July 4 Arrests Confirm Fears
Recently, Harvard and USC criminal law professor Susan Estrich expressed her views regarding the California Supreme Court’s ruling on the “three strikes” initiative as follows: If sentencing prerogatives are taken from judges, they are assumed by prosecutors. If taken from prosecutors, they are assumed by the police, who will determine who is or is not arrested with impunity.
The Huntington Beach Police Department’s usual July 4 mass arrest policy confirmed her views. Lt. Dan Johnson justified the arrest of innocent bystanders, people holding beer cans on their front lawns or porches, based on the interpretation of a 1979 appellate ruling concerning persons being “drunk” on private property. His interpretation made the arrestees fair game to his cops because their front yards were not “fenced, gated or hedged.”
Will the Orange County district attorney file complaints based on these arrest reports? If so, how will the Municipal Court judges respond to them?
Yes, Susan Estrich was right, even if no complaints are filed or the cases are dismissed. Innocent people were arrested because the Huntington Beach Police Department determined how to handle a difficult situation, then made its own interpretation of the law to justify its actions.
Huntington Beach, the safest city in America? Not to the innocent people who were arrested.
GEORGE C. SHAHINIAN
Los Alamitos
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