"A Victory for the Right to Resist in Michigan" By a 5-2 majority, the Michigan State Supreme Court upheld the “Castle Doctrine” by validating a citizen’s right to resist unlawful arrest. In People v. Moreno, a 5-2 majority ruled that Angel Moreno, Jr. acted legally when he refused to allow the police access to his home without a warrant. On December 30, 2008, Officers Matthew Hamberg and Troy DeWeis knocked on Moreno’s door while searching for an individual suspected of a probation violation. Moreno made the mistake of speaking with Hamberg through an open door, thereby giving the policeman an excuse to say that he detected the odor of marijuana (even though DeWeis – who apparently didn’t have Hamberg’s uniquely acute sense of smell — did not). When Moreno refused to consent to a search, Hamberg said that he would get a warrant – and then lied by saying that it was necessary for him to enter the house in order to “secure” it. Moreno ordered Hamberg to get off his porch, and began to close the door. Rather than obeying that lawful order from a citizen, Hamberg bulled his way into the house. A brief struggle ensued that ended when Hamberg told his companion to attack the victim with his Taser. Although a trivial amount of marijuana was found, no drug-related charges were filed. Convicted of resisting and obstructing and assault on a police officer, Moreno appealed the case to the state supreme court. In its brief before the state supreme court, the State admitted that Hamberg’s search was “unlawful.” In other words, he acted as an armed, violent intruder, rather than a peace officer. This means that under Michigan’s version of the “Castle Doctrine,” as laid out in its Self-Defense Act (SDA), Moreno had a legally recognized right to employ deadly force, if necessary, to defend himself and his home. As the Michigan State Supreme Court acknowledged in People v. Riddle (2002), “regardless of the circumstances one who is attacked in his dwelling is never required to retreat where it is otherwise necessary to exercise deadly force in self-defense. When a person is in his `castle,’ there is no safer place to retreat….” The primary focus of the “Castle Doctrine” is the threat posed by government agents, rather than private trespassers. In a 1999 ruling (People v. Wess), the state Court of Appeals expressly recognized the individual right “to use such reasonable force as is necessary to prevent an illegal attachment and to resist an illegal arrest.” In the dicta of that ruling the court pleaded with the legislature to change the Self-Defense Act: “We share the concerns of other jurisdictions that the right to resist an illegal arrest is an outmoded and dangerous doctrine, and we urge our Supreme Court to reconsider this doctrine at the first available opportunity…. [W]e see no benefit to continuing the right to resist an otherwise peaceful arrest made by a law enforcement officer, merely because the arrestee believes the arrest is illegal. Given modern procedural safeguards for criminal defendants, the `right’ only preserves the possibility that harm will come to the arresting officer or the defendant.” Prompted by the Court of Appeals, the Michigan Legislature modified the relevant section of the state code (MCL 705.81d) by removing the word “lawful”; this supposedly meant that citizens would have to submit to an arrest irrespective of its legitimacy. However, the legislature did not expressly abrogate the common law right to resist unlawful arrest. In a 2004 ruling (People v. Ventura) dealing with the right to resist an unlawful arrest, the same Michigan Court of Appeals, which had badgered the state legislature to modify the SDA, cited that modification as a positive statement of legislative intent. In a richly disingenuous passage, the court wrote that “it is not within our province to disturb our Legislature’s obvious affirmative choice to modify the traditional common-law rule that a person may resist an unlawful arrest.” In People v. Moreno, the Michigan Supreme Court pointed out that “the right to resist unlawful arrests, and other unlawful invasions of private rights, is well established in our state’s common law.” Although the resisting and obstructing statute was modified, the majority continued, “the Legislature expressed no intent to do away with the common-law right to resist an unlawful arrest.” The Moreno dissent advanced a very dangerous doctrine, insisting that “the issue here is not whether the officers lawfully entered defendant’s house, but rather whether the officers were acting to further their employer’s … interests.” “The fact that a municipality may be liable for an unlawful act of an officer if the act that was done in the course of the officer’s official duty or employment necessarily means that an officer can commit an unlawful act while `performing his or her duties,” observed the dissent. As long as police officers are about “their master’s business,” they have license to commit unlawful acts – and citizens have no choice but to submit. There is no such crime as “resisting arrest" when the supposed arrest is unlawful. This is a fictitious crime dreamed up by law enforcement to accuse a citizen of a crime when they refuse to surrender to the illegal demands of the police. U.S. courts have ruled on numerous occasions that resisting a false arrest is not merely a citizen’s right, but his duty! In fact, courts have gone so far as to rule that if a law enforcement officer is killed as a result of actions stemming from a citizen’s attempts to defend themselves against a false arrest, it is the fault of the officer, not the citizen. Here’s a short collection of relevant court rulings on false arrest and resisting arrest: “When a person, being without fault, is in a place where he has a right to be, is violently assaulted, he may, without retreating, repel by force, and if, in the reasonable exercise of his right of self defense, his assailant is killed, he is justified.” Runyan v. State, 57 Ind. 80; Miller v. State, 74 Ind. 1. “These principles apply as well to an officer attempting to make an arrest, who abuses his authority and transcends the bounds thereof by the use of unnecessary force and violence, as they do to a private individual who unlawfully uses such force and violence.” Jones v. State, 26 Tex. App. I; Beaverts v. State, 4 Tex. App. 1 75; Skidmore v. State, 43 Tex. 93, 903. “An illegal arrest is an assault and battery. The person so attempted to be restrained of his liberty has the same right to use force in defending himself as he would in repelling any other assault and battery.” (State v. Robinson, 145 ME. 77, 72 ATL. 260). “Each person has the right to resist an unlawful arrest. In such a case, the person attempting the arrest stands in the position of a wrongdoer and may be resisted by the use of force, as in self- defense.” (State v. Mobley, 240 N.C. 476, 83 S.E. 2d 100). Do individuals have the right to come to the aid of another citizens being falsely arrested? You bet they do. As another court case ruled: “One may come to the aid of another being unlawfully arrested, just as he may where one is being assaulted, molested, raped or kidnapped. Thus it is not an offense to liberate one from the unlawful custody of an officer, even though he may have submitted to such custody, without resistance.” (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910). And on the issue of actually killing an arresting officer in self defense: “Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer’s life if necessary.” Plummer v. State, 136 Ind. 306. This premise was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case: John Bad Elk v. U.S., 177 U.S. 529.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 19:01:09 +0000
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