I hope he gets the <a>Tennessee Firearms Association</a> to help him in this fight . This kind of stuff pisses me off.
It can happen anywhere. Should it? NO, but it can. A few years back the Atl Red Dog unit beat up an off duty Atl patrol officer. Hey I'm a cop .
I hate that kind of crap. I can't imagine how pissed I'd be in that situation. I think it is a serious issue when the police don't know the law. If I was the chief I'd be firing people. Police going around enforcing laws that don't exist, that's just asking to be sued. If the cops are breaking the law then why can't we? Oh that's right, we don't wear a badge.
That brings up another question. If you resist arrest but you were proven innocent of the charge you were being arrested for could you still be convicted of resisting arrest?
If I remember correctly you are allowed to resist an unlawful detention. But you are only allowed to match the level of force being applied. A legal beagle will be here shortly to give a more technical answer.
What about this situation? The guy wasn't arrested, just muscled around a little. If a cop grabs you like that, would you be justified in smacking the cop down a bit, whupping him like a red-headed stepchild and just generally kicking the holy dog poop outta him? All in self-defense, of course, and assuming you're capable of doing so...
That sucks, reminds me of what happened to my old roommate in Buckhead. He and I would both open carry in our neighborhood Kroger, me with a leather OWB with extra clip, and I never got hassled. He would carry open with his shoulder holster (much more conspicuous) and got hassled by the off duty cop there. Never got roughed up, but the cop told him not to come in like that again.
Did he go back? There isn't anything legally stopping him. I assume there weren't any signs or anything like that.
This: http://www.attorneygeneral.state.tn.us/ ... /OP154.pdf should be the foundation of a multi-million dollar civil suit. Of course .gov will weasle out as the probate judges have here.
Whoever the goof was that typed that up left out the "during criminal activity" aspect out of question 2.
The correct term is you may use the force that is reasonably necessary to escape the arrest. That may be more force than is being applied, depending on the circumstances. It may be something as simple as walking around the officer, like the guy in the movie Office Space, when he walked around his boss, who stepped in his path. The short answer is that the rules are the same as self defense against anybody else. If walking away is sufficient, then that is all you are permitted to do. The longer answer, and this is the key, is, "Is the arrest unlawful?" The answer to that question is "probably not." The fact that you think it is unlawful does not make it so, and, if you are wrong, resisting by doing violence or offering to do violence is a felony. Consider carefully your choice. In the question posed by Mobster989, the answer is not as simple as Ramm's response might indicate. You can be found "not guilty" of a crime but the arrest may still be lawful. If the officer had probable cause, the arrest is lawful. If he was detaining you on reasonable suspicion of a crime (a reasonable suspicion he can articulate), and you resist the temporary detention, then all he need show is that he had the necessary reasonable suspicion. In that case, you might be found not guilty (you might even be not guilty) but still convicted of felony obstruction because the detention was lawful. This may or may not be the law in Tennessee. Georgia is definitely in the minority of states on this issue. This is a difficult issue when an officer tackles you from behind. I am quite sure that when this happens you will have no idea that it is only because the officer wrongfully believes open carry to be illegal. In the case posted, the officer did not voice his opinion "It's a concealed carry license," until after all the tackling business was finished (opinion enforcement or law enforcement?). What if you resist and it turns out you match exactly the description of the guy who just robbed the bank at the front of the store? Or maybe you don't match but a witness pointed you out to the responding officers. You just won't know at that point. I would not recommend resisting an officer who applies force to you when you are not sure why he is doing it. I am not sure I would resist an officer who applies force to you for carrying, either. After all, is the license a defense or an element of the crime? There are cases stating both. We have already posted before the ridiculous situation created by the fact that a police officer must technically prove his defense to the charge of carrying without a license.
What about this: If the guy who was tackled from behind could not SEE who did it when it happened... And if he, as I suspect I would do, started beating on the person who tackled them before he realized it was a cop...would that be "resisting arrest"? I mean...unless there are some strange folks out there, I don't know anyone who literally has eyes in the back of their heads... Just curious... I know it didn't happen that way in this case, but I could see it happening...
Wouldn't you know you were being chased by cops at this point though? I still can see it happening, I'm just curious.
And his confusion of the law? He had been an officer in Tennessee for 7 years and he's still getting laws confused? How did he even graduate from the Academy?