Federal Appeals Court Upholds First Amendment Right To Warn Drivers of Police Ahead
Michael Friend was arrested in 2018 for holding a sign that read "Cops Ahead" near a police checkpoint. That arrest violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A federal appeals court ruled that a Connecticut man's First Amendment rights were violated when police arrested him for holding a sign warning drivers of police activity ahead.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed a lower court decision and held that a police officer in Stamford, Connecticut, violated Michael Friend's First Amendment rights and had no probable cause to arrest him for standing on a public sidewalk and holding a sign that read "Cops Ahead."
Friend was standing on a sidewalk near a Stamford police checkpoint on April 12, 2018, holding a "Cops Ahead" sign when Sgt. Richard Gasparino approached Friend, took his sign, and threatened to arrest him. Friend instead made a larger sign and moved to a different spot. Gasparino then handcuffed and arrested Friend, who was charged with misdemeanor interference and held on a $25,000 bail. Prosecutors later dropped the charge.
Friend, represented by the Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), filed a civil rights lawsuit, arguing that Gasparino's seizure of his signs and his arrest violated Friend's First and Fourth Amendment rights.
A U.S. district court dismissed Friend's suit in 2020, finding that: Friend's sign "did not discuss a topic or express his opinion on it;" that Gasparino had a compelling government interest in stopping Friend from spoiling the police sting; and that Gasparino had probable cause to arrest Friend for returning after he told him not to.
The 2nd Circuit ruled that the district court erred in all three of those findings, citing the 1987 Supreme Court ruling in Houston v. Hill: "The freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state."
The case will now return to the district court to consider whether Gasparino is entitled to qualified immunity from Friend's claims.
In a press release, Elana Bildner, senior staff attorney for the ACLU Foundation of Connecticut and an attorney on the case, called the 2nd Circuit ruling "a solid affirmation of the fact that people have the right to protest the police."
"When Michael Friend held up a sign on a Stamford sidewalk to alert people to police activity, he was well within his First Amendment rights, and Stamford police never should have arrested him," Bildner said. "This decision is good news for protesters' rights and should serve as a reminder to all police in Connecticut that they cannot and should not silence speech like Mr. Friend's."
This is not the only sign-related First Amendment case that Stamford has generated in recent years. In 2018, one of Friend's friends, Michael Picard, was arrested by Stamford police for holding a sign outside of the police station that read "Fuck Free Speech —Stamford PD."
Courts have repeatedly ruled that warning drivers of upcoming police by flashing one's headlights is a form of expression and protected under the First Amendment.
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The case will now return to the district court to consider whether Gasparino is entitled to qualified immunity from Friend’s claims.
So, the same judge who ruled in favor of the police bully is going to decide if qualified immunity applies. I wonder how that’s going to go.
Look, if you are going to lock up cops for arresting people that even the trial judge thinks are guilty, we might as well give up on the idea of law enforcement.
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Qualified immunity is about cops being sued for misconduct, not locking them up.
we might as well give up on the idea of law enforcement.
There is some merit to that idea.
If the police response is simply to shoot the trouble maker, I don’t need the police for that. I can handle that all by myself.
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Apparently a 90-year old “senior judge”, Alfred V. Covello, appointed by President George H. W. Bush on April 1, 1992. He’s the district judge that ruled incorrectly in the first place. And how’s he going to feel about the young whipper-snappers (ages 44 to 71) from the appeals court overruling him and directing him to readdress the case?
Why can’t court’s triage cases so that a simple case like this can be decided over coffee instead of going on 5 years? Justice, delayed, is justice denied and certainly doesn’t send any message to the right people that they need to change their behaviors.
In 2018, one of Friend’s friends, Michael Picard, was arrested by Stamford police for holding a sign outside of the police station that read
“Fuck Free Speech —Stamford PD.”“Make It So.”Was his number one friend with him on this enterprise?
I heard Picard had romulan hands and would klingon to Wesley every time he could get him alone.
In the pilot episode of STTNG, they telegraphed a relationship between Wesley and Riker, but apparently the writers backed off of that quickly.
What?
Source please. I do remember the TNG pilot (Encounter at Farpoint) having some male crewmen in short dresses.
The courts can rule all they want, but it doesn’t matter. Cops will continue to arrest people for having a sign, flipping them the bird, or recording them, so long as the court ruling don’t come with any penalties for the cops. Sure the rulings might open a way for a civil suit. But that doesn’t matter when the cops keeps their job and the taxpayers foot the bill.
The only thing that will cause police to change is criminal convictions for acts like this. And that will never happen.
They said the same thing about the 18th Amendment, before the morgues filled up with dry agents and snitches and the economy crashed into a communist’s wet dream.
If I were the judge and not worried about rebukes from appeals courts, I’d have told the cops to pound sand, that the stated purpose of their sting was discouraging distracted driving, that his sign was doing just that, and they should pay him for doing their work, and then they should pay back the government for deserting their post to arrest him instead of giving tickets for distracted driving.
This ^^^
is the dude with the sign distracting drivers?
Probably less than the cops. Why do so many drivers brake down to 5 below the speed limit when they see a cop on the side of the road writing a ticket who isn’t going to be back on the road for several minutes at least?
when I was a no-good punk kid my first instinct was to turn down the radio.
Swallow the roach.
Because they’re a bunch of pussies that have been brought up to be submissive to authority.
I suppose you probably step on it and throw your beer can at them.
I figure it’s because people don’t want to get puled over and have a reflex reaction to blue lights. Avoiding confrontations with authority isn’t submissive. I choose to drive fairly reasonably because I am quite happy with my 20 year streak of never getting pulled over.
No. I glance at my speedometer and if I’m legal, I keep going.
If you’re below the limit and do the obligatory brake tap, you’re being submissive.
Pulled over twice in 38 years, both for rolling stops at stop signs. Never ticketed.
If you were Black you would have been shot.
I tend to drive slightly over the limit when I know a cop is around. Seems less suspicious to me. Also, I routinely will follow Troopers on the interstate with my adaptive cruise set at the longest follow distance at relatively high speeds of 85+.
So free speech hinges on whether the speech helps get to a conclusion that the government wants?
I think you missed the point of the 1st Amendment
More proof, if any were needed, that most traffic enforcement is about writing tickets and collecting fines, not public safety. If safety were the actual goal, anything that reduced stupid and dangerous behavior would be welcomed. But, judging by the Podunk towns that get most of their budgets by running speed traps, this does not appear to be the case.
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A friend, indeed.
If not for the tens of millions of votes gotten by Libertarian candidates during 50 years, the cops would have shot the guy and gotten a medal for it. Disrupting the LP is Job One to Army of God Jesus Freak thugs.
Add those votes up and the LP could have lost a presidential race by only single digit percentage points.
Like the man said, better to vote for what you want and not get it, than to vote for what you don’t want… and get it. The lesser of two evils is still evil.
Sheesh, I’m old. I feel certain this was settled law about 40 years ago. Are this cop and this judge the only people in the country that did know this?
Google Maps, Waze, etc. warn users of potential speed traps. Around here we flash our lights to oncoming traffic signaling that there is a cop ahead.
I was once driving, on a back country road that was dead straight except for the occasional dip in the road. Let say… perhaps, 20mph over the limit.
Guy coming the other way flashed the high beams and I assumed cop and immediately slowed down.
Well, the next dip in the road had a small fender bender. Because I was already on the brakes I was able to slow down in time.
Flashing high beams is not just for cops – its universal – “Hey, you better slow down”
The only good cop is a dead cop.
Just the other side of the same low IQ thug coin as BLM/Antifa.
Next time you are in trouble, call a thug.
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Are this cop and this judge the only people in the country that did know this?