The LV situation is a good reminder, of how we have to be ever vigilant about our rights. I don’t blame most of the cops, I blame their bosses who lay out the rules of engagement.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, however, I wholeheartedly disagree with this comment. Police officers cannot violate someones Constitutional rights. They are not above the law. If someone is telling them to do so, they are asking them to break the law. I have never worked for anyone who asked me to break the law. If, a previous boss had asked me to break the law, I would have quit. Those are the only choices. Quit and expose.
One more point. You mentioned that you didn’t think showing id was as bad as a blood draw. These petty little tyrants will use any name in a police report if they want to. The next thing, your on a no fly list. Or, a claim that you broke some new red flag law, now you can’t buy a gun. It is very dangerous. That’s why the founders put the 4th where they did. It’s important. Unless there was suspicion that the female had broken some law, she should have been left alone. not harassed for 8 minutes for an id.
The fact is, unconstitutional laws get passed all the time, that’s why we have a Judicial branch. If the Illinois law requiring people who are detained or arrested to get truthful name, address and DOB information to law enforcment is unconstitutional, then someone should challenge it in court. But until that happens, it is the law of the land, the female in the video failed to do so, and she was lawfully arrested as a result. The law is clear:
Sec. 31-4.5. Obstructing identification.
(a) A person commits the offense of obstructing identification when he or she intentionally or knowingly furnishes a false or fictitious name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has:
(1) lawfully arrested the person;
(2) lawfully detained the person; or
(3) requested the information from a person that the
peace officer has good cause to believe is a witness to a criminal offense.
(b) Sentence. Obstructing identification is a Class A misdemeanor.
More of the law can be found at: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=072000050HArt%2E+31A&ActID=1876&ChapterID=53&SeqStart=81200000&SeqEnd=81600000
I’d guess you don’t like this law very much but that’s a different argument. You can fight what you feel is an unconstitutional law in court but that is not going to prevent being arrested, charged, and sentenced.
LEOs are given guidence every day from their superiors as to where they have discretion and where the don’t. Maybe in this case the officer could have just used his discretion and let them go, but after seeing a battery in progress and the female attempting to leave the vehicle, there’s no question he had probably cause to stop them. That was why I said this wasn’t just harassing someone over a broken tail light. If the guidance from department heads does not allow for discretion in domestic cases, then that wouldn’t be an option. Like one commenter said, if the cops let them go and she ends up dead two hours later, who gets the blame?