Yes indulgent readers, it’s the ages-old question: Do people who abuse protected
speech—for really no good reason—really deserve it? And is anyone on fair
ground to even ask that kind of thing?
DNAinfo reported on the tale of one Robert Bell, a 26
year-old who works as a “financial services recruiter” and whose preferred
watering hole is the notoriously-named West Village pub, The Slaughtered Lamb,
likely named for the fate of the sobriety for all those who dare enter. Like,
for example, Robert Bell, who—while the report didn’t indicate any particular
level of intoxication—managed to get arrested for something incredibly
commonplace: Giving someone the middle finger.
Except, he gave cops the middle finger. Three walked by him,
and he flipped it. A fourth came up behind him, cuffed him, and searched him.
They then jailed him for two hours and released him with a charge of disorderly
conduct. The cops didn’t appear at his court date (for which he was repped by
the ACLU), his case was dismissed, and then, he decided to sue for an
“undisclosed amount.” He argues they violated his free speech and that they
inflicted emotional distress. They will probably argue something about him
being an asshole. You can decide which one of these things is more true. But he
did give a wonderful quote explaining the origin of this entire fracas, which
is apparently in the suit itself:
“Because I don’t like cops,” he said.
Bell would be wise to remember that New York City cops may,
in a very extreme and theoretical situations, be the last line of defense
between him and a bunch of not-so-peaceful protestors who happen to dislike
recruiters for the financial services industry quite a bit….
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