freedom of speech?

[Christine1]

HI --I have a quick question, hopefully some one will have an answer. I was trying access a local home yesterday, but the street was blocked for a gay pride parade (which had not started yet). I pulled over to ask a traffic officer (orange vest) permission to access the alley leading to the home's driveway. There was a motorcycle police officer behind the traffic officer, they were chatting. Anyways, the traffic person was denied me access and for some unknown reason was incredibly rude to me (even though their job that day was to help facilitate local access). I was very frustrated by her attitude and rudeness, but I knew I had to comply. As I pulled away, I made a remark about her attitude and called her a *itch. Okay, not my finest moment, but she was VERY rude. So apparently the motorcycle officer got mad that I called the traffic officer a *itch and she proceeded to follow me and pull me over and harrass me, intimidate me, and cite me for "blocking traffic", (which I wasn't doing until she pulled me over). So, my question is, do police have the right to pull you over for calling someone ELSE a name AS YOU ARE COMPLYING and doing what you were directed to do? I was completely non-threatening, never so much as unfastened my seatbelt. And the person I directed the comment to was not a police officer.
ANy info/advice would be appreciated. thanks.

 

[NYClex]

Well, as you yourself wrote, you were not cited for calling that person names. That is because it is not illegal in most cases (there are some obscure obscenity and other laws on the books in some places, but that is not the issue here.)

You were cited for blocking traffic. Now this is much trickier. You can try to fight this ticket, file a complaint against the police officer and explain it all to a judge. But don't expect the judge to be sympathetic. And expect the police officer to swear that you were blocking traffic.

In an ideal world you should easily be able to fight that ticket and the police officer should be reprimanded. But it is up to you to find out how ideal the world really is.

 

[Christine1]

Thanks for the response. That is pretty much what I figured. I will fight it, because it really was an abuse of power. Hopefully the judge will see that...but, I suspect you are right.