Did you know some 80,000 laws are passed during an election year? My goodness, what on earth is IN that legislation?
I don't know what's being defined as a law in that number, I watched it on John Stossel once, But he never explains his numbers. Are administrative regulations considered a law? is any change or revision to a law considered a new law for that number? is that just federal or is it state and local code too? I just don't know, so I can't comment as to what's in those 80,000 pages, my best guess is it's mainly administrative regulation changes. but that's only a guess
I'm aware of that, it's just I'm only familiar with the laws of Washington and a handful of other Northwest states in any detail, so nearly all the laws and case laws I reference involve Washington law unless I mark otherwise, needless to say nothing i post constitutes legal advice
If I am ignorant of the law, I have no defense, no legal recourse or protection. If a cop is ignorant of the law, he is at worst put on administrative leave while a lawsuit with the city or town makes reparations for wrongful arrest or other such actions. There are no personal repercussions for the LEO, and yet, it's his very job to know and enforce the law
See but when you say the "law" we're talking two different things as it relates to cop and his duties and the private citizen and their duty to obey "the law" When you say "the law" in relation to you and me, we're talking mainly criminal statutory law, you drove home drunk, you shot some guy you weren't justified to, you imported leopard pelts from the black market. in that sense of the law a cop can (and usually is) punished in the same way a citizen would be. Here in my corner of the country I can relate a couple of examples, retired Bremerton Police Officer Roy Alloway was just convicted of dealing firearms without an FFL. Deputy Argyle of the Kitsap County Sheriff's office was stopped and written up for DUI, he recieved a suspended sentence after completing alcohol diversion classes (routine for first time offenders in my county). Police Officer Dennis McCarthy of Port Orchard (my hometown) get sentence to 23 years in prison for pushing his girl friend out a window.
The point is, in cases where it's apples to apples, the police can and do get punished comparably to DUI. your location thing says "SC" (which I assume is South Carolina) i don't know if there is a culture of police corruption or giving cops slaps on the wrist for criminal code violations, but in my corner of the country cops can and do get in trouble all the time.
but what you're saying is apples to oranges. The legality of an arrest or detention is a fuzzy issue that is determined after court hearings with a judge, and there simply isn't enough judges to ride along with every police officer to rule on stop legality before it's conducted. it's true that cops may make "illegal arrests" but that's not the same as you getting in trouble for speeding, becuase cops are expected to make arrests or detentions and some will be ruled illegal. The only time it's a criminal code offense (at least in my state) is if the "public servant" either commits what they know to be an unauthorized act under color of authority, or fails to discharge their duties while acting under color of authority, federal law also makes it illegal to conspire to deprive you of your civil rights, but that requires proving that the authorities INTENDED to do so.
Lets go back to the cases I mentioned one case a man is openly carrying a magazine fed rifle with magazine attached and is walking quickly through a residential neighborhood keeping his head low. he was arrested and convicted of carrying a firearm "in a manner that manifests an intent to intimidate others" (wording of WA law). man walking during the day with two bolt action rifles rolled in a knapsack is charged with the same crime and convicted, and conviction overturned. now how can you expect a cop to figure out if a particular OCer is following the law when judges can't even make up their mind on what constitutes the law? (which is why I think that law needs to be changed, it's not fair to OCer OR the Police/prosecutors to have such a vaguely worded statute. but the point i'm making is that constitutional law is sometimes vague becuase no two circumstances in which someone is contacted are the same. why don't you apply to become a police officer, and make a few arrests, will you demand to go to prison if one of your detentions is ruled unconstitutional? think about it for a sec...