Then, a man approached the officers and said, “If you don't get that son-of-a-bitch off, I will go over and get him off there myself.” This was the only threat of violence that Flynn had heard up to that point. He testified that some other people did comment that the police force seemed   unable to handle the situation, and “they did not see why they had to put up with that kind of stuff in the neighborhood.”

At this point, Officer Flynn concluded that Feiner's speech had gone far enough. In his opinion, the crowd was getting to the point where they might become unruly. True, there was no actual disturbance, but Flynn claimed that “we stepped in to prevent it from resulting in a fight.” He approached Irving Feiner, not to ar...

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