Vermont has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was charged with a crime for giving a state trooper the middle finger in 2018, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by the ACLU of Vermont on behalf of Gregory Bombard, of St. Albans. It says Bombard’s First Amendment rights were violated after an unnecessary traffic stop and retaliatory arrest in 2018.
Trooper Jay Riggen stopped Bombard’s vehicle in St. Albans on Feb. 9, 2018, because he believed Bombard had shown him the middle finger, according to the lawsuit. Bombard denied that but says he did curse and display the middle finger once the initial stop was concluded.
Ah got it. Unfortunately makes me think of 88 so I probably won’t adopt it.
I think of it as “taking number substitution back”, or 20-14-19-2. We can’t let fascists, Nazis, and general scum bags ruin everything.
I get that but I am not particularly attached to number substitution as social messaging personally lol like no disrespect to yall who want to use it, I just live in the south and the dog whistles are endless. Misinterpretation can get weird here too.