You are backed up on parking tickets and a bench warrant has been issued for your arrest. The police come to the door and you lock down your fortress like house and refuse to come out. What happens next?
What’s SOP, do they wait you out or attack with the SWAT team?
Assuming they blow the door and break in to arrest you and you sit on the couch and do not resist the SWAT team what are you charged with? Just resisting arrest or more?
Slow escalation. They just go away, but file a complaint. They come back and serve you with a summons. If you ignore that, they go away again, but now, when they come back, they’ve got “Contempt of Court” to add. Over time, it adds up to something actionable, and that’s when they break down your door.
(You sometimes hear people say that taxes are collected “by force” in the U.S. No, they aren’t; but summonses and writs and court orders and contempt citations and they like can escalate to the degree of permitting the use of force. So if you ignore the IRS too long, and flout the guys who come to lien your property, and sneer at the contempt citations too many times… That’s when they use force.)
Exactly. Case in point, the Browns of New Hampshire. A charming couple, now enjoying Federal hospitality: Edward and Elaine Brown - Wikipedia
Not really the same case, they were already sentenced.
What did they do exactly to earn 35 years more though ?
Seems the authorities sat at the door and asked “Can we come in ?”. Brown said no, so they stayed outside ? So they got approx 35 years - each - for the heinous crime of saying no ?
Coming from 10 years in law enforcement: if I can visually verify that you are inside the residence, I am able to enter the premises by any means necessary to effect the arrest; provided I have a valid warrant. This is in Georgia.
That being said, if it’s merely a bench warrant, SWAT wouldn’t be called if I couldn’t gain entry. Come back another day or sit on your house until you leave. Additionally, I’d charge you with obstruction.
From the Wikipedia article, the offences involved a bit more than “saying no”. Charges included conspiring to obstruct the US Marshal Service by force, intimidation and threat; various firearms charges; and forcible obstruction of federal officials.