An interesting story out of Pittsburgh details how the City has agreed to pay $50,000 to a man — David Hackbart, 35 — who sued after being issued a disorderly conduct citation for gesturing offensively at a police officer. As part of the settlement, the City agreed to retrain its officers in the limits of disorderly conduct law.
Settlement was apparently reached after research by Mr. Hackbart’s lawyers revealed that police citations for swearing or offensive gestures were common in Pittsburgh. This researched showed that from approximately March 2005 to July 2009, Pittsburgh officers issued nearly 200 disorderly conduct citations on the basis of that sort of behavior, despite the fact that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has deemed such citations unlawful on free speech grounds.
Mr. Hackbart was originally charged in April, 2006, while trying to parallel park. According to the lawsuit, when he saw an open metered parking space and attempted to back into it, a vehicle pulled up behind him and effectively blocked his entry into the space. The driver of the vehicle behind Mr. Hackbart would not back up. Frustrated, Mr. Hackbart extended his left arm out the window of his vehicle and raised his middle finger to the driver. When a third driver objected to the gesture, Mr. Hackbart delivered it to him too. But that third driver turned out to be Pittsburgh police officer, who wrote the citation.
Click here for coverage of the story by the New York Times.
This post was written by Joshua Bolinger.
