Ethics

Kozinski on the Right to Insult Police Officers

By Ed Brayton

As the furor over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates has grown, I have repeatedly offered one simple opinion: it is no more illegal to yell at and insult a police officer than it is to yell at or insult any other citizen. The mere fact that they have the power to arrest you does not mean they can legitimately arrest you for doing something that is legal if done to anyone else. That's why I don't really care what Gates may have said to the cop at his house.

I don't care if he called his mother a whore, accused him of being the worst racist who ever lived or told him he had the world's smallest penis. That behavior may well be rude, crude, wrong, childish or whatever other adjective you'd like to offer for it, but it is not criminal. And the police know it. That's why they quickly dropped the charges. If he had said anything that is even remotely and actually criminal, he'd still be facing those charges.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on July 29, 2009 (boomark / email).