In 2011, 26-year-old Robert Bell was leaving the Slaughtered Lamb Pub on West 4th Street when he saw a few NYPD officers walking by and decided to give them the middle finger behind their backs. When another cop saw Bell do the dirty deed, he arrested Bell and held him at the 6th Precinct for two hours before releasing him. When asked why he flipped the bird, Bell simply said, “Because I don’t like cops.”
Now, the flagrant finger-giver has emerged victorious in a lawsuit against the department, taking a $15,000 out-of-court settlement, with which he says he’ll pay for law school. And would Bell do it all again? “If I thought [an officer] was in the wrong for something, I would do it,” he said. “I would just ensure that I prefaced any criticism with ‘With all due respect.'”
(Photo: David/Flickr)
