Final Paragraph:
Courts distinguish between speech that merely annoys an officer and speech that genuinely impedes their work. While police may resent offensive words, they cannot use their authority to punish individuals for lawful, protected conduct. Determining whether speech is protected or unprotected involves careful analysis of all surrounding facts and circumstances.
Edited to add:
Few of us here would align ourselves with the group trying to suppress information right now, so although I recognize this is not always a smart decision in every situation, I’m not really willing to get onboard with the idea that disseminating topical information from reasonable sources is a problem.
Use your downvotes as you see fit, but I’m not going to apologize for the post. Edit: And am a little disappointed to see information buried so decisively in this community on Lemmy of all places.
Factually incorrect.
First, consider that regardless of whether they are prohibited from arresting people for insulting them, they do. Those charges are often dropped or thrown out, sure - albeit with no consequences for the police officer - but I would consider having to deal with that hassle “punishment” that they can inflict purely because of their authority.
But there’s also institutional support for an officer to punish you for lawful, protected conduct. If you upset an officer and in response, he cites or arrests you for a minor but legitimate offense that he’d have otherwise not cared about, you’re very unlikely to get that technically legitimate charge thrown out of court. It may be that police are technically prohibited from doing this, but in practice, “He only arrested me for — insert random crime here, let’s say jaywalking — because I called him a pig, said I’d engaged in coitus with his mother the previous night, and asked if he’d like to watch next time or if he had a night in with his partner’s nightstick planned” isn’t going to suffice to get the charge thrown out, even if the judge believes you, if you were actually breaking the law in question. And since pretty much everyone is breaking laws all the time, this means that as long as the police officer can find one that you’re currently breaking, you’re fucked.