In any circumstance can you defend yourself against police brutality?

[primalclaws1974]

What I mean here, is if an officer or more than one are obviously roughing a person up, can you physically defend yourself? I don't mean just covering your face with your arms. Can you fight back without added charges? I know the police likely would add charges, but has anyone successfully beat this in court by proving they were being brutalized and had no other options?

 

[missbishi]

I would love to know whether they have or not. In reality though, unless there was CCTV footage of course, the officers concerned would probably close ranks. Please do share any stories you might have, this is very interesting.

 

[Kittyworker]

From your question you aren't asking if someone can defend themselves, you are asking if someone attacking you is justification to attack them back. I would say that if you were attacked by the police it was because they felt threatened and they felt justified in taking their own course of action.

You are always allowed to defend yourself, but by fighting back against the police the only thing you are going to accomplish is resisting arrest charges if not worse. I guess its up to you to weigh the costs of a bloody nose vs a year in jail.

 

[Peachdejour]

It's very rare anymore that a person can win a self-defense case against another person let alone against a police officer. I see most often that both people involved in a fight catch charges with the person defending catching a lesser offense. More police forces are getting body cameras and dash cameras and that may be the only defense that a person has in an excessive force case. I honestly would not fight back against a police officer that has more training and more weapons than I do. It just is an all around bad idea.

 

[Kittyworker]

I think sometimes you have to weigh up, is it worth this police officer cuffing me and throwing me into the car, or should I resist and get charged with assaulting a police offer and resisting arrest? If you say, get bruised wrists due to tight handcuffs, you can go to a medical professional and get them to write a letter saying why your wrists are injured and then file a police complaint. I find when police realise they are recording sometimes their behaviours can change quite quickly..

 

[LitoLawless]

This is a really good question. I believe that there should be a limit to the things you can take from a cop physically before you have a right to defend yourself. Most law enforcement officials would tell you that you shouldn't resist it anyway, but sometimes resisting is necessary

 

[primalclaws1974]

From your question you aren't asking if someone can defend themselves, you are asking if someone attacking you is justification to attack them back. I would say that if you were attacked by the police it was because they felt threatened and they felt justified in taking their own course of action.

You are always allowed to defend yourself, but by fighting back against the police the only thing you are going to accomplish is resisting arrest charges if not worse. I guess its up to you to weigh the costs of a bloody nose vs a year in jail.

I am sorry, but I don't agree with a single word you posted. If a normal person was hitting me, I wouldn't stand there and let them do it. I don't care what I was doing, unless I was attacking them FIRST, no police person has the right to hit me. For me to fight off an attacker (be it cop or not), is NOT attacking them. It's defending myself. So, if in the end I did spend a year in jail, at least when I got out I would have the dignity to know I wasn't a coward who let myself get beat up.

 

[tanker]

Police officers are human. I find it highly doubtful that a police officer would just abuse someone for no reason unless they where repeatedly provoke. Be polite when talking to police and you won't have a problem.

Have you seen the amount of abuse cops go through. People spitting on them and yelling abuse. Honestly I am surprised that more cops don't lose it and there are not more incidents of abuse.

There was a lot less problems when people where civil to each other.

 

[primalclaws1974]

Police officers are human. I find it highly doubtful that a police officer would just abuse someone for no reason unless they where repeatedly provoke. Be polite when talking to police and you won't have a problem.

Have you seen the amount of abuse cops go through. People spitting on them and yelling abuse. Honestly I am surprised that more cops don't lose it and there are not more incidents of abuse.

There was a lot less problems when people where civil to each other.

I agree that courtesy bequeaths courtesy, but you sound like you are making excuses when it is "okay" to beat on someone in custody. It is never okay. I understand they are human, but they took on the job knowing the stresses it entails. If I worked at a store and I was verbally abused by a customer, and I jumped the counter and started pounding on them, I think I would face some pretty stiff penalties for not keeping my cool. Should police be any different?

 

[Rainman]

When a police officer is making an arrest, should the suspect fight back then the officer can use that as justification to use lethal force. In any case, most people who get beaten up normally provoke the police officers first.

I have to admit though that in some rare cases police officers are the aggressors but even then the right thing to do would be to defend yourself without striking the police officer.

Do not fight if you don't have to. Try to talk down the fight

.

 

[primalclaws1974]

I agree that if you fight back, whether the officers are in the right or not, you are likely to get hurt worse. But it just doesn't seem fair that an officer can place their hands on you when upset. I don't care if I was "provoking" them, with words, or ran from them, or whatever, as long as I was not the one to start the violence, what right do they have to hurt me?

 

[Shimus]

I think you should defend yourself, even if it constitutes police brutality back. Nobody has a right to hurt your person without probable and just cause, and anything else in a court of law is considered self-defense, so it would generally slide. But this is only when you feel your life is in potential danger of being snuffed out. Any other time, light batoning or otherwise, just curl up and take it if they go brutal.

 

[Micheleteresa]

I think defending one self would be a normal reaction no matter who it was but I can see where it could be difficult to win a case against a police officer on grounds of self defense. I have a friend who won his case but in his case the officer had previous incidents of excessive use of unnecessary force and had a pending law suit for brutality which the Judge was aware of. I think this officer is someone who probably is a power tripper in his everyday life as well but there is no place for that on the Job as an officer, its puts others at risk, including your partner. It was the first time I have ever heard of an officer drawing their pistol and pointing it at a vehicle when the vehicle was stopped for failure to stop at a red light! My friend had no priors and was not wanted so there was no cause for this officers actions.

 

[mrsbright]

I think people are very naive if they think that anyone who is a victim of police brutality "must have looked for it". It's a common bias, the "the world is fair" bias that makes us think that victims somehow had a hand to play in their situation and that it makes that they somehow deserved it. Look it up, it's on wikipedia too, in a list of common mind bias.

I remember reading an article from a lawyer who said that if you got unfair treatment from a cop, you had to act as pitiful as possible, otherwise they just got more violent or gave you more legal trouble. He was advising people to cry or piss/shit themselves so that the crazy cop would leave them alone. I wish I could find this article again.

 

[Shimus]

It's very true, a lot of time people say people who got it "were asking" for it. But sometimes, the police on the other end can read into things that aren't there generating even more problems then they're helping solve. This is what builds animosity to begin with. Then you get an event of this scale... people don't need much to flip bandwagons and start preaching. They're looking for the tipping points, and these cases are what spark it. Then it boils down in race vs race and ultimately good vs evil.

 

[JulianWilliams]

What I mean here, is if an officer or more than one are obviously roughing a person up, can you physically defend yourself? I don't mean just covering your face with your arms. Can you fight back without added charges? I know the police likely would add charges, but has anyone successfully beat this in court by proving they were being brutalized and had no other options?

Difficult situation. The thing is the law sides with the police officer and it words under the assumption that the officer was in the right and you were in the wrong. I'd say it's best to comply with the officer's order and definitely don't retaliate.

 

[shilpa123]

Being able to defend yourself us quite important as it helps you to prove your point in many cases. It is best if you understand why exactly the police officers are being so aggressive with you. Sometimes it may be just their ill temperature.

 

[JoanMcWench]

Difficult situation. The thing is the law sides with the police officer and it words under the assumption that the officer was in the right and you were in the wrong. I'd say it's best to comply with the officer's order and definitely don't retaliate.

Right on point. You may be better off taking a beating than you would fighting back. It'll hurt the heck out of your pride but you can avoid the charges & MAYBE if you have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt you can sue the pants off the department & walk away from it at least fiscally better off.

 

[primalclaws1974]

Right on point. You may be better off taking a beating than you would fighting back. It'll hurt the heck out of your pride but you can avoid the charges & MAYBE if you have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt you can sue the pants off the department & walk away from it at least fiscally better off.

Not that I would condone ambulance chasing, but you do have a point there about sucking it up. But humans are no different than any other animal. We have a "fight or flight" response. Standing (or laying) there and getting beat up isn't what we are programmed to do. The natural response would be to run away or fight back. I realize fighting with a cop is very likely to be a losing situation, because the officer has weapons and back up. On top of this, it is very unlikely a judge is going to listen to "self-defense" when it comes to hitting a cop.

 

[Gabe]

You have a right to defend yourself, however if you are resisting arrest then they are using appropriate force to restrain you. If you were handcuffed and restrained and they continued to use physical force then you would be justified in defending yourself by biting or kicking them.