[quote=“JayS,post:68,topic:35565"”]
Your hypothetical situation is pretty stupid for several reasons.
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It doesn’t apply at all to this discussion. There is no mistaken identity here, the kid was approached while he was at the podium, while he was being an ass. At no point did he leave the officers sight.
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Lets say the cops do stop talk to you because you fit the description of someone they’re looking for. If you aren’t the person they’re looking for the chances of you being arrested are pretty slim if you cooperate. They may ask you where you’re going, where you’re coming from, or to see your ID. If you’re cool and work with them chances are they will simply let you go. Cops are good at knowing when someone is lying to them because they have experience with people lying to them every day. It doesn’t take long to learn how to probe for details that people have a hard time making up and keeping straight on the fly.
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On the rare chance that your long lost indentical twin was the one who actually robbed the liquor store and the cops are sure it’s you, yes, you do have to allow them to arrest you. Or if you get all defensive and refuse to answer their questions about why a guy who looks just like you committed some crime blocks away, you better be prepared to let them arrest you. Resisting at that point is only going to get you charged with resisting arrest, possible assault on a police officer, all over something you didn’t even do. If you’re lucky the DA might drop those charges when they find out later you weren’t the guy they were looking for but he has no legal obligation to. And good luck with a civil suit. The police were acting in good faith arresting you with reasonable suspicion. You fit the description and by refusing to answer their questions you now look like you’re hiding something.
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1.) Really? That couldn’t be why it is a hypothetical situation, could it?
2.) Very understandable, and about 99% going to happen.
3.) Usually it is never an exact match they have, but a description, so no, it wouldn’t have to be my identical twin, and, from what you said, I really don’t HAVE to let them arrest me. If I had to, there would not be a second option, would it? No. It would be in my best interest to let them arrest me, as you also stated. So no, it’s not have to, it’s do I want to either resist and know for myself that I didn’t do it, or do I want to not resist and let them look like an ass.
The only reason I don’t like cops sometimes is depending on the area, some cops have real problems to handle (i.e the city of rochester police), while some cops have no real problems and just find things to do (i.e town of greece cops who bring 3 cop cars to tell 5 kids that the one shovel one person is walking with needs to be dropped or else)