Michael's Shower

Obstruction of Justice

Something I have often thought about and have asked about is the assisting of assumed peace officers or federal enforcement agencies.

I mean you often see in movies these agents [commandeer] vehicles in the heat of the moment chase with the bad guy. You never see anyone tell the agent where to go. Are they afraid of getting slapped with obstruction of justice charges?

According to Duhaime's law dictionary:

Obstructing justice

An act which tends to impede or thwart the administration of justice. Examples include trying to bribe a witness or juror or providing law enforcement officers with information known to be false.

Taking the metro around, especially by the Pentagon, you can find lots of people in military uniforms and can be pretty sure they are actually in the armed forces. This is also the Nation’s Capitol so it is swarming with Federal agents: FBI, CIA, Secret Service, NSA, DEA, and so on.

If some one pulled rank on you so to speak, how can you authenticate valid intentions?

In the U.S. Constitution: Third Amendment you read about Quartering Soldiers -- which was explicit to the times of the revolution. It has never been addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court, but I would be interested to find case law “broadening” this so to speak to apply to all government bodies.

It's possible to obtain military uniforms and to the untrained civilian "impersonate an officer" so to speak.

Anyone can make clothes baring three letter acronyms affiliating with an agency or flash a wallet and claim association in urgency or need of a vehicle or what have you.

On the flip side, say the government can [commandeer] stuff temporally and then the vehicle gets trashed in pursuit. Is that individual entitled of fair market value of the item taken? How can that person file a claim?

[Updates added... see comments.]

Posted by Michael at August 24, 2003 09:08 AM