What does resisting a public officer involve?

Resisting a public officer primarily involves preventing an officer from executing their lawful duty. This can encompass a range of actions intended to obstruct the officer's responsibilities, such as physically refusing to comply with an officer's orders or interfering with their attempts to perform their job. The essence of the term relates to the active hindrance of an officer's actions that are necessary for maintaining law and order.

When considering the other options, while they may involve some form of non-compliance or dissent towards law enforcement, they do not specifically capture the fundamental legal concept of "resisting" as it applies in the context of obstructing an officer in their duty. Ignoring an officer's instructions might reflect non-cooperation but does not necessarily constitute active resistance. Fleeing could be seen as evading authority rather than resisting, and protesting against police authority, while potentially contentious, does not physically obstruct an officer's duty in the same manner as directly preventing them from doing their job. Therefore, the focus on obstruction makes the first answer the most accurate in the context of understanding what resisting a public officer legally entails.