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 Originally Posted by OngBonga
Yeah the law sucks here, but is it really any different in USA?
YES!!!!
We have something called FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Once upon a time some folks wrote down what freedoms American citizens have, and that one was listed FIRST!!!
You can't slander someone. You can't use your speech to incite violence, riots, or other hysteria (like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater). But if you want to tell a cop that you don't like him....you're free to do so without limitations.
Furthermore, cops are trained to deal with all kinds of belligerence, therefore the threshold for actionable speech is actually higher than it is for regular people. To wit...
This case turned on the fact that the Prosecution failed to provide any evidence that the police were offended by a word that, whether we like it or not, is commonplace. They were not used as specific insults to the officers, just as the words themselves. Because of this the Court could not infer that as "robust" police officers, probably used to that sort of language, that any "harassment, alarm or distress" was caused.
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