<P> The gesture has been involved in notable political events . During the USS Pueblo incident, in which an American ship was captured by North Korea, the captured American crewmembers often discreetly gave the finger in staged photo ops, thus ruining the North Koreans' efforts at propaganda . The North Koreans, ignorant of what the gesture meant, were at first told by the prisoners that it was a "Hawaiian good luck sign", similar to the shaka . When the guards finally figured things out, the crewmembers were subjected to extremely severe beatings . Abbie Hoffman used the gesture at the 1968 Democratic National Convention . Ronald Reagan, while serving as the Governor of California, gave the middle finger to counterculture protestors in Berkeley, California . Nelson Rockefeller, then the Vice President of the United States, directed the gesture to hecklers at a 1976 campaign stop near Binghamton, New York, leading it to be called the "Rockefeller gesture". Pierre Trudeau, then the Prime Minister of Canada, gave the finger to protesters in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, earning the incident the nickname the "Salmon Arm salute". The gesture itself has also been nicknamed the "Trudeau salute". Former president George W. Bush gave the finger to the camera at an Austin production facility during his term as governor of Texas, saying it was "just a one - finger victory salute ." Anthony Weiner gave the finger to reporters after leaving his election headquarters the night he lost the 2013 primary election for Mayor of New York City . During the campaign for the 2013 German federal election, the leading candidate of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Peer Steinbrück controversially gave the finger in a photo interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung's Magazin supplement . </P> <P> During World War II, the 91st Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces referred to the gesture as the "rigid digit" salute . It was used in a more jocular manner, to suggest an airman had committed an error or infraction; the term was a reference to British slang terms for inattentiveness (i.e. "pull your finger out (of your bum)"). The "order of the rigid digit" continued after the war as a series of awards presented by the veteran's association of the 91st, marked by wooden statuettes of a hand giving the single finger gesture . In 2005 during the war in Iraq, Gunnery Sergeant Michael Burghardt gained prominence when the Omaha World - Herald published a photo of Burghardt making the gesture towards Iraqi insurgents he believed to be watching after an improvised explosive device failed to kill him . </P> <P> The middle finger has been involved in judicial hearings . An appellate court in Hartford, Connecticut ruled in 1976 that gesturing with the middle finger was offensive, but not obscene, after a police officer charged a 16 - year - old with making an obscene gesture when the student gave the officer the middle finger . The case was appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which upheld the decision . In March 2006, a federal lawsuit was filed regarding the free speech issue . </P> <P> Giving the finger has resulted in negative consequences . A Malaysian man was bludgeoned to death after giving the finger to a motorist following a car chase . A Pakistani man was deported by the United Arab Emirates for the gesture, which violates indecency codes . </P>

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