Pennsylvania police wrongly charged hundreds of people with disorderly conduct for swearing, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a pair of free-speech lawsuits filed Wednesday.
ACLU lawyers reviewed 770 disorderly conduct citations issued by Pennsylvania State Police in a recent one-year span. They said they found that while officers applied the law correctly in some cases, the majority involved profanities and other legal, nonobscene speech.
"Using words of his own choosing, including profanity, Mr. Walters expressed his dismay with his local law enforcement official," his suit states. "You can't be arrested for saying that to an officer," A 31-year-old plumber told The Associated Press. "I could see if you're out of line, threatening them. I didn't do anything like that. It was clear-cut. I said what I said, and he said 'You're arrested.'"
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