High Capacity Finger Gesture Illegal

ProfMagoo(ret)

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Sticks and Stones
May break my bones,
But words will never hurt me.

Ah, but in the Commonwealth of PA, a gesture does:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/pennsylvania-gun-like-hand-gesture-crime

Interestingly, however, making a certain gesture in NC can disqualify one from a CHP:

"Disqualifying Criminal Offense" # 18 is: "Making or using any utterance, gesture, display, or abusive language which is intended and plainly likely to provoke violent retaliation, and thereby create a breach of peace." NCGS 14-288.4(a)(2)
 
I recently was reprimanded by HR for using an avatar that portrayed an offensive gesture. Funny part? IT had just finished a clean install of Win10 on the work laptop(their property, not mine) and didn't say a word to me.
The avatar?
Rick & Morty, "Peace among worlds".

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$100 fine plus court costs. For some folks that's money well spent.
 
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Very soon, nap time and diapers for all...
 
The reason the world is full of uncivilized barbarians is because the state claims to have an interest in criminalizing decent people confronting oxygen thieves.

If you are seeing a lot of people flipping you off while you're driving around, the problem isn't their Disqualifying Criminal Offense #18, it is your driving!

Hypothesis - Some people couldn't find a clue with a cluebat.

Experiment - [deleted on advice of legal counsel]
 
Words are hate.
Clothes are hate.
On deck: Body language is hate.
 
Look, I'm all in favor of naps! Just hope I don't need the diaper any time soon.

I'm much less likely to be cranky & get offended by a gesture if I get a nap in the afternoon.
Ha!:D
 
Look, I'm all in favor of naps! Just hope I don't need the diaper any time soon.

I'm much less likely to be cranky & get offended by a gesture if I get a nap in the afternoon.
But if you wear a diaper, you dont have to get up from your nap if you have to "go"! Just saying

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Meanwhile.... if any of y’all had a neighbor who did the finger-pointin’-I-shot-you gesture to your wife or kid, you’d be mighty upset, and feel like the guy threatened your family.

Someone making that gesture is making a threat, just as if he said “I’m gonna kill you”, which.... is a crime.

I don’t see the problem here. Guy does something threatening, guy gets charged for making a threat. Where’s the problem?

I submit that the "problem" here is whether a hand gesture actually constitutes a credible intention of threat - which is the threshold criterion. See, for example: https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/Criminal-Threats.htm

You cannot commit a criminal threat if the threat is vague or unreasonable. The threat must be capable of making the people who hear it feel as if they might be hurt, and conclude that the threat is credible, real, and imminent. If, for example, you threaten to blow up the world unless your bartender doesn't bring your drink to you immediately, no reasonable person hearing it would believe the threat was real. On the other hand, if you walk into a store with a gun and threaten to shoot the clerk unless she gives you a refund, such a threat is credible and specific.

Since no one can actually shoot with their hand, a gesture with a hand is not a credible threat of shooting. That the person making the gesture might have a firearm is not exactly proximate.
 
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I recently was reprimanded by HR for using an avatar that portrayed an offensive gesture. Funny part? IT had just finished a clean install of Win10 on the work laptop(their property, not mine) and didn't say a word to me.
The avatar?
Rick & Morty, "Peace among worlds".

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

HR just told me to remove a small 2"round pin back button that has been hanging on my tool box for almost 18 years. It was inside the lid,only visible with my
toolbox open.
It was a yellow smiley face with a blood oozing bullet hole between the eyes.
Maybe I'm next....
 
Diaper jokes aside, context is everything.

"Finger gun" at a buddy who catches on to one of my more esoteric (alleged) witicisms? No, I don't really want to shoot him, and he gets that.

"Finger gun" from a waitress from across the room after she & I were makin' small talk? I don't generally wet my... need a diaper. (Couldn't stay away!)

"Finger gun" with stink eye from a total stranger after I pass him in the right lane and he tails me for 5 miles? Yeah, I'm gonna start making defensive plans and hope they come to naught.

Context.
 
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So, they're basically banning Italian, specifically Italian sign language. It's racisim, plain and simple. :D

b3d7c4829733169979ffac781301de8ae4a0d06cb008790bce1d6e3dfd4dbebc.jpg


In Italian to be work/family friendly...
gesti.jpg
 
But he wasn’t charged with making a threat, he was charged with disorderly conduct.

He probably could have gotten the same change for making farting noises in their general direction.
Charges, charges charges. I fart in the general direction of those charges. The imbecilic legal system is a joke. This thread is an example of why. Oh and your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. :p
 
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