LE at its most basic is about government using brute force to enforce its edicts.
Its not surprising that despite a few safeguards in the system, sometimes things happen that should not. Human nature beings being what they are, its rare they will just admit to a screwup of this magnitude. Once the decision is made that they are not going to admit to a screwup, they will do what they have to to protect themselves from the consequences of their own mistakes or misconduct. At that point they care nothing about you, your rights, what is right, or anything else. Just human nature at work.
The system almost always protects its own, so don't expect a whole lot of help there either. Some will say that you can sue after the fact, but that is mostly a futile exercise.
The only thing that will save these citizens from the misconduct of the officers involved is the video. Without it, they would be charged, convicted, and sentenced, even though there was no actual credible evidence that they committed a crime, only the say so of the officers involved, who it appears were actually the ones in the wrong.
These kind of incidents are hopefully not real common. And the increasingly common presence of video is going to make these incidents stand out. One has to wonder how many people were unfairly charged before video was common. And even today, video is present at only a tiny fraction of citizen-police encounters. one has to wonder just how common this kind of thing is.
I guess ignorance of the law only works one way. So what, the police "thought that they were at the right place". They still, IMO, were in the wrong. Why do some cops get to walk free, continued to get paid for actions that would land a citizen in jail.
Thats just the way the system is. It sucks but its not real likely to change any.
Realistically, how would you improve it any?
