Last week I happened to be strolling through the Upper West Side when I found myself next to the Trump International Hotel’s Manhattan location. While I had some vague idea of where the ones in my vicinity were, a Trump-branded property was not something I’d consciously realized I’d be encountering before I set out.
Without really thinking, I pulled up my smartphone’s camera app, focused on the gaudy facade of the building, inserted my extended middle finger into the frame, snapped a photo, and chuckled a little at my own childishness. Waiting at the next stoplight, I sent the picture to a couple friends who I thought might also get a kick out of it.
Some time later, on my way back, I started to ponder my experience. I’d hardly invented the concept of flipping the bird to buildings with the word “Trump” emblazoned on them. Hell, one of the news podcasts I’m familiar with, The Daily Beans, encourages listeners to send in their own photos giving Trump properties the one-finger salute.
It felt like being a little part of something bigger. So, on the return journey, I was more deliberate. Trump Tower, in Midtown Manhattan, was a bit out of my way. Nonetheless, I made a stop at the granddaddy of all the gold-lettered monstrosities that now bear the Trump name.
I got a shot, rude gesture included. Then, unsatisfied with the angle, moved a few feet farther along the sidewalk for another.
Unlike outside the Trump International Hotel, at Trump Tower there were other people snapping photos. I couldn’t spot anyone else giving it the finger. Some just seemed to want an unobscured picture of the building. One was filming himself with a selfie stick as he wandered precariously through the street. None of the others seemed to notice my existence, though it occurred to me that I no doubt faced far more of a threat from any nearby reverent Trump supporters than I did from the lone, sleepy-looking NYPD officer posted out front.
In the United States, I can say with near legal certainty that you could not be legitimately convicted of any crime for flipping off a Trump-branded building. In only the latest in a long line of examples of why this sort of thing would be constitutionally protected free speech, a 62-year-old grandmother was acquitted on all charges stemming from wearing a 7-foot inflatable penis costume along with a sign that said “No Dick Tator” at an Alabama “No Kings” protest.
Still, the “No Dick Tator” grandma’s prosecution got way further along than it should have. She had to endure getting roughed up by an overzealous police force and go through an arduous and expensive courtroom process. Any lawyer who’s been at it long enough can tell you plenty of stories about how “legal” is not synonymous with “consequence-free.”
We are not enough of a “Dick Tator-ship” yet for you to face a criminal penalty for flipping the bird to a Trump building. Even so, you might get abused by Trump-loving cops who know it’s probably going to be too much trouble for you to effectively hold them accountable (although in the places Trump-branded buildings exist in the U.S. — that is, not places like Alabama — most law enforcement officers are familiar enough with the roughly half of the Bill of Rights specifically aimed at restricting them from doing things like arresting a senior citizen for wearing a penis suit at a protest in order to make this an unlikely problem to face).
Outside of the U.S., you might want to tread more lightly. There are a lot of countries where you’d be just fine dishonoring the local Trump-branded buildings however you saw fit, and might even have more freedom of expression than you do at home. But with Trump properties now existing or currently in development in stifling places like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar, you certainly cannot take your free speech rights for granted abroad.
Those international caveats aside, I encourage you to get out there and patriotically flip the bird to a Trump-branded property near you. You won’t get in any legal trouble for it, and, I assure you, it’s a much healthier way to express displeasure with this presidential administration than what we’ve seen from a few lone-wolf types lately.
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at jon_wolf@hotmail.com.
The post Can You Get In Any Legal Trouble By Flipping The Bird To Gaudy Trump-Branded Properties? appeared first on Above the Law.
Last week I happened to be strolling through the Upper West Side when I found myself next to the Trump International Hotel’s Manhattan location. While I had some vague idea of where the ones in my vicinity were, a Trump-branded property was not something I’d consciously realized I’d be encountering before I set out.
Without really thinking, I pulled up my smartphone’s camera app, focused on the gaudy facade of the building, inserted my extended middle finger into the frame, snapped a photo, and chuckled a little at my own childishness. Waiting at the next stoplight, I sent the picture to a couple friends who I thought might also get a kick out of it.
Some time later, on my way back, I started to ponder my experience. I’d hardly invented the concept of flipping the bird to buildings with the word “Trump” emblazoned on them. Hell, one of the news podcasts I’m familiar with, The Daily Beans, encourages listeners to send in their own photos giving Trump properties the one-finger salute.
It felt like being a little part of something bigger. So, on the return journey, I was more deliberate. Trump Tower, in Midtown Manhattan, was a bit out of my way. Nonetheless, I made a stop at the granddaddy of all the gold-lettered monstrosities that now bear the Trump name.
I got a shot, rude gesture included. Then, unsatisfied with the angle, moved a few feet farther along the sidewalk for another.
Unlike outside the Trump International Hotel, at Trump Tower there were other people snapping photos. I couldn’t spot anyone else giving it the finger. Some just seemed to want an unobscured picture of the building. One was filming himself with a selfie stick as he wandered precariously through the street. None of the others seemed to notice my existence, though it occurred to me that I no doubt faced far more of a threat from any nearby reverent Trump supporters than I did from the lone, sleepy-looking NYPD officer posted out front.
In the United States, I can say with near legal certainty that you could not be legitimately convicted of any crime for flipping off a Trump-branded building. In only the latest in a long line of examples of why this sort of thing would be constitutionally protected free speech, a 62-year-old grandmother was acquitted on all charges stemming from wearing a 7-foot inflatable penis costume along with a sign that said “No Dick Tator” at an Alabama “No Kings” protest.
Still, the “No Dick Tator” grandma’s prosecution got way further along than it should have. She had to endure getting roughed up by an overzealous police force and go through an arduous and expensive courtroom process. Any lawyer who’s been at it long enough can tell you plenty of stories about how “legal” is not synonymous with “consequence-free.”
We are not enough of a “Dick Tator-ship” yet for you to face a criminal penalty for flipping the bird to a Trump building. Even so, you might get abused by Trump-loving cops who know it’s probably going to be too much trouble for you to effectively hold them accountable (although in the places Trump-branded buildings exist in the U.S. — that is, not places like Alabama — most law enforcement officers are familiar enough with the roughly half of the Bill of Rights specifically aimed at restricting them from doing things like arresting a senior citizen for wearing a penis suit at a protest in order to make this an unlikely problem to face).
Outside of the U.S., you might want to tread more lightly. There are a lot of countries where you’d be just fine dishonoring the local Trump-branded buildings however you saw fit, and might even have more freedom of expression than you do at home. But with Trump properties now existing or currently in development in stifling places like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar, you certainly cannot take your free speech rights for granted abroad.
Those international caveats aside, I encourage you to get out there and patriotically flip the bird to a Trump-branded property near you. You won’t get in any legal trouble for it, and, I assure you, it’s a much healthier way to express displeasure with this presidential administration than what we’ve seen from a few lone-wolf types lately.
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at [email protected].
