Resisting arrest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Resisting arrest is a term used in the United States (and possibly elsewhere) to describe a criminal charge against an individual who has committed at least any one of the following acts:
- Eluding a police officer who is attempting to arrest the individual
- Using or threatening to use force against an officer during an arrest
- Providing an officer with false identification (either verbally or by presentation of a false official document, i.e. a fake ID)
Eluding is defined very differently in various countries. It pays to study the penal code in a country if one decides to travel there. Penal codes are often defined by the cultural background of the specific country.
In Denmark it means guilt in the eyes of the population regardless of the verdict in the trial, if the suspect does not loudly protest his or her innocence if the arrest is made publicly. The Danish penal code [1] makes allowance for some forms of eluding and is in that way very different from the Penal code in the United States, which could have been decisive in the May Andersen case, had it occurred in her home country.
[edit] Criticism of the charge
The term's status as law has come under criticism from many, who claim it is totalitarian to make it a crime to not comply with law enforcement. Furthermore, many also claim that resisting arrest is merely one's instinct to survive, and to make this a crime would lead to a police state.
