When it comes to the 6-foot-4 Peter Rodriguez’s grievances with a couple of, ahem, vertically challenged Maricopa Police Department officers, his choice of words — “little b*tch” — is to be taken in the literal sense.

The Maricopa mechanic’s discord with local police this summer hit a fever pitch this morning when Rodriguez staged an unmissable solo protest in the middle of town. Donning a pair of hand-painted signs that hung across his back and torso from orange strings that worked like makeshift suspenders, Rodriguez exercised his free speech rights without mincing words, calling two MPD coppers out by name.

On one side: “Officer Wetherell is a little b*tch.” On the other: “Officer Ordonez is a little b*tch.”

MPD Officers William Wetherell and Rene Ordonez are both police recruits, according to the city’s records custodian. And they’re both shorter than your average cop.

How this whole thing started

The officers were involved in Rodriguez’s July 4 arrest during an Independence Day fireworks show at Copper Sky Regional Park, when MPD charged him with resisting arrest, refusing to identify himself, obstructing a thoroughfare, criminal nuisance and obstructing governmental operations.

Rodriguez bears the calling cards of a First Amendment auditor, defined by the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Freedom Forum as “when people film public officials or employees to hold them accountable or ‘test’ their right to film in public spaces.” He kept his cell phone camera rolling at shoulder height during an interview with InMaricopa this morning at the corner of John Wayne Parkway and Honeycutt Road as an MPD squad car rolled by.

He said this morning he was there to “make sure everyone knows these two officers are little b*tches,” noting he does not have a problem with short people but wants to “hit ’em where it hurts, or at least try to.”

Rodriguez on July 4 heckled police officers while he video recorded them working an unrelated traffic stop at John Wayne Parkway and Ferrell Road, prompting the officers to command him to clear the scene. He responded, “F*ck you,” at which point one officer pushed him forcefully and later tackled him to the ground. (You can watch a video of the entire exchange here, but be warned, it is quite profane.)

The fine line between a citizen’s First Amendment right to free speech and impeding policework has long been debated.

“They body-slammed me to the ground,” Rodriguez recalled today of the July 4 incident.

Retaliation from both sides?

An unidentified person on July 11 sent Mayor Nancy Smith, all six Maricopa City Council members and some other city leaders a profane and disturbing email urging Maricopa residents to “come together and blow your f*cking heads off” in response to Rodriguez’s arrest one week earlier.

“IS THIS how you c*cksuckers let your f*cktards treat the people of that community????” asked the sender, reacting to a video of Rodriguez’s arrest recorded by fellow 1A auditors and posted online to the High-Impact Flix website called Bitchute under the title, “Dozens of cops escalate on Independence Day.”

The video was tagged “Zero to Insanity,” with a still frame showing Officer Ordonez pushing Rodriguez and screaming for him to leave the scene shortly before the arrest. Ordonez appears crazed in the cherry-picked image.

Rodriguez claims he has suffered retaliation at the hands of Ordonez.

“That little a**hole started pulling people over at my work,” Rodriguez, who works at a business on John Wayne Parkway near Hathaway Avenue, said of Ordonez. “I was flipping him off and stuff.”

That’s when Rodriguez claims Ordonez pulled his cop car around to the back of the business and called the 1A auditor’s boss from an “anonymous number,” asking for him to be punished.

MPD spokesperson Monica Williams was not immediately able to confirm or deny this version of events.

“Rodriguez has made similar complaints to our office just recently,” Williams told InMaricopa. “We are doing our proper protocol, which would be investigating the complaints that have been made to our police department.”

Rodriguez hopes his incendiary form of activism will yield fruits of positive change, and he sees one silver lining.

MPD Chief Mark Goodman in an email to his command staff and Deputy City Manager Micah Gaudet, the city’s chief public safety officer, seemed to suggest the use of force during Rodriguez’s July 4 arrest was a learning experience for the officers, although he took no known disciplinary action.

“The incident that unfolded was a multi-faceted and rapidly evolving event that our officers continuously train to navigate,” the chief said.