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- Xref: sparky talk.abortion:34310 misc.legal:16789
- Path: sparky!uunet!dtix!oasys!bense
- From: bense@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Ron Bense)
- Newsgroups: talk.abortion,misc.legal
- Subject: Re: Killing in defense of possessions?
- Message-ID: <24426@oasys.dt.navy.mil>
- Date: 1 Sep 92 17:05:39 GMT
- References: <1992Aug28.200352.20459@ncsu.edu> <1992Sep1.135044.13882@eff.org>
- Reply-To: bense@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Ronald Bense)
- Followup-To: talk.abortion
- Organization: Carderock Division, NSWC, Bethesda, MD
- Lines: 77
-
- In talk.abortion, mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:
- >In article <1992Aug31.124138.2184@brandonu.ca> mcbeanb@brandonu.ca writes:
-
- Thanks for posting the relevant sections. Let's put it in complete layman's
- terms, to show that it really is pretty cavalier....
-
- >From Sec. 9.41 (which governs the use of force generally to protect
- >property):
-
- >- You must "reasonably believe" that force is "immediately necessary" to
- > recover the property and you have to have used the force "immediately
- > or in fresh pursuit after the dispossession" and
-
- you must catch someone in the act or be chasing him from the scene of
- the crime where a theft has occurred.
-
- >- You must "reasonably believe" the other person had no claim of right
- > when he dispossessed you of the property, *or* the other person must
- > have accomplished the dispossession by using force, threat, or fraud
- > against you.
-
- In other words, this must be a thief, not a banker reclaiming the car
- you've failed to pay on. It must be your property without question,
- with the person stealing it having no claims on it. (iow, it can't be
- your wife taking a car when she files for separation.)
-
- >From Sec. 9.42 (which governs the use of deadly force to protect
- >property):
-
- >- You must meet the requirements of Sec. 9.41 (listed above), and
-
- >- You must reasonably believe *either* that you are preventing the other
- > person's imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated
- > robbery, theft during the nighttime, or criminal mischief during the
- > nighttime *or* that you are preventing the person from fleeing
- > and escaping with the property immediately after he committed burglary,
- > robbery, aggravated robbery, or theft during the nighttime, and
-
- In other words, a couple of creeps loitering around your car at night
- in an otherwise quiet neighborhood would fall into this category. Also,
- this broadens the crime definition to include other crimes than theft
- or mere protection of your own property, in actuality spreading to all
- types of crimes (criminal mischief). (BTW, the cops told us that it
- did not have to be night-time, they would file it the same way regardless)
-
- >- You must reasonably believe that the property cannot be protected or
- > recovered by any other means, *or* that the use of force other than
- > deadly force to protect or recover the property would expose you or
- > another to a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.
-
- Well, let's see, this paragraph relates to the person's beliefs about
- the criminal and the possibility of recovering property. All that's
- required is "all criminals are violent and carry guns. Just look at
- TV, the news, not the shows." and "If I shot him, my chances of recorvering
- my property are pretty much 100%. If I let him go, the possibility drops
- to nil." (The last is really true, as we even knew where the property
- that was taken was stored, but the cops could do *nothing* without proof,
- and even told us that we would be arrested if we trespassed on the property
- where our stoled property was stored. How about that for a travesty
- of justice?)
-
- >As you can see, this law doesn't create a defense for you if you decide
- >to shoot someone who's walking away from your house and "might" have
- >taken something. Use of force has its legal limits, and use of deadly force
- >has very strict limitations.
-
- That would seem a bit paranoid, don't you think? Anyway, there had to
- be some limitations, such as some proof of criminal intent or something,
- as if there wasn't, you could shoot anyone ffor any reason and claim
- that there was some criminal intent taking place. Shooting someone who
- is in the commission of a crime *is* perfectly legal, however.
-
- Remember, I didn't write them...
-
- Ron
-
- Potassium Benzoate included as a preserver.
-