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Comment by RyanAdamas | Hacker News Reader

So what's the penalty for not moving back 25 feet? Death? Seems like officers in the USA have carte blanche to just shoot the crap out of anyone not complying with their 'lawful' orders - whatever the hell lawful means these days.

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It likely depends on the colour of your skin, and what kind of day the officers have had so far - but given US police history, I can't imagine it's long before they shoot someone in the back while claiming they were "interfering".

Arrest, even if you're not charged ultimately there's a lot of power in being able to just initiate an arrest suddenly you're resisting arrest if you aren't cowed immediately and even if the original charge is bogus you've got the cops get out of liability free card of slapping on a resisting charge. And even if they don't pull that legal judo move you're still stuck in the system for a while and that's majorly disruptive to your livelihood even if you don't ultimately get charged with anything and get released asap.

How is that not fruit from the poisoned tree? If the initial charge is bunk, all subsequent charges must be by default since the origin of the conflict was unjust. Which means, if a cop hits you with "resisting arrest" when the initial offense isn't worthy of arrest, then hitting that cop square in the face should not be punishable by law.

If cops can't be sued for their actions due to qualified immunity, then they should absolutely fear the response of people unjustly detained. This American cop carte blanche is going to fucking stop.

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