Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Some attorneys have little regard for men who repeatedly use law enforcement to resolve continuing issues regarding children with their ex-wives. A lawyer is usually not the type of professional that you need.

Quit your whining and renew your driver's license...

-Tom

I agree with the person who posted the original question when he later blasted the likes of Mr. Morrison for his abusive and insulting response. The same goes for Mr. Loeb. People post questions, concerns, etc. here looking for help and insight, not abuse. They can get that other places on social media. LawGuru is not social media, it is supposed to be a resource (and, for those in private practice, possibly a means of future clients sizing up a prospective attorney for future work?). Why not try to answer the person's question, or say nothing at all?! Here's my answer to the question: You cannot guarantee which law enforcement officer responds to any specific call, regardless of the size of the agency. Shift assignments, schedules, area/patrol assignments, how close the various officers are to the scene, court conflicts, vacations, being tied up on other calls, specialties of work, etc. all factor in to who gets there first, who comes to assist, etc. Also, with past case information likely being in a police database, even an officer who is a stranger to you can quickly learn about past calls from or between the parties. In short, you can't "cop-pick". If you have a specific complaint about a specific officer, schedule a meeting with his/her commanding officer (possibly a Sgt., Lt. Captain, or even the head of the agency) to air your complaints. In this case, when the officer labeled the situation as "child endangerment", it may have been a poorly-worded term meant to state the obvious: regardless of your good intentions, you would be violating the law by driving on an expired license to fetch your child with you as the driver. What if you had retrieved your child and gotten pulled over for speeding in the next county, and gotten arrested? What would have happened to your child? THAT may have been the cop's "child endangerment" concern. Frankly, to my knowledge, the law only gives people an exception to drive for an "actual medical emergency" when they drive on a suspended license, and this situation does not appear to fit that narrow loophole. A child being hit with a spatula (allegedly) is not a crime (without more details) because the law allows a parent to use "reasonable parental discipline" and physical discipline is not illegal unless it injures the child.