Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Defending Yourself Against The Charges Of Resisting Arrest NJ Law Enforcement Might Bring

By Thomas Cooper


There are a lot of people who have strong feelings about some of the policies and attitudes taken by the current administration. This can cause them to make signs, attend rallies, and take to the streets. Sometimes when law enforcement tries to break up a demonstration innocent protesters are accused of resisting arrest NJ officers threaten them with.

You can be accused if you do not obey an officer's instructions exactly in the middle of a tense situation. If you are seen as a resistor, you can be arrested and jailed although what you did was not really unlawful. You need to understand that it is up to the prosecution to prove a case against you. They must prove that you understood the individual you had the conflict with was in fact a real police officer. The prosecution must prove the officer acted legally and your behavior was intentional.

Passive resistance is the most common way protesters demonstrate their opposition in public. They may sit, lay, and go limp whenever a police officer attempts to remove them from the area. A few will struggle or fight with law enforcement attempting to detain them. Giving bogus information or a fake name when an officer is trying to verify your identity and whether you have a legal right to be in a particular area can get you into trouble.

There can be serious repercussions for anyone resisting arrest. A misdemeanor charge comes with a penalty of a year in jail and a fine as high as 4,000 dollars, depending on the state you live in. You may have to see a probation officer for five years and cannot be charged with the same offense while on probation.

If you are convicted of a felony charge, it is much more serious. In this instance, you may go to jail for three years. If you live in Louisiana, it could be as long as ten years. You will have to pay a fine that could cost you ten thousand dollars. You would have to meet with a parole officer every week or month to report in.

If there is an upside to a charge of intentional resistance, it is that the charge is hard to prove. Your lawyer might defend on the premise that the officer used excessive force and you were forced to protect yourself in self-defense. The lawyer may also argue that the officer was not authorized to arrest you.

You can argue that the report is not factual. You have to be careful if this is your defense because it probably won't help your case to openly accuse the officer of lying. Instead you should argue that the report doesn't reflect the incident as you experienced it.

Another argument is you did not pose any real threat or potential harm. Yelling at a police officer or running away, without actually doing any harm, can be a valid argument. Whatever your defense, it takes a good lawyer, on your side, to argue it.




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