EDISON — Robert Bell had just left a West Village bar last August when four New York City police officers walked by. A moment later, the Edison man "expressed his dislike and distrust for police officers by raising his middle finger toward them," according to a lawsuit he just filed.

In other words, Bell gave the cops the finger.

One of the officers noticed and confronted Bell, seeking an explanation.

"Because I don't like cops," the financial services recruiter replied. He was then handcuffed, taken into custody and held in a jail cell for two hours before being released and issued a summons for disorderly conduct. Bell's criminal case was soon dismissed when the arresting officer, Peter Play, failed to appear in court.

The incident, however, is far from over. Bell, 26, filed a federal civil rights suit against the city and the arresting officer, alleging his First Amendment rights were trampled the night of Aug. 6, 2011, outside the Slaughtered Lamb Pub.

Legal experts and law enforcement officials say Bell has a case, and courts have generally backed his position in similar instances. What he did could be seen as offensive in some circles or defiant in others, they say, but it was not illegal.

"I can’t arrest you for giving me the finger, any more than I can arrest you for calling me nasty names," said Jon Shane, a retired Newark police captain who is now an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. "Sure it’s stupid and disrespectful. But it’s not against the law."

Chris Dunn, associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented Bell in his criminal case, agreed.

"Crude as it may have been, you have a constitutional right to criticize police and that’s exactly what he was doing. The Supreme Court has long recognized that to be the case."

In a 30-page complaint, Bell’s attorney for the civil suit, Robert Quackenbush, contends the officer arrested his client "in apparent retaliation for this protected form of free speech." Bell, who still works in financial recruiting but wants to become a lawyer, now believes he "will be unable to gain admission to the law school of his choice," according to the brief.

Quackenbush, of Rankin & Taylor in Manhattan, did not return several calls for comment. Bell also did not respond to messages.

A New York Police Department spokesman, while not commenting on Bell’s case directly, said citizens have a right to speak their mind.

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"Can you flip a cop the finger and curse him out? Sure. It’s actually protected by freedom of speech," said the spokesman, Sgt. Brendan Ryan. Officers are taught in the police academy and afterward how to "de-escalate verbal confrontations without resorting to force," he said.

Ryan Shaffer, an attorney with the New York City Law Department, said his office "recently received the case and we’re currently in the process of reviewing it."

Similar cases filed on behalf of people alleging First Amendment violations for flipping the middle finger established the gesture is covered as free speech, experts say. In March 2009, a federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled in favor of a man who had been cited for disorderly conduct after giving the middle finger to a motorist and a police officer. The judge said the gesture was constitutionally protected and was not "obscene speech or fighting words."

Frank Askin, a law professor and director of the constitutional litigation clinic at Rutgers Law School-Newark, believes Bell will prevail in court.

"There’s a lot of law that says policemen have to have thick skins," Askin said. He noted that Bell was never accused of touching or threatening the officer. While Bell was charged with causing public alarm, Askin said it would be difficult to prove the officer or anyone on the street was disturbed by the gesture.

"It’s a false arrest but is he going to get any money from a jury, who knows? They may think he’s being a wise ass. But he’s got a lot of merit on his side."

James Stewart, president of the Newark Fraternal Order of Police, said street confrontations involve numerous variables and are fraught with potential dangers. Although no one has ever stuck a middle finger out at him while on patrol, if it happened, "it would necessitate a conversation," he said. "Depending on what the guy was doing, it might lead to something more."

But Stewart said there is nothing illegal about making an obscene gesture unless it causes some kind of public alarm. "I chalk it up to someone not having a good day."

Just because the arrest didn’t result in a conviction doesn’t make it unlawful or a violation of Bell’s civil rights, said Wayne Fisher, executive director of the Police Institute at Rutgers. "But if it was not reasonable for the officer to make the arrest or if it can be demonstrated there was some malicious motive behind the arrest, then that’s a whole different story," he said. "The arrest in all probability was due to the totality of the circumstances and actions of the person who was arrested. Obviously, police officers can’t place everyone who disapproves of either their actions or their status as an officer under arrest."

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