Believe it or not I actually did this once by accident. I was at a 4 way stop in Philadelphia and it was NOT my turn to go. I hear someone beeping behind me so I flipped them off. Ooooopps! It was a cop!( It was not an emergency situation either where he was in a rush to get by me he was just a creep.) He pulled me over and gave me this BIG lecture saying he could give me a ticket. (For what I can no longer remember.) Before he let me go he asked me if I had anything to say for myself. My reply was “OBVIOUSLY had I known that I had a police officer behind me, do you think that I would have flipped you off? Seriously!” He just shook his head and sent me on my way. Sheeesh! :-)
It depends on where you live. It is not the smartest move, however, and certainly is not protected speech. Here is one man who got away with it. On the other hand, here is a serious object lesson.
they could probably call it harassment or something…......i learned from my experience in protests and such that hitting anything belonging to a cop is assault on an officer….like if you smash their car or something. I didn’t do that of course but some of the more radical folks did
They won’t give you a ticket for flipping them off, but there’s probably a load of other things they will right you up for and city hall will laugh in your face if you tell them it’s trumped up because you upset the police officer.
And let’s face it antagonising an under paid unappreciated public worker with a gun and most likely a bad attitude is not clever.