They didn’t find the knife until after they decided to arrest him.
If that's the case I heard Judge Napolitano state it would not have been a legal arrest since they were unaware of the knife until after they arrested him.
“They didn’t find the knife until after they decided to arrest him.”
Yeah, and he’s conveniently not around to testify as to whether it was his or not! What’s really disgusting about the cops these days is that the good ones won’t stand up and say the truth about the bad ones.
False.
The knife was found after the suspect was detained and frisked in what is known as a Terry Stop , for the legal case which upholds the lawfulness of the police action.
“They didn’t find the knife until after they decided to arrest him.”
Probably true...but the sequence of events was they saw Freddie, and he ran.
Now SCOTUS has determined that merely running from police is cause for the police to give chase. People may or may not agree with that, buts its the current interpretation, and that is important when it comes to prosecuting the cops. And, its likely the cops then yelled ‘stop’...and when Freddie kept running, he was violating their commands - further cause for them to pursue him.
Now you are right that they probably had their minds set on arresting him for something, around half way through the chase. But looking at the technical progression of events, they did absolutely nothing wrong when they chased and tackled him, under the law.
The knife...the code ( http://lawofselfdefense.com/statute/md-baltimore-code-%C2%A7-59-22-switch-blade-knives/ ) seems to expand the definition of a switch blade beyond ‘automatic spring’ and also includes ‘or other device for opening and/or closing the blade’. The wording is sloppy...but if that knife has any type of spring assist that allows you to open it with one hand, the cops aren’t guilty of wrongful imprisonment. They are allowed to make reasonable mistakes on the job, without being criminally prosecuted - and the sloppy wording leaves a lot of room for mistakes.
“They didn’t find the knife until after they decided to arrest him.”
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Really? Really? And you “know” this how?