There is a thin line between
protected speech and unprotected speech when it comes to telling off the
police. Cursing at police could be ruled as unprotected speech and land you in
jail because your words are viewed at “fighting words.” The United States Supreme
Court defined fighting words in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire as words “which by
their utterance inflict injury or incite an immediate breach of the peace.”
Fighting words are some of the few categories of unprotected speech. This
definition is very broad and has come to mean words confined to personally
abusive epithets conveyed face-to-face where the audience or target of the speech
is likely to swing back. An article about telling police to f*** off
explores different cases of civilians cussing at the police and their legal
outcome. The case against Thomas G. Smith was thrown out after the judge threw
out the case because his words did not constitute fighting words. Smith wrote,
“Fuck the fucking cops they ant shit but fucking racist basturds” on the local
police department’s Facebook page. Most cases of being arrested for cussing out
police officers are found unlawful; it still is a slippery slope.
However, for minors, it seems to be
a little clearer cut. In an article Middle-Schooler T.W. was arrested September
2010. Police officers were investigating a fight among middle-school students.
T.W. was making obscene gestures when they arrived and refused to cooperate or
answer questions and walked away from the officers. They arrested her and
subsequently she unleashed a torrent of profanity at them. The court stated
that her words were considered fighting words and therefore not protected. This
verdict indicates the more difficult time juveniles have in proving their words
protected than adults do.
It is hopeful to see cops being put
to a higher level of tolerance for people’s words. Where would we be if we were
all highly respectful of police officers and never questioned their actions?
There may be a more respectful way of communicating with police officers than
cussing at them but in the heat of the moment, people should be allowed to
mumble their grievances. As long our words do not incite a crowd to take action
against the police officers, it is nice that the police are not civil servant
gods. Even though my words may be protected, I do not think I will be cussing
out any police officers any time soon.
This reminds me of another event about police officer happened several weeks ago in Missouri. A lady posted something on her twitter to comment the Ferguson event. Then her boss received a warning phone call from a police officer said that the company might get calls about the lady's activism.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, “fighting words,” which “inflict injury or incite an immediate breach of the peace,” are not uncommon in people’s daily lives. According to my experience, it is not rare to hear that someone said other’s words were rude to him/her. I think psychological “injury” is very hard to prevent in people’s communication, especially for sensitive people. In addition, it cannot be more reasonable for people to express their dissatisfaction or other bad emotions by saying something bad. Specifically, saying bad words, including fighting words, is also a way to joke, to make fun, to express attitude and emotion, to release pressure, and so on.
I do not know whether police officers in these cases really took the “fighting words” seriously and perceived injury or breach of peace before they went to the courts. I admit that saying cursing words to police officers is not a good idea, but it would be more scary “if we were all highly respectful of police officers and never questioned their actions.”