
Originally Posted by
thegodfather
You really have to parse the video at different moments. While its true that there is no specific law on the books stating that you have to roll your window down all the way, the courts have traditionally given the officers a wide degree of latitude during detentions for the purpose of officer safety. What complicates the matter with the window in this case, is that we are talking about a case in a state where the suspect is required to sign the ticket, this is not the case in other states. For this reason, the officer felt he could order the window be rolled all the way down. While technically not a law, we always say "You argue cases in a courtroom not on the side of the road." This means, that you should always obey ANY lawful orders from a police officer, even if they are not in fact per say 'lawful,' or are not based on any specific law. There is always much less to gain from disobeying an order, and had there not been video from the officer, she would likely be facing many more fabricated charges.
So here is where we need to examine the video.
I. Within her rights to refuse rolling down the window, as it is not a law.
II. Officer asks her to step out of the vehicle. He can ask the occupant to exit the vehicle under a ruling similar to Terry v. Ohio, where the officer is permitted to perform an open palm pat down of the outside of a suspects clothing for the purpose of officer safety. During a motor vehicle stop he can order the occupant from the vehicle for his safety. At the point that she disobeyed this lawful order, she was breaking the law.
III. He broke the window not because she refused to roll it down, but rather because he ordered her to exit the vehicle and she refused. He actually showed in my opinion, a great deal of restraint in not breaking the window and ripping her from the vehicle MUCH EARLIER.
IV. She was being 'detained,' the entire time that she was stopped. You cannot refuse to exit the vehicle when its a lawful order, she was not asked. It became an arrestable offense at the point which she obstructed the official duties of a law enforcement officer. It was not however resisting arrest, as the law is quite clear, for someone to be under arrest the officer must utter the words "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST," and without that, a person cannot be charged with resisting arrest, as they cannot possibly be aware that the officer is attempting to arrest them.
Overall, this chick handled this encounter very poorly, and the officer handled it rather well. Anyone who knows me, knows that I usually give much more deference to the citizen over the officer, but in this case, she was wrong for disobeying a lawful order, but it had NOTHING to do with rolling her window down or not.