Sandy Bland questionable arrest leads to mysterious death.

[sundin13]

Hiku said:

sundin13 said:
The legality of the whole arrest issue seems extremely wishy-washy, so I doubt that any action will be taken against the officer on that front. As for the individuals, they were both acting irrationally but this story does not really warrant this degree of attention. Unless something can be found to conclude that the death was not a suicide, this is just much ado about nothing...

Why does that make you think no action will be taken against the officer? If they can't find a legal reason for the arrest, he should not be patroling the streets again. He avoided answering why she was under arrest, several times. So it's not like it was a missunderstanding. If he realised he had no answer, he should have stopped. But he continued.

And even if her death wasn't murder, it was a bogus arrest that put her in that situation in the first place. Not to mention the physical violence that seemingly went on off camera. None of that was warranted.

Unless there is something specific in that area, there is usually no law mandating officers to explain the reason for an arrest at the time. However, it seems the arrest was for the failure to comply with a lawful order. That lawful order being "get out of the car", case law on which seems to indicate you can order someone out of their car during a routine traffic stop without probable cause. Additionally, you can compel someone to follow a lawful order through force if they refuse to comply. This is further compounded into a potential "resisting arrest" charge.

While, like I said, the exact laws are loosely worded, it doesn't seem to be enough to take any legal action against the officer and any disciplinary action will likely be more symbolic than anything.