OFF THE WIRE
Is it ever legal to shoot a cop? A growing number of states are passing laws that say that yes, in fact, sometimes it is well within a citizen’s rights to shoot a police officer.
While other states have ruled in favor of citizens shooting police officers in self-defense – even hip-hop legend Tupac walked after shooting to cops in self-defense –, in the state of Indiana, if a police officer initiates aggression without cause in someone’s home, violence can be used against them – in self-defense – including using lethal force.
The new law was drafted 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.”
This should hardly be seen as profound. In the past, self-defense was viewed as a human right. The Bill of Rights does not grant rights to the citizenry of the United States, it recognizes natural rights. One of those rights – a veritable law of Nature – is the right to resist.
No matter what one does, or takes from you, nothing can stop the innate right to follow our natural impulses of resistance. That does not mean all will exercise that right. But the right itself is natural, primordial, inborn.
The new amendment in Indian recognizes this. It makes it clear that badges do not grant special rights to break into someone’s house and commit acts of violent aggression. If they do, the resident has the right to resist those illegal actions and defend themselves.
The Free Thought Project notes that many police officers “have already begun to fear monger the passage of this bill,” saying things like “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.'”
That’s according to Joseph Hubbard, 40, the president of Jeffersonville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 100, who asserts “somebody is going get away with killing a cop because of this law.”
In spite of his fear-mongering, here’s what the law actually states:
(i) A person is justified in using reasonable force against a public servant if the person reasonably believes the force is necessary to:What do you think about this law? Would you like to see more states adopt laws like this, or is this a recipe for disaster?
(1) protect the person or a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force;
(2) prevent or terminate the public servant’s unlawful entry of or attack on the person’s dwelling, curtilage, or occupied motor vehicle; or
(3) prevent or terminate the public servant’s unlawful trespass on or criminal interference with property lawfully in the person’s possession, lawfully in possession of a member of the person’s immediate family, or belonging to a person whose property the person has authority to protect.
(Article by M. David)