The FAILING FINGER

The FAILING FINGER
Society now regards what George W Bush called 'the one-fingered victory salute' differently.

Is the world having a hand-wringing moment over what former US president George W Bush calls "the one-fingered victory salute"? Earlier this month, after Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky , raised his middle finger at an ABC News producer , the flare-up on blogs lasted as long as the gesture itself. But after Rex Ryan, the coach of the New York Jets, did the same thing at a recent martial arts competition, the Jets fined him $50,000. And when Robert Ekas of Clackamas, Ore., gestured at a sheriff's cruiser in 2007, he received a traffic citation. Ekas is suing, saying his First Amendment rights were violated. Remember the hoopla over Greg Chappell's sly 'up yours' to the Kolkata media in 2005? The same gesture from hockey star Prabhjot Singh barely caused a flutter.

Same finger, different consequences. So how should we regard The Gesture? Criminal offense, merely offensive or, after all this time - about 2,500 years - no big deal?

Ira P Robbins, a professor of criminal law at American University in Washington, tries to strike a balance between bad law and good taste. "The long arm of the law should not extend to the middle finger," said Robbins, an authority on gesture prosecutions. "That's not to say it's smart to give the finger to a police officer."

Typically it's impulse, rather than intelligence, that lands middle-finger extenders in legal trouble: students to principals, motorists to police officers, defendants to judges. The punishment for disorderly conduct, the charge often brought, can range from a $20 fine to a year in jail.

But when defendants appeal convictions on freespeech or related grounds, Robbins wrote in an 83-page law review article in 2008, they often prevail. After a Tul sa judge dismissed one such case, the arresting officer, on his way out of the courtroom, said, "Thank you very much, Judge" - and aimed the gesture at him.

In recent years, the sheer welter of its use seems to be wearing the fingerprints off the offending finger. Internet sites merrily display photos of famous flippers - Johnny Cash, Mike Ditka, Charlize Theron - as do ads and T-shirts. So how can it possibly still be taboo?