From the "Black People Arrest Themselves" files

Started by CountDeMoney, July 21, 2009, 05:35:20 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ed Anger

Quote from: Malthus on July 21, 2009, 01:30:58 PM


Thing is - is mouthing off at the cops an arrestable offence? I know that it isn't a smart thing to do because cops may well harrass you for it, but how legally legitimate is that harassment?

Disorderly conduct.

Interference with an officer's duty (I don't know the formal way it is put)
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Malthus

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 21, 2009, 01:32:55 PM
Quote from: Malthus on July 21, 2009, 01:30:58 PM


Thing is - is mouthing off at the cops an arrestable offence? I know that it isn't a smart thing to do because cops may well harrass you for it, but how legally legitimate is that harassment?

Disorderly conduct.

Interference with an officer's duty (I don't know the formal way it is put)

Well, clearly they *can* arrest you for this, but if they laid charges, would they stick?
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Barrister

Quote from: Malthus on July 21, 2009, 01:30:58 PM
Thing is - is mouthing off at the cops an arrestable offence? I know that it isn't a smart thing to do because cops may well harrass you for it, but how legally legitimate is that harassment?

It is potentially s. 175 Cause Disturbance by Yelling, or s. 129(a) Obstruct Peace Officer.  It depends on the exact circumstances at that point.  Cause disturbance requires a public place (outside the front door would work), obstruction requires the activity to somehow hinder the officers.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: Malthus on July 21, 2009, 01:30:58 PM
I suspect that the appropriateness or otherwise of the cop's arrest will hinge on exactly what form his "expression of frustration" took.

Thing is - is mouthing off at the cops an arrestable offence? I know that it isn't a smart thing to do because cops may well harrass you for it, but how legally legitimate is that harassment?

Mouthing off at the cops is not an arrestable offense (not smart, but not arrestable);  however, mouthing off in public, where passersby may witness it (using the objective person standard), is disturbance of the public peace/disorderly conduct/what have you.  That's what got him arrested.

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: garbon on July 21, 2009, 04:17:36 PM
Indeed, he might have caused a riot! :o

Don't make me break out my Nigger Be Cool stick on you, boy.  Keep walking.

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

grumbler

I'd say tonight is the ideal night on which to break into the professor's house.  The cops ain't gonna bust a gut getting there on time!  :lol:
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Ed Anger

Quote from: grumbler on July 21, 2009, 04:31:23 PM
I'd say tonight is the ideal night on which to break into the professor's house.  The cops ain't gonna bust a gut getting there on time!  :lol:

911 is a joke.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

CountDeMoney


The Minsky Moment

Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2009, 05:32:59 PM
Quote from: Caliga on July 21, 2009, 11:16:54 AM
Charges dropped. ^_^
Now see, that was a mistake.

The alternative is finding a Assistant DA who would prosecute and a judge who would convict.  None of whom can be found withing the boundaries of Middlesex County.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: The Minsky Moment on July 21, 2009, 05:39:04 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2009, 05:32:59 PM
Quote from: Caliga on July 21, 2009, 11:16:54 AM
Charges dropped. ^_^
Now see, that was a mistake.

The alternative is finding a Assistant DA who would prosecute and a judge who would convict.  None of whom can be found withing the boundaries of Middlesex County.

Oh, bullshit.  It was a proper charge, and a proper arrest.  Of course, there's a difference between what's proper and what's necessary.  But we're not talking about a necessary arrest now.

By dropping the charges, they are not only invalidating their own department and saying they don't trust the judgment of a sergeant, they now open up the department for a much bigger lawsuit than what they were going to get anyway.
Dumb move to drop the charges.  You simply can't un-arrest somebody, which is exactly what they did.

Barrister

Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2009, 06:06:42 PM
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on July 21, 2009, 05:39:04 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 21, 2009, 05:32:59 PM
Quote from: Caliga on July 21, 2009, 11:16:54 AM
Charges dropped. ^_^
Now see, that was a mistake.

The alternative is finding a Assistant DA who would prosecute and a judge who would convict.  None of whom can be found withing the boundaries of Middlesex County.

Oh, bullshit.  It was a proper charge, and a proper arrest.  Of course, there's a difference between what's proper and what's necessary.  But we're not talking about a necessary arrest now.

By dropping the charges, they are not only invalidating their own department and saying they don't trust the judgment of a sergeant, they now open up the department for a much bigger lawsuit than what they were going to get anyway.
Dumb move to drop the charges.  You simply can't un-arrest somebody, which is exactly what they did.

No, but you can choose not to proceed with charges.  It happens all the time.  It doesn't take away from their own existence of reasonable & probably grounds to arrest in the first place (or whatever the US terminology is).
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: Barrister on July 21, 2009, 06:08:58 PMIt doesn't take away from their own existence of reasonable & probably grounds to arrest in the first place (or whatever the US terminology is).

It will with the civil jury that will be hearing the lawsuit over it. 
"Wrongfully arrested" looks more wrongful when there's no adjudication.