Baltimore Police Afraid?

[Belsnickel]

(05-20-2015, 01:07 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: The biggest reason for this apprehension, which btw is a much better description than fear, is, from what I've heard and understand, the charges brought against the officers for false imprisonment related to a wrongful arrest.  LEO's do not, and cannot, know every law on the books.  This is especially true as laws are constantly changing/morphing.  This is not confined to LEO's btw, I've seen ADAs make similar mistakes as it is virtually impossible to know the entirety of the penal code.  If you arrest someone for an illegal knife that turns out to actually be legal you are protected by a lack of criminal intent during the normal commission of your jobs duties.  If it was a butter knife then the "reasonable person" would not believe the knife to be illegal.  The line between what makes a folding knife illegal or legal can be a matter of an 1/8" or a small double edge near the tip of the blade.  To charge an LEO with illegal arrest and false imprisonment over such an issue essentially paralyzes their ability to efficiently do their job and is, quite simply the most egregious example of Mosley's pandering to a riotous mob.  


When you, as an LEO, know that you can be completely sold out by a state's attorney for reasons other than legal you are going to approach your job with a sizable, and understandable, amount of apprehension.

See, all of that I can understand. wasn't this the case where they denied medical attention as well? That is the part that, to me, is the most egregious and if it hadn't happened, there would likely not have been any other charges forthcoming.

Like I said earlier, I get that mistakes are made. We can't all remember everything, this is why most accountants have one of their textbooks stashed somewhere for reference. There is a lot of information that has to be sorted through.

There is a term called "good faith effort" that is in law, and in the business world, that is a very abstract concept. But essentially it is the same as you refer to about the reasonable person. An honest mistake is an honest mistake and it shouldn't be criminal. Sometimes people go too far with the handling of the aftermath, and sometimes people are doing more than just making honest mistakes. I think both occurred in Baltimore.