Originally Posted by
bjr_93tz
And that's the crux right there, the police were being prejudiced. There was no law being broken and no real danger to the public, only the sight of the quad being set up.
In Australia if the police ask you to pack up and move on and you don't, you have broken a law (failing to obey a lawful instruction) irrespective of whether they have a lawful reason to ask you to move on or not so it'd be like trying to argue a bad call with the Referee over here.....
Originally Posted by
drac1
Not exactly correct, they do have to have a lawful reason. Cops have to suspect that you may be going to disrupt the peace, behave in a way that may be dangerous to public safety or likely to cause injury or damage to property.
They can't just do whatever they want. And that's the problem because most of them do. Power tripping.
Yes, they need to think they have a lawful reason. Was it George from "Seinfeld" that once told Jerry "It's not a lie if you believe it to be true" ergo it's a lawful reason if you believe it to be lawful.
However ignorance of the law is no excuse for the general public but can be for an officer??
I've never had any run-ins with the police other than the usual RBT and licence check and found them mostly to be professional and polite. The bunch from another town I lived in that were protecting the drug dealers that lived next door were a whole different kettle of fish.