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Judge dismisses charges against skateboarder arrested in closing-time dispute at Cambridge skatepark
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Comments
Lawsuit Time
MSP should pay his legal bills and lost work time at a minimum.
They should also fire the brat cop who decided to get his testosterone up by pushing people around like a little tinpot thug. Drug test him too.
Not much talk on the Globe series on PC hearings.
Now this guy was arrested, and charged with two crimes (trespassing and resisting arrest). In many cases a judge would refer this to a probable cause hearing, where a clerk (in my experience, not what I read in the globe) wouldn't find probable cause on the trespassing, but possibly the resisting arrest. Now if this guy wanted to get a government job which requires a serious background check, both these charges would be seen on his record. If there was a PC hearing, no charges would show up.
(It should be noted that resisting arrest needs an element where the person uses "physical force or the threat of physical force". This could obviously mean anything. If an officer says your under arrest and to put your hands behind your back and the person uses "force" to pull his hands away or even refuse to put his hands behind his back, this has been seen as enough for a resisting arrest charge)
did you really expect the
did you really expect the judge not to dismiss the charges?
No I expected her to refer it to a PC hearing.
Where they would dismissed there and not show up on any record.
Charges dismissed
That means it never happened
Only security theater types give a shit.
Probably won't matter for him....
But most people would want a clean record. His is not.
And WTF does security theater have to do with this topic at all?
If you aren't convicted of anything
You should automatically have a clean record.
Security Theater
Only in Security Theater is an arrest tantamount to a conviction even when a judge throws out the charges.
There should be no record of anything that does not result in a conviction. Period. Nobody should be allowed to sanction or block or refuse to employ someone who does not have a conviction.
That isn't how the world works..
That is probably the only answer you would understand.
The Kavanaugh hearings should tell you this. Imagine if he was charged when he would younger but found not guilty because the victim was too scared to testify?
It isn't that complicated.
This isn't what security theater is....
security theater is when you put in services that appear to make things more secure, hoping that people will feel more secure when in fact the services do nothing of the sort.
Judges, charges and dismissals have zero to do with security theater.
You are 4/7 on making things up today. Good work.
Failing to expunge arrest records
Then using them against a person who was never convicted.
That sounds like "unneeded services" and "appearance of security" to me.
You are still missing the point...
Would you have hired OJ as your babysitter?
If you aren't convicted of anything, isn't that a clean record?
Any arrest that doesn't lead to a conviction is the same as it not happening at all.
Depends what you mean by "clean".
Let's say this skateboarder wanted to be a firefighter. A background check would revel that he was arrested for this incident (a google search would too). There is a chance he would be passed over for many of these jobs just for doing what he did.
Why would a background check even find that?
It shouldn't be appearing in a background check. Ever. At all.
Incidents like that on a BI
Incidents like that on a BI don't automatically disqualify anyone from a government job. They just force the BI investigator to do additional research and get documentation together. So if the guy was hired to a do a job requiring a security clearance, he'd be sidelined from doing actual work for a few additional weeks (but on the payroll) while the investigator completes their report and gets it signed off.
Which shouldn't happen
Do we need an initiative petition for this, too?
In our day and age it matters
In our day and age it matters. Anyone searching the internet for his name would find articles about the arrest. Grounds for not getting any interviews at all. These days it's better not to get arrested period.
No.
Many background checks (including License to Carry in MA) require you to list every time you've been arrested. "Have you ever been arrested or appeared in court as a defendant for any criminal offense?" Is the question on the LTC application
Contact your Reps and Senators
There are two problems with this "guilty even if innocent" situation:
1. cops abusing powers and making arrests to harass certain people and get their thrills on, in order to make more and more people unable to support themselves legally
2. Officers exempting certain other people from arrest because arresting someone for, say, DV can "ruin a poor guy's life".
We need statewide legislation to seal any and all arrest records not associated with a conviction.
My man.. you need to stop
My man.. you need to stop watching Law & Order. That’s not how it works in the real world.
it matter's whether he was
it matter's whether he was arraigned. It is not completely clear whether that happened.
it matter's whether he was
it matter's whether he was arraigned. It is not completely clear whether that happened.
Shouldn't matter for any body
No conviction - in this case charges thrown out - no record.
judges don't refer it back to PC hearing anymore. PC was found.
Only legal options for a judge are dismiss or not dismiss. Referring it back to PC hearing has no legal basis.
Did you just make that up?
Please stop posting. It is dangerous for those willing to discuss this issue and want truthful statements. Judges can always refer cases back to clerk's hearings. Happens all the time, especially for misdemeanors.
Rachael Rollins
This comment and those after are a really good justification for what Rachael Rollins is talking about in not pursuing minor offenses in the first place. Even having minor charges dismissed against you by a judge can still show up on a CORI that frightens off potential employers or landlords.
Won't show up on a Cori.
nt
Bad precedent, should be appealed. Anything goes?
So now trespassing after notice is no longer a crime? I believe most stores and bars where unruly people have been given a "no trespass" notice also have lights. The signs clearly state the park closes at dusk. Prior to the incident, did the DCR change their CMR's to adjust the closing time?
Being in a park after dark is arrestable in most cities and towns and state property, usually an arrest only after the person(s) refuse to leave. The trooper was on legal "terra firma" (solid ground) for the arrest and quickly assisting the uncooperative prisoner to the ground. Sad that the courts are setting this example that anything goes.
Keep up with the story
The hours of the skate park had been extended to 9:00, although the signage hadn't been updated. So in realty the skaters were not trespassing and thus the court's decision to drop the charges was the sensible (and just) thing to do.
Wow
Nearly everyone on the planet is saying that the cop was WRONG, the skatepark was OPEN, and the arrest should NEVER have happened.
Here's a bad precedent: the cop has not yet been charged with assault and battery.
Wow, there calm down Neily, I
Wow, there calm down Neily, I think a lot of people are saying he shouldn't have wasted his time on a petty crime not that he was wrong. If this was any other town/city besides maybe Newton or Andover this never would have happened.
Wake up there nelly!
There was NO CRIME AT ALL!
NONE!
I won't say the cop was wrong
He enforced what the signage said. I also won't say that the skateboarder was wrong, as the change in closing time was approved by someone who probably didn't tell the cops.
This is the right resolution (Pete's technical point notwithstanding.)
The cop will not be charged with anything. To say the least, sovereign immunity comes into play since the cop, again, was enforcing posted orders.
The cop was wrong
Someone tried to ask him for conformation and he replied with felony assault and battery.
I assume you are the same person making more things up....
Not felony A&B.
Huh?
He asked the skaters to leave. One refused, which means he was trespassing. That is grounds for arrest. My honest advice is that when the police try to arrest you, don’t resist. I’ve watched the video. The Statie was doing his job and did not use an excessive amount of force. Later, it came out that the information that was the basis of the arrest (the closing time of the park) was in error. Best result is to move on.
Nope
Cops don't make up laws on the spot.
Cops don't decide who is trespassing - the owner of the property does, and they said NOPE.
Stop whiffing blue rear ends and wake up before your kid gets beaten to death by a thug in blue.
The law had been changed
The law had been changed regardless of the signage. So for the cops ignorance of the law is an excuse, eh?
There was no sign.
There was no sign.
The WBZ News showed a sign
Unless you are claiming the sign shown didn't exist.
Also, if there was no sign giving any time, that would mean the park closed at typical DCR park closing time, which is dusk.
That sign was put up on Monday
The cop needs to be retrained, punished, and should be sued.
5 for 9 now?
On you lying? This might be a record.
sovereign immunity
IMHO there is still $20K on the table if you can show malice
Reading
is FUNdamental
the problem is that claiming
the problem is that claiming the officer gave a "no tresspass" notice is a change in the story. There was no report by the police that the skating were a problem in an open park. The officer believed that park was closed. This is a public place, the state police can't no trespass this individual. Its not like a non student at a school or a nonrider at a T station.
What should they have done?
O-FISH-L, being arrested and spending some time in a cage seems like an appropriate punishment. Should the court have sentenced him to more time in a cage? Probation? What would satisfy you?
Punishment?
Punishment for being attacked and battered?
Punishment for doing something legal in a legal place at a legal time?
Punishment for asking a simple question in a respectful manner?
The cop needs to be punished. This guy did absolutely nothing wrong. Period.
Fingerprints in Washington, a study in black and white
I filled out the Massacree with the four-part harmony. Wrote it down there
Just like it was and everything was fine. And I put down my pencil, and I
Turned over the piece of paper, and there on the other side in
The middle of the other side away from everything else on the other
Side in parentheses capital letters quotated read
The following words "kid, have you rehabilitated yourself?"
I went over to the sergeant. Said, "Sergeant, you got a lot of god-damned
Gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself! I mean I mean I
Mean that you send I'm sittin' here on the bench I mean I'm
Sittin' here on the Group W bench, 'cause you want to know if I'm moral
Enough to join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a
skateboarder"
The skateboarder response
Should be to venture over to the clerk's office and file assault and battery charges against the Trooper.
Have you ever heard of the term ...
Qualified immunity?
Look it up and you'll see why that wouldn't work.
Yeah it could be a good
Yeah it could be a good opportunity to challenge qualified immunity in court
Trespassing = Crime
Trespassing = Crime
Resisting arrest = Crime
Skateboarding = NOT A CRIME!