Or he was a rookie who panicked.

I seriously doubt it was panic. Senior Officers are always on the scene in these situations, and that officer would not let the situation get that far, nor would other officers tolerate a rookie officer losing control. Officers are trained in crowd control before they are thrust into these kind of situations. At least in my experience, that has been the case.

Or he was a rookie who panicked.

Another example of our brave L.E.O.

I’d be interested in knowing what you do for a living jtex. Only because I want to find some examples of boneheads in you field and paint everyone in your field as being exactly the same way, with as wide a brush as I possibly can.

For the record I too sent GPD an e-mail. Someone earlier stated that “the fear factor does not negate the threat” which is true, but common sense does. It is true that everyone is a threat but a violent twenty-year-old with a club trumps a peaceful eighty-year-old with a sign.

you hit the nail on the head with your post and the truth is we really do not know the exchange that occurred so therefore in my opinion we cannot make a rush to judgment. Did the officer provide a verbal warning? Did Pop touch the officer more than once?

And after all we must remember that this story worked out in everyones favor

We’ll not to argue semantics here but you’ve obviously never worked in the police or legal fields.

1. If an officer felt that he was assaulted, he has the right and the duty to make an arrest. It is then the duty of the legal branch to substantiate the claim and press charges or vindicate the and let the arrestee go.

2. The legal definition of assault varies from jurisdiction but there is a common standard when it comes to police action in a crowd control or protection detail. Most departments have a zero contact policy and when anyone lays a hand on an officer for any reason, they are arrested. It is the law it is common sense.

Most arrests of the hippies and tree huggers occur for similar and then have the charges dropped after legal review

Now with this being said, I want to stress again I do not support the actions of the arrest against Pap just support the legal grounds that an officer could make an arrest based upon the limited information provided. I do believe that the calls for the officers firing or 2×4 between the eyes are out of line.

I am a retired police officer from Chico (CA) P.D., home of the nefarious “Pioneer Days” riots, from years ago. I have been involved in numerous crowd control, unlawful assemblies, and riotous situations.

Being able to accurately gauge a situation is a the forefront of affecting an arrest. In my experience, the threat of arrest after verbal warnings is generally enough to get people to comply.

This 70 yr. old must have looked pretty dangerous/intimidating/threatening to have been arrested. Or, the policeman was just tired of listening to his BS, and decided to remedy the situation by using a standard practice “catch all” reason to make the arrest, knowing and not caring that it would go no where. My take, anyway.

supersean said:

As for the wussie claim, assualt can be defined not only as a attack against someone but any physical contact with another person without their consent.

You missed an important component of the law regarding assault claims, & that is “intent”. Intent must be established, & not just means to carry out the assault. You will find no sane judge that calls putting a hand on an officer’s should alone, “an assault”.

I’ve seen officers use more restraint than this at really rowdy protests, even after being shoved by protesters.. If you’d like I can point you to a few You Tube videos where 20-23 year old, college students actually physical push back at the police, & they just kept them back by pushing them with batons. No arrests even.. I’m not saying that;s always right, but showing restraint goes a lot further than unnecessary escalation, & smart cops know it.

This case would have been very shaky on both counts of missing “intent” & “means”, since Kohanowich is 78 years old, & with the added scrutiny, would have been an fiasco for the City, & the PD from a publicity perspective.

I’ll defend a cop who is not a robocop idiot any day of the week, but these guys were in the wrong, period.

~Dan Lee

I sent this Police Dept. an e-mail telling them, in fairly explicit terms, what I thought of them arresting this guy, and I’ll be darned, I never did get a response back from them, go figure.
Some people/dept.s have no sense of humor.

.

Sometimes our government just needs a little nudge to getting moving in the right direction.

And sometimes it takes something a little more subtle, like a two by four between the eyes…

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Great that your great uncles served proudly but it is very hard to extrapolate their experience when comparing what the arresting officer in Pops case did.

I am not supporting the actions or arrest against Pop just trying to share a different perspective and show that this is how our legal system works. Not to knock on Michelle or the participants here but most likely charges would have been dropped even if this case did not get the level of a attention that it did.

As for the wussie claim, assualt can be defined not only as a attack against someone but any physical contact with another person without their consent.

To put this issue to rest, the system worked.

1. No I am no longer working in law enforcement

2. The fear factor of a threat does not negate the threat.

3. Tapping on the shoulder of a police officer is not a effective means of communication. It is better to get his/her attention with a voice command.

4. If you look at this particular case, it appears that Pop was not immediately following the orders of the officer and with the physical contact the officer felt justified in making an arrest. One must take into account the setting and in a crowd control during a protest or in a protection detail with a potentially confrontational participant .

Now as for my personal view on this, it appears that the DA did not find sufficient cause to prosecute the charge. This is the beauty of our legal system. The police officer felt that a law was broken and enforced it. No harm no foul. If Pop feels that he should get his $500 back for legal fees; he should file a small claims court claim.

You put your hands on an officer, you’re going to get arrested. That’s the bottom line.

What a bunch of wusies. My great uncles were Chicago cops. If you put your hand on their shoulder in a non threatening way they would just brush it off and tell you not to do it. If you did it in an aggressive ‘attack’ kind of way, you’d just wake up on the ground with some body parts bent, broken, or missing. But not today. We have to go to court. Lots of lawyers. Take up the judges time with trivia. Great. That’s progress. Yuck.