Abstract
On April 11, 1971, nineteen-year old Robert Vitek of Shaker Heights, Ohio, was stopped and ticketed for speeding by University Heights Police Sergeant Jay McKenna. While the officer was filling out his ticket, Vitek called McKenna a "pig." Judge Manuel Rocker of the Shaker Heights Municipal Court later found Vitek guilty of abusing a police officer, fined him $100, and sentenced him to spend three hours in a pigsty so that he might learn to "distinguish the difference between a pig and a police officer."1 Since the young man in question apparently was not discontented with his sentence, this incident did not become a contested freedom of speech case. Indeed Vitek told the press, "I don't think the Court could have made a better decision .... I'm no hippie radical. I learned a lesson and I'm glad I got the opportunity to go.”
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Speech
Volume
3
Issue
1
First Page
3
Last Page
31
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Haiman, Franklyn S.
(1972)
"The Fighting Word Doctrine from Chaplinsky to Brown,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 3:
No.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol3/iss1/4
Copyright
©1972 Iowa Communication Association
