>From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@datamann.com>
>
>Zero Powers wrote:
> > Sounds nice. But the minute you hold the state to the same standard as
> > individuals, the state gives up all police power (except in those few
> > circumstances were governmental employees or property are harmed or
> > threatened) and all prisons must be emptied. That might sound like a
>good
> > thing to you, but the day it happens here is the day I move to Costa
>Rica.
>
>Actually, this is not true. The only greater authority police have that you
>and
>I don't have is the ability to give traffic tickets, and in some states,
>arrest
>for misdemeanor offenses. We are all authorized and responsible to
>apprehend
>criminals committing felonies, and in the face of threat of deadly force,
>with
>unarmed individuals present, lethal force is generally legal, though there
>are
>differing thresholds.
Well yes, and no. In California if you're not a cop, you'd better be *darn*
sure that the suspect is guilty, especially if you resort to deadly force,
because if the suspect you shoot is not actually guilty of a felony you are
up a creek. Even if you use non-deadly force you had better be sure that a
crime has in fact been committed and you had better have "reasonable
grounds" to belive that the suspect you arrested is the actual perp.
Short of this, you are just opening yourself up to being sued (and possibly
criminally charged) for assault, battery and false imprisonment. All in all
I say you're better off just calling 911.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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