Kansas Man Who Flipped Off Cop Gets $4,000

An Overland Park man who flashed an obscene gesture at an Olathe police officer after getting a ticket is getting rewarded for his behavior.

The city of Olathe has settled a civil rights complaint filed by Scott Schaper of Overland Park. He was ticketed in September for disorderly conduct for flipping off an officer who had given him a ticket for running a stop sign.

The city of Olathe last week agreed that its insurance company would pay Schaper $4,000, with another $1,000 for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri.

Olathe police also must train its officers that they are required to take such verbal abuse.

The Kansas City Star reports that Doug Bonney, legal director for the ACLU chapter, says Schaper reacted angrily because he was taking his children to school and the traffic stop caused them to cry.

Olathe fared better than Pittsburgh did in a similar case of angry gesticulating.

The Pennsylvania city paid $10,000 to a citizen ticketed for giving a police officer the finger and $40,000 more to the ACLU for legal work, reported the Star.

In that case, the citizen flipped off a Pittsburgh officer who had told him to stop giving the finger to another driver.

Prairie Village's police chief, Wes Jordan, the outgoing president of an association of Johnson County police chiefs and the sheriff, said of such abuse: "We have to just swallow it."