On a Saturday afternoon in Iowa City, Iowa, Luke Schreder had a dangerous, felonious idea: he thought that a police officer just “needed a hug.” The officer proceeded to charge him with assault on a peace officer for his spontaneous act of affection.

As if often the case with abusive charges, the officer proceeded to pile on other charges with the assault charge, including public intoxication and interference with official acts.

Only last week, prosecutors dropped a charge of assaulting a West Virginia police officer after a man expelled gas near an officer, here.

These are obviously abuses of authority and they occur because officers are not disciplined — even when charges are later dropped. Some officers routinely treat any uninvited contact to be assault, which previously was limited to a true incident of battery.

One can only imagine what you get for kissing a cop at 34th and Vine. In that case, it results in simply some minor property damage:

“I didn’t know if it was day or night
I started kissin’ everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine”

For the full story, click here.