Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Right To Resist



The one thing everyone is told when growing up is to always cooperate with police no matter what. According to a recently passed law in Indianapolis Marion County Sheriff’s office, citizens have the right to resist from any officer making an illegal search or arrest. The law states that if an officer tries to make an arrest with a faulty warrant or insufficient evidence, that the citizen may resist the unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer’s life if necessary. The circumstances of this law are very rare but if they do happen and the citizen kills the officer, the citizen might only be charged with manslaughter or the facts might show that no offense has been committed.

Here is a news cast report on the new law.

Because this law is so new and goes against tradition to tell citizens to resist arrest, officers in Marion County are on edge. Officers fear that when citizens read this new law they are going to only focus of the right to resist and not read the fine print of when a citizen can resist. This can cause more problems and potential dangers to officers on the street trying to do their job the legal and right way. You can see this danger in instances where police are told to search homes with valid warrants. Officers who serve warrants are now told to wear their uniforms instead of plain street clothes. This may seem like a harmless request, but it can put those officers at a greater risk of being assaulted. Serving warrants in uniform gives a criminal a heads up the police are here and can allow them to prepare themselves in an armed combat.
Though this law is relatively new and no harm has yet come to an officer because of it. It has changed more officers’ mindsets on how to approach old situations in a new way that will insure their safety and the safety of the citizens. Officers, who woke up and had a fear of being injured or assaulted on the job, are now more on edge when approaching suspects. Though this law is set in place to protect citizens from crooked officers, may be causing more harm than good in the run.

Links:

The Indy channel.com. Right To Resist Law Changes Ind. Deputies Uniforms. Officer.com. 04/02/2012. http://www.officer.com/news/10686474/right-to-resist-law-changes-ind-deputies-uniforms

11 comments:

  1. Quite interesting. Is it really necessary to take an officer's life if a person is being arrested wrongfully? I don't think so. I hope this law doesn't become a new excuse to murder police officers is people feel threatened in pursuit of an arrest. It also seems to me that this law can be interpreted in different ways. A police officer may think differently to what sufficient evidence is than a bank robber. It is also understandable that police officers would feel uncomfortable with this new law. Couldn't they have thought of something different or just trust that police officers are following their ethics and are not purposely arresting innocent people?

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  2. That is ridiculous. It is up to the courts to decide if someone is guilty and up to the police to detain the suspects. What if an officer is just going to someones home to ask someone questions about another crime? How will the person react knowing that this law has been passed. Having the ability to resist arrest will accomplish nothing because even if someone is innocent the accused is still going to get arrested when backup is called. I think this is just a stupid risky law.

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  3. This is an interesting article. You’re right that when we were growing up we were taught to trust police officers and cooperate with them no matter what. I think it’s important to note that normal citizens don’t know the laws as well as police officers. Admittedly, there are some corrupt officers but most are just trying to enforce the law and protect citizens as well as possible. This law does seem to cause more harm then good because it makes citizens not trust the police and it make the police more on edge. If people feel that resisting arrest is necessary they need to know the laws, not just assume they have the right to.

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  4. I saw this in the news also, and I think that this is absolutely absurd. There is no reason at all why any citizen should be given permission for any reason to resist a law enforcement officer at any time. If a citizen disagrees with an officer, then they need to show up in court and discuss it in that environment. Furthermore, giving citizens permission to take an officer's life if they feel it's necessary is a terrible idea. Since when are citizens experts on the law? They think that they are, but most think that they are experts in every facet of life as well. If I were a law enforcement officer in this area in Indiana, I would honestly quit my job and move somewhere else. Going to work every day knowing that citizens have permission to kill me is something that I would just not take the risk of.

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  5. A citizen should be able to resist arrest if the officer is not abiding by the law. If the police officer is using a faulty warrant or not following the correct procedure the citizen has the right to voice his or her rights. The police cannot have absolute power and need to abide by the rules that are set forth. However, a serious problem can arise with the citizens thinking they now have the power. This can cause serious conflicts and citizens and police will get into serious fights because the citizens will think the police are not abiding by the laws. Even, if they are following procedure and do have legit warrants. I think this is a very controversial law, and can have advantages as well as disadvantages. In the future I could see some police officers being injured just by doing their job correctly.

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  6. The first part of this is shocking to hear for the first time, however, Im sure this rarely happens. If I was an officer in this county I would be extremely mad. Citizens will now only focus on that and think they are allowed to fight officers which puts both of them at high risk. I believe even if they warrant isnt valid, that can be figured out after the arrest is made and the suspect in taken into custody. If it turns out the officer arrested with out a valid warrant the officer should be penalized rather than the suspect fighting them. Also, even if a citizen fights back and kills an officer I can see them being convicted of murder regardless of what this new law says.

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  7. I feel like giving someone that right to resist is a slippery slope. Most citizens dont know or understand the law so for a citizen to take this law into consideration and all that citizen hears is you can resist, when is he or she crossing a line? I think it is the safest bet just to coroperate and go on with it.

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  8. Even though I hope to be an officer of the law someday I fully support this new law about the right to resist. Not because I think criminals should be able to fight the police, but because I believe that America was founded on a system of checks and balances and the basic premise that people have are free from the tyranny of governments. This law is in keeping with the spirit of the second amendment. The important point is that it is only lawful when the officer is making an illegal arrest.

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  9. Absolutely a dumb law. An officer can make a arrest and detain anyone for a short period of time and then charges need to be filed. It is always unfortunate when an officer makes a bad arrest but telling people they can resist at any cost if they disagree with the officer is asinine. Most of the time people being arrest are not happy about the arrest and may feel that they should not be arrested. To allow citizens who feel they did nothing wrong to fight against police officers is very scary and simply wrong.

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  10. I don't think that giving the right to resist is going to solve any problems, only create new ones. If you give people the right to resist, where does it stop? I dont think that this law makes much sense at all and is only going to create more problems for the criminal justice system.

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  11. I know Ive always been told to cooperate in any matter with a law enforcement official. Although I have rarely ever came in contact, I feel as though this would put alot of officers on edge. Knowing that a possible suspect is quick to think "resist", would make a job much more difficult and stressful. This law should be appealed by the supreme court. I pray that this is the only city in America that implements this law, because if not, America will only hate cops more than what they already do.

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