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Comment by gambiter | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious... in a situation like this, could you sue for wrongful arrest?

Uh, no. The entire point of the criminal justice system is to determine if arrests are wrongful or not.

Still, just because a police officer arrests you does not mean that the arrest is legitimate.

(especially in a legal sense, I guess in a de facto sense this is a relatively safe avenue for police to abuse their power)

The criminal justice system determines if the accused is innocent. The arrest is a separate action.

In fact, if you are convinced that is IS a wrongful arrest, you may legally resist arrest, tell the officer, and he is supposed to let you present evidence of your innocence. However, it doesn't HAVE to be claimed at the time of arrest.

I was curious in OP's case because of the "no charges filed and case rejected for lack of any evidence at all" line. It seems to me, that would be enough reason to claim wrongful arrest and at least get compensation for the bail bond.

>> you may legally resist arrest

Very risky advice for the nonwhite.

> Very risky advice for the nonwhite.

Very risky advice for ANYONE. Doesn't matter your race, the police don't like people to stick up for themselves. Judges tend to frown on this behavior as well, even if it's morally right. The truth doesn't matter when the judge doesn't care.

EDIT: That's not to say that all judges will allow these kinds of questionable abuses, just that there are enough that you're kind of taking your fate in your hands in a more substantial way than say driving a car or taking an airline flight.

In addition to getting in trouble for resisting a wrongful arrest, you can also easily get in trouble for resisting a non-existant arrest.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/01/29/382497080/...

For anyone, especially for the nonwhite. FTFY.

The most likely event of you legally resisting a wrongful arrest is that you will be convicted of resisting arrest. Particularly in the event that it is your word against the arresting officer.

> In fact, if you are convinced that is IS a wrongful arrest, you may legally resist arrest

As of 2001, it was illegal to resist unlawful arrests in 39 states.[1]

> and he is supposed to let you present evidence of your innocence.

Where is this the law?

[1] http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl...

Thank you for this - I will look into it.

Realize that in most jurisdictions, it is possible to be charged (and convicted) of resisting arrest, even if there were no grounds to arrest you in the first place. It's a chicken and egg situation, that needs no chicken.

>In fact, if you are convinced that is IS a wrongful arrest

Even if I was 100% convinced of the illegality of the arrest, I would advise to keep your cool and let the police go ahead. I know it sucks to have your rights trampled and be out of 3000$ and everything, but I'm pretty sure it sucks even more to be dead.

>if you are convinced that is IS a wrongful arrest, you may legally resist arrest,

this is crazy wrong (in the US) and profoundly dangerous.

It really depends on the jurisdiction, but it certainly isn't 'crazy wrong'.

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/resisting-an-u...

That said, I definitely agree with most of the sentiment here, that it's best not to push it, especially given the abuses of power we've seen. Fighting it after-the-fact is probably the best choice.

There is such a thing as wrongful arrest, and it's not the same as "you are not guilty of the crime that we accused you of."

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