The police tend to overcharge people when they remain silent. I think it was good on Fred to say nothing. If it wasnt his fault, he can let the lawyers resolve and file lawsuits.
Police overcharge everyone, because district attorneys overcharge everyone. District attorneys are rotten little psychopaths, who graduated last in their law school class.
They are herded into bureaucracy, the the bottom rung of all professions. And the ones assigned these petty little scuffles are on the bottomest rung of that. It's standard for them to throw as much of the book as they can at it, and then bargain it down with the defense lawyers. Who, if public, are also bottom rung. These are cynical, mean-hearted people with a chip on their shoulder
If a competent, private defense attorney gets involved, they will just drop the charges, and will never be accountable for initially filing them, however frivolous. Courts almost never punish frivolity.
The laws are deliberately written for maximum redundancy, so that a single act potentially breaks 20 of them at once
Actually, DAs overcharge people because most criminal charges are resolved by negotiation (i.e., a plea bargain). In a typical negotiation, you ask for more than you are willing to accept so that you have some room to move in negotiations. If you go to a car dealer to buy a particular car that has an advertised price of $34,000 and you are willing to pay $30,000 for it, you are not likely to open the negotiation by offering to pay $30,000. Instead, you might offer $28,000, the salesman might counter with $32,000, and you might then both agree on $30,000.
Criminal charges work the same way. A DA might charge someone with a crime that might be punishable with 30 years in prison, knowing that there are problems with the case if it goes to trial (reluctant witnesses, evidence that might not get in, etc.), and then agree to a plea to a lesser crime that's only punishable with 10 years. That's how the system works.
People complain about plea bargains, but the truth is that there are no where close to enough police, prosecutors, judges, and courtroom space to try every case to a jury and the system would collapse without plea bargaining. There are also a lot of cases that prosecutors would lose if they went to a jury, not because the defendant is actually innocent, but because there is some kind of lack of evidence. Of course it also works the other way, and actually innocent people plead guilty because they don't want to take the risk of what a jury might decide.
More like the over charge because most people are too poor for a good lawyer and they’re scared to death so they’ll accept a ridiculous plea bargain. It’s a hell of a system they’ve rigged up. and no DA’s are not nearly as bad as public defenders lol. It’s hilarious honest. But the worst, money grubbing, do nothing, corrupt lawyers are family lawyers. They’re a fckn joke.