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Crimes Against Police

Difficulty In Defending Crimes Against Police Officers In Los Angeles

Police officers are the right-hand of prosecutors in Los Angeles. So, if a defendant is charged with a crime against a police officer – whether it be an assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, assault with a deadly weapon – or any other crime where the officer is the victim – these cases are very difficult to defend.

Prosecutors are friendly with police officers and consider it their civic duty to ensure that anybody who commits a crime against a police officer is punished to the full extent of the law.

The way the prosecutors look at it is that if they don't protect law enforcement, then law enforcement will not be able to do their job. If law enforcement in Los Angeles can't do their job because people are committing crimes against them, the prosecutors believe their jobs are in jeopardy as well, because then the police will not be able to arrest and catch people for crimes so the prosecutors can charge them with crimes.

Aggressive Prosecution For Crimes Against Police

Prosecutors take an aggressive stance on these cases, often pushing for jail time even when it might not be warranted. The involvement of a police officer can significantly escalate the severity of the prosecution.

Another big problem with these crimes against police officers in Los Angeles is that a lot of times, the police officers embellish their police reports and add things and make things seem worse than they are because they are concerned that they are going to get in trouble because they probably used some excessive force or violence in arresting the person or dealing with a person when they came in contact with them.

Now, they feel that they need to trump up some charges in order to justify their actions. If they're ever sued for it or if there is any disciplinary action taken against them through their internal affairs unit, they'll be able to point to the fact that the other person resisted arrest, attacked them first, or didn't comply with their commands—there's a whole host of different arguments they can make.

Retain a Lawyer With Experience

So, if you have one of these cases where a police officer is an alleged victim, you're best to get an attorney who has handled these cases before and knows how to convince the prosecutors of their client's version of events.

Your story must be brought across to the prosecutors when it comes to these police officers as victim cases in Los Angeles because if it's not, then they're probably going to treat you much more harshly than they would just a normal individual who had a criminal case pending where an officer was not involved.

Another thing I see is other officers backing up the story of the police officer who is claiming some sort of injury or crime was committed against them. So, now there are multiple witnesses against a particular defendant, which again makes things more difficult to defend when it comes to law enforcement-related offenses.

However, the tide is turning. With the proliferation of new media and the use of video evidence, the truth about police conduct and their tendency to exaggerate charges is coming to light. This shift in public perception is influencing juries, who are now more inclined to weigh the evidence objectively rather than automatically siding with law enforcement.

So, now, juries are not so quick to believe that law enforcement is the victim of a particular crime. They're going to listen to what the evidence is. They're going to listen to what the witnesses say.

They will also listen to a defendant in a case to see what their story is, see if there's overreaching by the police, and see if this is a legitimate case where the police should be victims. A defendant should be charged and convicted of a crime against a police officer.

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