Hold onto your holsters, folks: shooting a cop dead is now legal in the state of Indiana.
Governor
Mitch Daniels, a Republican, has authorized changes to a 2006
legislation that legalizes the use of deadly force on a public servant —
including an officer of the law — in cases of "unlawful intrusion."
Proponents of both the Second and Fourth Amendments — those that allow
for the ownership of firearms and the security against unlawful
searches, respectively — are celebrating the update by saying it ensures
that residents are protected from authorities that abuse the powers of
the badge.
Others, however, fear that the alleged threat of a police state emergence will be replaced by an all-out warzone in Indiana.
Under
the latest changes of the so-called Castle Doctrine, state lawmakers
agree "people have a right to defend themselves and third parties from
physical harm and crime." Rather than excluding officers of the law,
however, any public servant is now subject to be met with deadly force
if they unlawfully enter private property without clear justification.
"In
enacting this section, the general assembly finds and declares that it
is the policy of this state to recognize the unique character of a
citizen's home and to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her
own home against unlawful intrusion by another individual or a public
servant," reads the legislation.
Although critics have been quick
to condemn the law for opening the door for assaults on police
officers, supporters say that it is necessary to implement the ideals
brought by America's forefathers. Especially, argue some, since the
Indiana Supreme Court almost eliminated the Fourth Amendment entirely
last year. During the 2011 case of Barnes v. State of Indiana, the court
ruled that a man who assaulted an officer dispatched to his house had
broken the law before there was "no right to reasonably resist unlawful
entry by police officers." In turn, the National Rifle Association
lobbied for an amendment to the Castle Doctrine to ensure that residents
were protected from officers that abuse the law to grant themselves
entry into private space.
"There are bad legislators," the law's
author, State Senator R. Michael Young (R) tells Bloomberg News. "There
are bad clergy, bad doctors, bad teachers, and it's these officers that
we're concerned about that when they act outside their scope and duty
that the individual ought to have a right to protect themselves."
Governor
Daniels agrees with the senator in a statement offered through his
office, and notes that the law is only being established to cover rare
incidents of police abuse that can escape the system without reprimand
for officers or other persons that break the law to gain entry.
"In
the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these
extremely narrow conditions are met," Daniels says. "This law is not an
invitation to use violence or force against law enforcement officers."
Officers
in Indiana aren't necessarily on the same page, though. "If I pull over
a car and I walk up to it and the guy shoots me, he's going to say,
'Well, he was trying to illegally enter my property,'" Sergeant Joseph
Hubbard tells Bloomberg. "Somebody is going get away with killing a cop
because of this law."
"It's just a recipe for disaster," Indiana
State Fraternal Order of Police President Tim Downs adds. "It just puts a
bounty on our heads."