My non-lawyerly understanding is that in theory, officers of the law have substantial protection as long as they can claim they were not willfully violating you

My non-lawyerly understanding is that in theory, officers of the law have substantial protection as long as they can claim they were not willfully violating your rights. On top of that, in practice they have even more protections (http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4221000 http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4221000)