OVERVIEW
- Self-Defense is the act of using force or violence towards another citizen in order to protect yourself, your property or another person from harm and damage. It comes in varying degrees, some of which are considered legal and some illegal.
When acting in self-defense you are purposely acting in an unlawful manner that, when justified, is excused due to the circumstance. Such an example would be using a reasonable degree of violence against a person that is hurting or otherwise hitting you. Such an act of violence is unlawful, but in an incident of self-defense, the act is considered justified and excused.
However, in some cases self-defense is not considered justified, depending upon the degree of which you exercise your right to defend yourself. There is a fine line between going from defender to attacker and with it potential legal consequences. For example, you may defend your home with a gun from someone that breaks in, but then if you attempted to chase the individual when they flee and then gunned them down such an act would be considered aggressive as you would no longer be acting in self-defense.
EXERCISING YOUR RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENCE
- When exercising your right to self-defense there are multiple factors that must be considered, before an act of self-defense can be considered justified. If you have acted in self-defense you must be able to prove and an Officer must establish the following:
- There was a reasonable belief that yourself (or someone else) was in imminent danger of being harmed.
- Engaging in the use of force and violence was necessary to defend yourself (or someone else) from said imminent danger.
- The amount of force applied was reasonably necessary to defend against the imminent danger.
Before exercising your right to self-defense you must first establish a reasonable belief that you are in fact in imminent danger or that someone else is. When considering whether or not the use of self-defense was justified an Officer will first establish whether or not an objectively reasonable person would consider there to be a reasonable belief that an imminent threat existed.
People suffering from mental illness or that are under the influence of alcohol will have a hard time establishing the objectivity of their belief that an imminent threat exists. For example, a person that hears voices or suffers from a form of psychosis may live in a constant state of paranoia that there exist multiple individuals that are out to harm them.
In short, here are the four main factors when self-defense is considered legally acceptable:- When there's an immediate danger to yours or somebody else's safety.
- When there's an unavoidable danger to yours or somebody else's safety.
- When there's an immediate danger of death.
- When there's the danger of great harm to yours or somebody else's person which can lead to death.
- But as mentioned in the start, you must be able to prove and the Officer must establish that you legally acted in self defense.
Once a reasonable belief that a threat exists, the next step is to consider the amount of force absolutely necessary to prevent this threat from harming yourself or somebody else. When acting in self-defense you are only allowed to use the amount of force that is necessary to stop a threat, exceeding what is considered a justifiable level of force can quickly become a felony.
Example of justified force (not exhaustive):- Shooting someone because they're threatening to shoot you or somebody else while actively brandishing a firearm.
- Threatening someone with force for attacking you if they do not stop.
- Threatening to shoot someone if they attempt to inflict great bodily harm or approach you in a manner that reasonably indicates they intend to inflict great bodily harm on you. E.g. trying to swing at you with a baseball bat.
- Examples of unjustified force (not exhaustive):
- Shoot someone because they threatened to shoot you, but have not demonstrated they possess the means of doing so.
- Shooting someone for spitting on you or insulting you.
- Shooting someone that you have told to stop damaging your property and then shooting them when they have complied.
- Shooting or attacking someone who is attempting to flee or submit.
- This also includes chasing the individual down and continuing to shooting/attacking them.
THE POLICE AND YOU
- If you ever find yourself acting in self-defense the immediate goal after such an act is to contact and inform the emergency services. Explain the incident and then wait for emergency services to arrive. You should try your best to treat the immobilized individual if the threat is neutralized because your goal is to preserve life, not take life. Treating an injured individual does not always require training, your goal should be to minimize the injury by pressurizing the bleeding caused by your gun.
Once the police arrive on scene you should do the following:
- Leave any weapons on the ground and put your hands in the air.
- Comply with all lawful orders from the Police Officers.
- Once the situation has been taken under control you should then inform the Officers that you are a lawful gun owner, and you acted in self-defense.
- You will be informed of your rights after or before being detained.
- You have the right to remain silent - If you do not wish you do not, under any circumstance, have to speak to the police.
- Anything you say can and will be used against you - Anything you choose to say to the police they may formally use against you during an investigation or when considering charges.
- You have the right to a government-appointed attorney present during legal questioning - If the police intend to legally question you then you may request that an attorney be present. However, if the police do not legally question you then you have no right to an attorney.
- Do you understand your rights? - If you say yes then it will be taken that you completely understand your rights and what everything means. You may ask questions before stating you understand your rights and if you do not understand them then the Officer is required to read them to you one more time, they are not required to read them to you more than twice.
Sources:- Your Rights - Further reading on your rights as an LS citizen.
- Report a Police Officer - If you feel an Officer did not properly do their job or mistreated you then you may report them to the Professional Standards Bureau, which is a dedicated bureau to investigating Police misconduct. More details on how to do so may be found here.
CITIZENS ARREST
- A citizens arrest is any arrest of another person by a member of the public that is not acting a sworn law enforcement official. Despite the name, any person may justifiably arrest another without necessarily being a citizen of the state in which they reside, however when it comes to arresting another member of the public there are laws and potential dangers that must be considered.
WHEN YOU CAN ARREST SOMEONE
Determining when you can arrest someone is not as easy at it may first appear, but before considering arresting someone you should first do the following:
- Call 911 and inform the emergency services that you believe a crime is being committed.
- Consider the safety of yourself, and others before considering arresting someone.
- Run or hide, and only engage in violence and attempt to arrest somebody if you believe doing so will prevent either yourself or anybody else from getting hurt.
- The person you're arresting has committed or attempted to commit a felony in your presence.
- The person you're arresting has committed a felony, but not in your presence.
- A felony has been committed and you have a reasonable belief that the person you're arresting has committed a felony.
