Can you get into trouble if you flip storeowners off?

Question

Cn you get into legal trouble???

Answer 1

Do NOT rely on answers here that tell you something will not get you in trouble when you are pretty sure it will.

The finger certainly can be a criminal act, and there are a lot of factors involved, as there are with a lot of acts of expression. Some of the factors are:

State - Is it specifically addressed in the penal code, or does it fall within some more general language?

Jurisdiction - Do the police commonly enforce it, or are they real selective about considering the situation?  Does the local prosecutor prosecute for it?

Law - How is your law worded? Example, in Texas it has to "tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace." With speech, you could call it "fighting words."

Setting - Example. Guy shoots the finger out of the window of his moving car at someone in another moving car. The charge was Disorderly Conduct. It went to the Supreme Court where it was ruled that it was too unlikely that the people in two cars would both stop and allow a fight to happen. Pretty clearly, if facing each other, it would have been upheld. This kind of contradicts an old case in which a high school principal testified he would never have fought with the student who cursed him, but the court ruled it was still "fighting words" and unlawful.

So, you can conduct a series of experiments in your jurisdiction and see.  

Answer 2

depends what store also where it is located and what they did to you first

Answer 3

No

not where I live.

Answer 4

Yes...If it is witnessed by an Officer. It would be a lewd and or obscene act. Class D misdemeanor; most likley a summons...unless the Officer had a bad day.

Answer 5

No, it falls under free speech.

Telling someone they are number 1 by holding a finger up is not against the law in any state of the union.

However the store owner has the right to refuse you entry to his property again.