Look, there are enough laws and regulations on the books that you can get written up (legally, strictly speaking) for almost anything. Then, it is up to you how far you wish to assert your innocence--the DA will offer to plea you out again and again, and if you make it to court they will then try to make an example out of you, using whatever tricks suit them (all legal, mind you!). There is plenty of evidence and coverage of this happening, so don't pretend it is unreasonable to fear.

That all said, going back to the very first interaction--you and the cop--we see that it becomes purely a decision on the cop's part whether or not you are going to be sent down into the machine.

Justice should not be so arbitrary, but here in the US it oftentimes is; don't pretend otherwise.

EDIT:

As for safeguards...the state can deprive you of years of freedom and set you free afterwards with an "oops". That's bullshit, even if the safeguards finally kick in. And if you end up with "resisting arrest" or just antagonizing the system or embarassing a DA, those safeguards seem to magically fail.

>There are safeguards in place unless I'm mistaken (looking at you Internal Affairs).

Yes, I recall the NSA and other government agencies having such self-policing groups.

Tell me, do you really in your heart of hearts think a corrupt organization (say a police dept in a specific place.. if pressed for an example, say Maricopa County in Arizona?) has a functioning IA group?

The federal government has an IA group too. Many of them. I'm sure that if Snowden had raised his concerns with them, they would have gladly worked with him to solve those problems.......

Internal Affairs is largely hollywood fantasy. If you have trouble with a local police department and need independant help dealing with it, the best you can really do is going to the FBI.

That "best" is pretty damn shit.