In the UK 30 people are arrested a day for social media posts online. Only about 10 percent resulting in convictions.

Police don't face criminal charges for this.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr...

"In return, Bushart will drop the federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against Sheriff Nick Weems, investigator Jason Morrow and the county for violating his constitutional rights."

Even at his age of 60 (I'm getting up there), I wouldn't have made that deal.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates...

In a sane, fair, and (crucially) long-term stable system, persons given privilege and authority over others are subject to a higher standard for their own behavior. The long-running US trend of the inverse (additional legal protections for positions of authority) is incredibly destructive. This is a moral and values judgment, yes, but it's not just that -- it communicates to the population at large that they should find their own solutions rather than using the established system.

More succinctly, down this path lie guillotines.

In the US we grant immunity to the law in proportion to power. Rather seems it should be the opposite if you ask me.

> In most European legal systems a law enforcement officer overstepping his legal authority would face criminal charges for it.

I wouldn't say in most. In many they wouldn't

It's not a structural weakness, it's an intentional feature. Our legislature specifically and intentionally made it impossible for citizens (or anyone) to hold police responsible for anything.

The Sheriff absolutely should face some consequences, at least to his career. The money paid to Bushart ultimately is no skin off the government's back. It's taxpayer money, they will just underfund a good thing, raise taxes, or print debt to pay it if there's a shortfall.

It'd be an interesting thing to see garnishing of wages, deductions from pension funds, or loss of some kind of bonus system to help balance the scales.

Well, its not like thats going to happen when people settle out of court. Not sure if his first amendment rights have been vindicated really...

Today, the parties announced in a joint statement that Larry will receive $835,000 in exchange for dismissing his complaint.

“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” said Larry.

i don't know if you've seen how american law is faring; the supreme court recently legalized racism as long as it's partisan.

In the US, we just pay out a lot of taxpayer money to the victim, and the authority abuser gets some time off with pay.

The same Europe where people who criticize the rapist of their child does more time for causing offense than the rapist did for the actual rape? THAT Europe?

At the very least, taxpayers should be looking to make him personally responsible for the $835,000.

Eh, in the UK this is only true for the most absolutely serious cases where someone has been killed or seriously injured. Wrongful arrest doesn't. It may face career risks.

Ultimately the US lacks some sort of Federal "inspectorate of police" that would be able to ban people from being law enforcement officers or at least require e.g. retraining or restriction of duties, without leaving it up to frankly corrupt local authorities.

Double-edged sword though when the Feds get captured by the Party, though.

>In most European legal systems a law enforcement officer overstepping his legal authority would face criminal charges for it.

No they won't face anything like that. Police lawyers will claim they were just enforcing hate speech laws to protect the country's leadership from far right supremacists and will be let go scuff free. You also won't get anything remotely close to $835,000 from the state for being falsely imprisoned. You're lucky to get maybe 5000 Euros for your trouble.

In Germany for instance the politicians are protected by dedicated law against negative comments from the public. You can't even call them fat or they send the police after you. Sure, you won't get locked up for the fat comment, but the point of the police going after people with mean comments is only intimidation, to get people to self censor and stop criticizing the leadership and accept the propaganda like obedient cattle.

Americans with their 1st, 2nd and Nth amendments, have an overly rosy view of the EU justice system which is far more lenient to law enforcement abuse of power and speech crackdowns. It's why you easily saw Americans attacking and throwing rocks at masked ICE officers in the US, and why Germans would never dare touch a law enforcement officer in their country, because the courts would never tolerate public attack on law enforcement and challenging the state authority.

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> sheriff that arrested him should face criminal charges for misuse of authority

Eh, just fire him and garnish a portion of his future wages to pay back the cost to the city.

> In most European legal systems a law enforcement officer overstepping his legal authority would face criminal charges for it

Do you have a recent example?