Opinion
To theEditor:
It looks like the Hanover Police Department are at old their old antics again.You might remember that this past summer, it was discovered that the Hanover Police were arresting students under the false charge of "internal possession" of alcohol.That mistake cost them an ACLU lawsuit.But it appears that they did not learn any lessons.
Last week a student was arrested by the police for giving them someone else's name when she was intoxicated and placed in protective custody.She was charged with New Hampshire Revised Statute 641:4, False Reports to Law Enforcement.The applicable section of the statute reads:
"A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if he: knowingly gives or causes to be given false information to any law enforcement officer with the purpose of inducing such officer to believe that another has committed an offense."
Now while what this student did was probably, in the moral sense, wrong, (she seems to have violated the Commandment "Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor,") she was not guilty of any crime.The statute requires that the false information given leads the officer to believe that "another has committed an offense."However, it is not a crime in the state of New Hampshire to be walking around intoxicated; thus, she cannot be guilty under this stature.And last I checked, the Hanover Police were not charged with the responsibility of upholding either the laws of God or the policies of this College.
Nevertheless, this student was arrested, falsely charged with the statute above, pled guilty, paid a fine and was ordered some community service.There will be other consequences later, though.Her conviction will make it more difficult to get jobs, will impugn her veracity anytime she is in court and probably bring her other small amounts of indignity for a long time.
It all seems a very heavy price to pay when, in fact, she was guilty of no crime at all.The message to be learned here is that it behooves all students to know their rights and, when arrested, to check out the law and maybe even consult a lawyer.(The New Hampshire Revised Statutes are available, if anybody is interested, in the government documents section of Baker.)Because, as long as the Hanover Police continues to create laws to satisfy their own whim and caprice, all of us are potential victims.
