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.
I would argue violation of our constitutional rights is worth more, and if you have a problem that it’s tax payers paying it and not cops, end qualified immunity, make cops carry liability insurance so when cops do fucked shit like attacking fundamental rights our country was founded on its not tax payers paying. The best way for the aclu to get that from government is by getting as much money from the tax payers as possible so when their state our county cant fix roads or keep schools open they can point to all the money spent settling lawsuits from shit cops and then maybe tax payers might start wanting cops to be liable for their shit behavior