&quot;I think the actions of the police are unimpeachable.&quot; No, they&#x27;re not.<p>Their actions were effective but illegal. Effective in that they forced disclosure of the child&#x27;s location. Illegal for excessive force, denial of due process, etc. Their illegal behavior weakened the rights all of us depend on.<p>More broadly, we&#x27;d probably convict more criminals if we ditched the legal presumption of innocence and other defendant protections. And of course, it can be heartbreaking and enraging when a palpably guilty defendant escapes justice because of prosecutorial error or other &quot;technicality&quot;. Just as those cops were heartbroken and enraged at the arrestee&#x27;s callous disregard of the child&#x27;s life. I can imagine how they felt, and I don&#x27;t know if in their place I&#x27;d have had the courage to follow the law.<p>My point is that the rights we&#x27;ve agreed any of us should have as a defendant in a state criminal action do lead to occasional awful circumstances like those cops faced. I think the more awful the circumstance, the more important it is to uphold those rights. They&#x27;re fundamentally important, and they&#x27;re not much use if we only enforce them when it&#x27;s easy or convenient.