On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 8:10 PM, Anthony Farr <[email protected]> wrote:
> I would have thought the cop had to actually be arresting you before > you were able to resist arrest. If he simply lays hands on you or > even takes hold of you it's still not arrest if the cop hasn't > pronounced it or read any rights. You're arrested when the cop says, "you're under arrest". He then tells you what the charges are and only then has to inform the accused what his rights are.. >Of course the cop could claim you > assaulted him but if he physically accosted the "suspect" without > formally making an arrest, then his legal ground would be shaky. OTOH > if it came to court, the cop's testimony would be the one respected by > a judge or jury. Exactly! Cops, who as close to professional witnesses as there are, know that they'll be believed in court, and know what they need to say to a judge to make sure a charge sticks. Now, before someone accuses me of saying that police are all liars, that's not what I'm saying. The vast majority of cops are great guys and ladies, doing a very difficult, thankless job. That being said a small majority are assholes and will play the system to secure wrongful convictions. Doesn't happen all that much, but it does happen. > > Am I the only one here who thinks this photographer was being a bit of > an arsehole? Being a professional, he must have known that shopping > malls are a legal grey area regarding rights to photograph, being not > public property but "privately owned public space". The Santa's > Palace or whatever it was called was a commercial operation whose > operators would be wary of having their income potential eroded by > parents/relatives/friends poaching a sly photo on the side. The Dad's > were arseholes because they took the photographer's apology, saw him > delete every shot of their kids, and THEN went bleating to the mall > cops. Pricks! The cop was an arsehole because he made up the law > according to him, ignored the photographers rights and didn't follow a > proper formal procedure of arrest. I thought the photog was most reasonable, showing the mall cops and the concerned dad his photos and deleting them in front of them. The cop had no reason to talk to him. I don't blame the photographer for being pissed of at that point. Pointing the camera at the cop wasn't the brightest thing to do, and maybe he was being something of an arsehole at that point, but I kind of don't blame him. > > But it comes back to the photographer who, I feel, taunted the cop > when discussing the situation. Not smart. Agreed! cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
