The settlement covers Greg Bombard's 2018 arrest by a state trooper who said Bombard flipped him the middle finger — and a second, related citation nearly six years later, on Christmas Day.

It all started, Greg Bombard said, with a broken coffee maker. That’s what prompted him to get into his car and head to Dunkin’ on a winter day in 2018.

It ended this month when the state of Vermont paid Bombard $175,000 to settle the lawsuit that ultimately resulted from that short drive.

The settlement covers Bombard’s arrest that day by a state trooper who said the St. Albans Town man flipped him the middle finger — and a second, related citation nearly six years later, on Christmas Day.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    5 months ago

    I just watched this on Audit the Audit, so good on this guy for following up. The video was incredibly obvious that the cop was in the wrong. Basically, the video went like this:

    1. Cop pulls Greg over for allegedly giving the middle finger, and the cop terms it a “welfare check” (no other violation); after the stop, Greg allegedly cussed at the trooper as he left (not loud enough to be picked up on body cam)
    2. Greg pulls away and it’s obvious from cop dashcam footage that he’s not impeding traffic in any way; cop then pulls Greg over again for impeding traffic
    3. Cop orders him out of the car, apparently has called backup, and arrests Greg for obstruction (Greg repeatedly asks what crime he committed, and is not told about impeding traffic)

    The first may have been retaliatory (not clear, cop may have been able to defend it as a welfare stop), but the second absolutely was retaliatory and blatantly illegal. I’m surprised the award was only $175k and nothing more happened because it was a clear violation of Greg’s constitutional rights, which have been clearly defined through case law to include criticism of the police.

    Screw this cop and the entire department that allows this nonsense. This was also on Christmas, which makes it so much worse…

    “I was disrespectful,” Bombard conceded of that cold day in 2018. “I don’t think I should have been arrested for it, though.”

    Disrespect is protected speech and has been enshrined in case law, and police are expected (again, in case law) to be held to a higher standard than the average citizen. So middle fingers and profanity are absolutely protected speech, just don’t commit any actual crimes while expressing yourself because the police will look for a way to arrest you if you’re doing that. And there are a lot of technicalities (e.g. when you need to identify yourself, what constitutes a “lawful order,” and what “disturbing the peace” means). So if you’re driving, drive the speed limit, keep your plates updated, etc if you plan to give police the bird.