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GOHEAVY.COM Debates Forum
Re: Even if the facts were as Art stated and......
Posted By: rpowers (c-71-58-201-225.hsd1.pa.comcast.net)
In Response To: Even if the facts were as Art stated and.......... (J.R. Bolger)
Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007, @ 8:31 a.m.
I've read a few of these posts and thought i would chime in. I'm not alwayer but I am a police officer.Here is my take. You have to at a few things here. What actions did the alleged aggessor take and what did he state to Art?
Answer: He agressively challenged Art and after multiple attempts would not let Art leave and continued to challenge him. He threatened Art by stating " I'm going to fuck you up". Under the context and circumstances that he stated these words they cannot be ignored and could be considered terroristic threats if Art reasonbily beleived the actor and felt threatened. The actor actually took the substantial step of putting his hands on Art and touching Art.Although this is not an assualt, at least in Pennslvania, it could be considered harassment and again under the circumstances and context in which it was done, Art could have reasonably beleived he was about to be assaulted.
Where Art is going to run into some trouble, at leas tin in PA, and I'm sure many states, regular citizens have a requirement to flee situations like this before using force to defend themselves. They do not have the right as Police Officer's do while performing their duty to stand their ground to affect an arrest, etc. You have to make every effort to flee and if that is not possible you at point can use reasonable force to defend yourself. This is Art's second problem...was the force he used reasonable under the circumstances? You have to take a look at the circumstances in which the force was used, the size of the actor, the size of Art, could Art have done something else less forcefull and more reasonable to protect himself. It all comes down to what was going on in Art's mind and how he can articulate that and what an average person (jury) would consider reasonable under the circumstances.
My 2 cents. Again, I'm not a lawyer so don't take this as legal advice. It's just generalities about the law and the use of force at least in Pennsylavania. My advice to Art is to consult a lawyer if he needs to and Don't give any voluntary statements to the police which can be used against him.
Powers
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