There is something seriously wrong with law enforcement....

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Wiglaf


Wow. You do realize people are arrested, tried, and sentenced (sometimes to death) for things they didn't even do?

Our justice system has bigger problems than a guy looking like he picked up a hooker getting 8 hours of detention. It's just funny you're flipping out over the small fry.

No! It is exactly the same problem! I am "flipping out" over the bigger issue at stake here...and you have rightly named it. I would be "flipping out" over one of those cases that involved the abuse of police power just the same...because it is the same issue. Or are you suggesting that we overlook "small" abuses and just flip out over "big" ones? They both stem from the underlying lack of respect that police have or the rights of the citizens that they are empowered to protect. Degree is relevant only to the damage done, not to the underlying problem. We cannot, as a society, allow a distinction to be made...we must stand up to the abue of police power at all levels. Overlooking "minor" abuses will only encourage larger ones. That is the issue I am "flipping out" over.

[Wiglaf]

It's a different problem. The standard for detainment is only probable cause. The police here had cause to arrest this guy until more facts came to light. No matter what you do, there will always be innocents being briefly detained just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The bigger problem is how juries routinely bend the burden of proof to the point where people are being convicted on very shaky evidence.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
The police here had cause to arrest this guy until more facts came to light.

I guess I missed that part. What was the "probable cause"? Trying to help someone who flagged him down? Right.....

[Wiglaf]

Keep in mind that is his side of the story. In the officer's view, he asked for sex.

The police held him, analyzed the situation, but determined they lacked cause and let him go. Nothing to see here.

[Aeson]

Guilty until proven innocent. :nodsmileythingie:

[Wiglaf]

Er, not quite.

[Aeson]

By your own statement they "held him" before they determined if they had "cause".

[Wiglaf]

No, they had cause to arrest. Namely, an officer said he asked for sex.

[Aeson]

Then why are they releasing him?

[Wiglaf]

He had this excuse about the cop waving, and after more interviews maybe the cop said that was a possible explanation for what had happened. More facts came to light.

If I shoot someone, I should be arrested or at least detained on the spot. If I later claim that the gun went off accidentally and this was somehow proven, I would expect to be let go.

This is hardly "guilty until proven innocent" because the charges didn't even make it to a jury.

[Chemical Ollie]

If I was him, I would just give my credit card to the whore and drive away...

[Wiglaf]

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
He had this excuse about the cop waving, and after more interviews maybe the cop said that was a possible explanation for what had happened.

"Presummed guilty".

More facts came to light.

"Proven innocent".

Thanks

[Wiglaf]

Obviously you arrest someone because you presume they did something wrong..?

What matters is that when it becomes unreasonable to presume he did something wrong, that he is let go.

[Chemical Ollie]

As the story is told, only an idiot would think he did something that deserved arrest in the first place. It wouldn't need 7 hours to figure out.