Elmarnieh wrote:
Anyway...Yes this is a gross violation of the rights of the individuals in question.
I actually agree with you that this was a gross violation of rights in this case. Although you're laughably wrong about the way the laws of arrest work, you're still correct about the treatment of the WBC members who were detained.
Detention for investigtion is supposed to be 1) Based on reasonable suspicion and 2) "brief", with due diligence being exercised to confirm or dispel suspicion as rapifly as possible.
Based on what the article said there is little reason to believe the police in this town had any reasonable suspicion, and furthermore, I see no reason it should have taken a few hours to dispel suspicion if they did. Generally detention is supposed to be measured in minutes, not hours, and a lengthy detention like that is acceptable only if there is some bona fide unavoidable delay; for example if special equipment is needed and must be summoned from a long distance. Cases where this occurs should be rare.
So, in this case, it appears Elmo is correct, disregrding the abstract argument about laws of arrest which he does not understand.