why I pulled you over? Because you flipped me off". This is not a first level offence. This isn't being on your phone. This isn't driving without a seatbelt or speeding. This isn't driving erratically. This cop just told you he's going to ticket you because you flipped the bird, but you didn't. You try to explain you didn't and he's going to get mad because you called him a liar. Now you have a citation in hand and you try and NOT swear and actually flip him off. He has deprived your freedom of speech and given you a ticket for it and you know it. If you're gonna get a ticket you may as well do the crime right? So the officer, rather than writing another citation you know will get thrown, has your car towed. He settles you with a $300 tow AND a citation OVER A GESTURE that he is legally and constitutionally WRONG about, and you know he is. He then arrests you for it, and you spend an hour at the precinct settling this. Then when you're free to go, you have to bum a ride to go get your fucking car. A month or so later, you have take time off work to go to court. You miss making probably another $300 because a day off. It gets dismissed because it's a first amendment issue - you knew this would be the result all along. A minor feeling of vindication because you are now out $500 for missing work and other legal fees, maybe an Uber to go pick up your car, and have been harassed by a state patrolman, spent an hour in jail instead of whatever you were driving to go do. 3 years later the ACLU says "hey so you were right, and we want to sue over it. Would you NOT say "yeah fuck that dude" and sign on for it?

Minor footnote, he won 100,000, and 75,000 went to the ACLU

you are now out $500 for missing work and other legal fees

Legal fees can easily reach into the thousands...

You right they quickly get prohibitively expensive. But because of the 3 year gap idk if he asked them to sue or they thought they had a good case or what that arrangement looked like.

You're making my point for me. If you're super generous about paying this man for all his trouble, loss of freedom, court costs, etc. (and we should be) ...and then you double that for good measure... and then you double THAT for punitive purposes (and yes we should)... You still are far short of $175k.

I'm only bringing it up because it's our money as taxpayers. The ACLU should not be another piggy at the public trough.

The defense would be the state, the state failed to argue he didn't deserve it, and the ACLU their cut. I don't remember if the article said it was by judge or jury, but even when a jury comes out with X number a judge can still say "yeah no that's too high, I'm awarding Y instead." So either way it was achieved, a judge felt that this was a fair number. Idk what to say beyond that other than I wish I could make 100k off something so silly but that is a lot of bullshit to put up with to be right. ACLU deserves some cut for doing probably all this man's legal grunt work and legal time since he likely didn't pay out of pocket for a retainer.

But I get what you mean about tax dollars. It should have come from the department something more tangible for the state patrol to not do this again

What gives you the right to measure any of that?

I would argue violation of our constitutional rights is worth more, and if you have a problem that it's tax payers paying it and not cops, end qualified immunity, make cops carry liability insurance so when cops do fucked shit like attacking fundamental rights our country was founded on its not tax payers paying. The best way for the aclu to get that from government is by getting as much money from the tax payers as possible so when their state our county cant fix roads or keep schools open they can point to all the money spent settling lawsuits from shit cops and then maybe tax payers might start wanting cops to be liable for their shit behavior