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How the alphabet soup agencies are here to help you...

What makes me upset is that he agreed not to follow legal action against the arresting department IOT get the charges dropped. He did NOTHING wrong- take it all the way and sue the shit out of the nimwits who think they are making the world safe from them damn terrorists who are in them funny flyin' machines. This is a no shit instance of where an individual's constitutional rights have been violated. (4th, 5th,)
 
It's definitely a reason to sign up for AOPA's legal service when I start flying regularly on the civilian side again.

My personal favorite part is the AOPA VP requesting DHS let local LE know that shooting down an aircraft has an actual ROE and chain of command. Also, the LE helo guys showing up, finding out nothing was actually wrong, and then leaving (and getting as far away as possible from the goat rope).
 
I feel safer with these guys protecting us...

BTW, does anybody else just feel there is something wrong with the fact that the prosecutes can make an agreement that they will drop will only drop these charges if you don't sue us. Regardless of context that just doesn't sit right with me. If the prosecution thinks that they may get sued, they probably should just drop the charges. Also, for my understanding of the law, state officials enjoy "qualified immunity" i.e. you can sue them as an individual, as opposed to them in their official capacity, if they violated "clearly established law". Is it clearly established that you can fly over a powerplant?

There is something clearly wrong with our laws if an official can arrest and prosecute you for violating as ambiguous of a law as "breach of peace".
 
HokiePilot said:
I feel safer with these guys protecting us...

BTW, does anybody else just feel there is something wrong with the fact that the prosecutes can make an agreement that they will drop will only drop these charges if you don't sue us. Regardless of context that just doesn't sit right with me. If the prosecution thinks that they may get sued, they probably should just drop the charges. Also, for my understanding of the law, state officials enjoy "qualified immunity" i.e. you can sue them as an individual, as opposed to them in their official capacity, if they violated "clearly established law". Is it clearly established that you can fly over a powerplant?

There is something clearly wrong with our laws if an official can arrest and prosecute you for violating as ambiguous of a law as "breach of peace".
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It seems to be fairly clearly established that only the FAA (and NORTHCOM/NORAD/Customs air/etc in extreme cases) have authority over aviation (federal preemption and all that).

Breach of peace, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstruction, etc. are all fairly wide offenses that can be used to arrest someone for being generally irritating/bad, however because of that they can be misused in cases like this. The prosecutors can certainly not drop the charges and continue to a not guilty verdict/the charges get thrown out; they may lose a few points on the office standings, but the person charged faces possible loss of job, massive legal defense costs, bail costs, etc as the trial winds its way through the courts. Plus, they now have to disclose the charges if asked on job/background check applications so - even if they explain it - some organizations will bypass them in favor of the person with no record. For another angle, imagine if it were any of us in the military in that situation - even if you're acquitted, a vengeful/TRA CO might still take administrative action against you, maybe your security clearance was suspended, you got charged AWOL for the time you spent in jail, etc. or you just had unlucky timing and the arrest happens when your FITREP closes out. Depending on the pilot's situation, he may have feared the risks of going to trial over the ability to sue.
 
It wasn't the 'alphabet soup' agencies in this case but the local yokel cops that took things too far. The feds in this case seem to have done the right thing in this case but can't do much WRT to the local keystone cops brigade with assistance from local prosecutors. Having lived in and gone to school in SC for four years this case really doesn't surprise me.......
 
Flash said:
It wasn't the 'alphabet soup' agencies in this case but the local yokel cops that took things too far. The feds in this case seem to have done the right thing in this case but can't do much WRT to the local keystone cops brigade with assistance from local prosecutors. Having lived in and gone to school in SC for four years this case really doesn't surprise me.......
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The title was somewhat of a joke. Although DHS still squeezed him a little before they let him go (according to the article).
 
I would have agreed to the following: if you don't drop all ridiculous charges I will definitely sue you. The best you can hope for is that I am a forgiving soul.
 
HokiePilot said:
There is an update to this story by AOPA. It seems the sherrif's office wants to explain their side of the story. They brought up the breach of peace charge because they wanted to hold him and couldn't think of anything else to charge him with and deny the drop the charges for no civil suit accusation.

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2013/130117lessons-learned-from-glider-arrest.html
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So LEOs can be ignorant of the law, hold someone for questioning (without reason) on bullshit charges and it's okay because they didn't know. Shenanigans.
 
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