# resisting unlawful arrest **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617 "2004-03-21T23:01:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/21 "2004-03-23T15:24:41Z")
> [@Jotun](#): > > In Canada, I believe a police officer is required to announce their presence (POLICE OPEN UP! We have a warrant!) in some way. > > If the police followed protocol and did this, then they wouldn’t have to worry about an innocent man mistaking them for robbers, would they? 🙂 In the US, a no-knock warrant requires no such identification. Cops kick in the door–at which point I believe they’re \*supposed \* to yell “Police”–and swarm in with guns drawn. [http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1939/a10.html?361](http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1939/a10.html?361) > [@](#): > > No-knock search warrants, as they are called, are fast and intimidating. Black-clad SWAT members, with guns drawn and pointed, break down a door without warning and swarm inside a home, and cuff or detain everyone inside at gunpoint. The idea is to take people by surprise and overwhelm them before they can destroy evidence or fight back. > > Sometimes, law enforcement officers break into the wrong home. That’s happened a few times in recent years in Racine County. > > Sometimes, much more rarely, somebody inside that wrong home dies as a result. That’s what happened in New York City in May, when a 57-year-old woman had a heart attack while police mistakenly raided her home. That’s also what happened in Lebanon, Tenn., in 2000 when > > police barged into 61-year-old John Adams’ home by mistake. Adams > thought it was a home invasion, grabbed his sawed-off shotgun and fired. Police shot back, killing Adams. They’re a bad idea, and innocent people do get hurt because of them. But they help nab drug users/dealers–who everyone knows are the scum of the earth–so they’re AOK, right? :rolleyes: This cite seems somewhat slanted, but it was the first hit on google. Regardless, no-knock warrants are a reality, as is the damage they’ve caused in some instances. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/22 "2004-03-23T15:58:35Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Depending on circumstances (who’s watching, etc), resisting can result in much worse charges. Attempted murder or assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer for example. Cops are control freaks. They have to be. > Running is not so bad, but not often effective. Running is an incredibly stupid thing to do. Even if you are innocent of everything under the sun, running from the police will land your ass in a _big_ sling. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/23 "2004-03-23T16:10:20Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Running is an incredibly stupid thing to do. Even if you are innocent of everything under the sun, running from the police will land your ass in a _big_ sling. If you are “innocent of everything under the sun,” such that there is no reasonable suspicion that would justify a police detention, what osrt of “sling” do you imagine might result from running? ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/24 "2004-03-23T17:53:09Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If you are “innocent of everything under the sun,” such that there is no reasonable suspicion that would justify a police detention, what osrt of “sling” do you imagine might result from running? I don’t know what specifically **Clothahump** imagined in his/her scenario (and IANAL), but if an officer **had already informed you** that you were under arrest, and you then started to run away … isn’t that resisting arrest? I mean, I would use the phrase “attempting to evade arrest” to more properly categorize running away from a cop, but I’ll bet _legally_ such an act falls under “resisting arrest.” But if a cop has NOT informed you that you are under arrest, but you just happen to run away from cops by instinct (maybe you hate the look of powder blue shirts, for instance) … then that’s hardly resisting arrest. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/25 "2004-03-23T17:57:19Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > I don’t know what specifically **Clothahump** imagined in his/her scenario (and IANAL), but if an officer **had already informed you** that you were under arrest, and you then started to run away … isn’t that resisting arrest? It depends. In most states, it is. In those states in which you have a right to resist an unlawful arrest, it isn’t. Of course, this assumes, as **Clothahump** did, that the arrest is in fact unlawful. Note that I am not remotely urging this course of action upon anyone: it’s much better to let even an unlawful arrest happen, knowing that the issue can be determined in court. - Rick ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/26 "2004-03-23T19:53:13Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If you are “innocent of everything under the sun,” such that there is no reasonable suspicion that would justify a police detention, what osrt of “sling” do you imagine might result from running? Well if you run away you’ll probably lose the race and then have to hire an attorney to straighten out the mess. And that is a _major_ sling. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Flash-57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/839c29/32.png) [@Flash-57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flash-57)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/27 "2004-03-23T20:34:36Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If you are “innocent of everything under the sun,” such that there is no reasonable suspicion that would justify a police detention, what osrt of “sling” do you imagine might result from running? Well, the same kind of sling that, say, a president gets in when he’s incorrectly accused of wrong-doings and then he makes the mistake of lying about them. He ends up indicted for lying and no one notices that he’s not found guilty of any of the original charges and shouldn’t have been put in the position in the first place. Unfortunately, that’s just the way the system works. Even if you are innocent of the original charges, the authorities can easily trick you into committing crimes later. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/28 "2004-03-23T20:47:06Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > A related question: you always hear about raids gone bad, where the wrong house is entered. What happens if I’m home, polishing my gun, suddenly armed people bust in to my house. I act is what I figure is self defense and open fire on the intruders… let’s say I happen to survive the hail of bullets that will surely come my way. What would happen? The police officers entered the wrong house, I was surprised and acted instictively to defend my family, but could I still be held liable for shooting police? That happened near where i live [http://publicola.blogspot.com/2003\_11\_09\_publicola\_archive.html](http://publicola.blogspot.com/2003_11_09_publicola_archive.html) “…Jillian D. King, 30, is charged with criminal recklessness resulting in injury in connection with the Jan. 14 wounding of Muncie police officer Steve Cox. He was one of 11 SWAT team members about to raid King’s home when she allegedly fired shots out of a window. Cox has since recovered.” Now what it seems like is the cop in question was part of a S.W.A.T. team who was attempting to serve a warrant on Ms. King’s house. But Ms. King saw a bunch of masked people with guns trying to breech her house & opened fire. When interrogated her interrogator said “In the videotape, detectives told her that the SWAT team didn’t need to knock and announce. ‘The law doesn’t say you have to,’ Muncie Police Investigator Jeff Lacy said while questioning King on video tape. ‘They are going to sneak in.’ During the trial, Lacy testified that he had lied to King in the videotape as an interrogation tactic.” What a scumbag, i was interrogated by him before (for a crime i didn’t commit mind you) and i caught him in tons of lies. God i hate that bastard. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/29 "2004-03-23T21:22:55Z")
In Texas, you cannot resist arrest regardless of its legality. It’s a crime. > [@](#): > > Sec. 38.03. RESISTING ARREST, SEARCH, OR TRANSPORTATION. (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally prevents or obstructs a person he knows is a peace officer or a person acting in a peace officer’s presence and at his direction from effecting an arrest, search, or transportation of the actor or another by using force against the peace officer or another. > ~ (b) It is no defense to prosecution under this section that the arrest or search was unlawful. > ~ © Except as provided in Subsection (d), an offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor. > ~ (d) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree if the actor uses a deadly weapon to resist the arrest or search. It’s not unheard of for someone to be arrested and charged only with resisting arrest, and that has led to some abuse. A musician I know was yanked off stage and arrested for public intoxication after saying something vaguely smartassed to HPD while performing at a festival . When it was later revealed that he was a recovering alcoholic and hadn’t had a drink in five or six years, the charge was changed to resisting arrest. This guy weighs about 130 pounds soaking wet and he was “resisting” these two linebacker sized officers. Riiight. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/30 "2004-03-24T01:49:25Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Running is an incredibly stupid thing to do. Even if you are innocent of everything under the sun, running from the police will land your ass in a _big_ sling. I, while “innocent of everything under the sun”, have been felony busted. Being totally docile and compliant got me nothing. Next time I’ll at least consider the flight option. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/31 "2004-03-24T02:24:08Z")
What is the **definition** of unlawful arrest? ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617/32 "2004-03-24T02:41:33Z")
It sounds as if an arrest made in error (more or less) can’t legally be resisted. Quote, “There’s a remedy at law for everything.” And arrestees couldn’t in reason be given the choice just to state it’s all unlawful, and they are going home. But what if you have heard some ugly stories about Officer Bully McHostile, and you are (pick one-- A: an Optimistic Young Fella who has been flirting with McHostile’s girlfriend and just realized it, or B: a Sweet Young Thing minding her own business), and you are alone after dark and Officer McHostile slams you against your car accusing you of something you and he both know there is no basis for. Assuming you see some opportunity of escaping McH, can you use it? And what to do next…head straight for the police station, ask for the Captain, turn yourself in with an explanation…? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resisting-unlawful-arrest/235617.md?page=1)