Posted by Jim at August 6th, 2007

One night during college I was sitting in a friend’s car and talking. As I was talking I would occasionally make a gesture with my hands. At one point, I raised my index finger as I explained something.

As I did this a campus police car came around the corner, drove past the car (which was parallel parked) and stopped.

The policeman (who I can only assume had stopped one too many parties that weekend) got out of the car, knocked on the window and then proceeded to lecture me on how I had no right to flip him off.

I wasn’t able to persuade him that I’d raised a different finger. Fortunately, he didn’t bother (or didn’t have the ability) to charge me with anything.

Oddly enough, to judge from the following article, it appears that I might have been paid thousands of dollars if he had.

Motorist who made obscene gesture to cop awarded $3,000

It makes me start to reconsider my tendency toward being respectful of authority.