I’d venture that the reason the prosecutor’s office dropped the charges is because they realized the difficulty of showing that there was a danger of imminent violence. I went to court three times representing people with the same charges and when the prosecutors saw that the defendant had an attorney, they just dismissed the case each time.
Just guessing, I’d bet that 90% of the time, the officer is just fed up with the defendant, and vents his frustration by arresting him, even though he knows the charges will probably be dropped later. It’s better than hitting him over the head.
“It’s better than hitting him over the head.”
Better, probably, but far less justice involved.
A friend of mine tells me this story (cooraborated by his wife) a while back;
“I was talking to a guy in line at a ball game once who was real loud and saying a bunch of what he thought was really cool shit about one of the black ballplayers and saying things like “the team is getting really DARK, you know what I mean? Night Games will be tough to see the players”...blah, blah, blah...so this guy behind him, a WHITE guy, like us, says to him why don’t you STFU you ignorant (...)....
The big mouth tells him to stick it...and the guy behind him DECKS him...I mean just lays him out...park cop (white guy, too by the way) comes over, asks what happened...I say NOTHING...silent...the guy who laid this idiot out says “he must have slipped” and the loud mouth gets walked away by an attendant, still woozy and bleeding all over himself. No one said a word. Went in and watched the Angels beat the Yankees...”
America. Funny place.
“I’d venture that the reason the prosecutor’s office dropped the charges is because they realized the difficulty of showing that there was a danger of imminent violence.”
The POtuS saying he was a good friend may have had SOMETHING to do with it...I’m just saying...and “Mumbles” Menino saying the cop should lose his job may have had an effect...