Indiana Allows Police To Be Shot At

[Magmia]

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/new-indiana-law-allows-citizens-shoot-police-officers

No joke

In Indiana, police officers are upset over a new law allowing residents to use deadly force against public servants, including law enforcement officers, who unlawfully enter their homes.

The law was signed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in March, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The law was adopted after the Indiana State Supreme Court ruled that there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers," after a man assaulted an officer during a domestic violence call.

The law's author, Republican state Sen. Michael Young, said there haven't been any cases [yet] in which people have used the law to justify shooting police.

The National Rifle Association lobbied for the new law, claiming that the Indiana State Supreme Court decision had legalized police to commit unjustified entries.

Tim Downs, President of the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police, told Bloomberg News that the law could open the way for people who are under the influence or emotionally distressed to attack officers in their homes: “It’s just a recipe for disaster. It just puts a bounty on our heads.”

Indiana is the first U.S. state to specifically allow force against officers, according to the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys in Washington, which represents prosecutors.

What does everyone think about this?

NEW EDIT: I am VERY torn on this. My father, who works at a dispatch center, explained the downside of this law, and now I don't know exactly how I feel about it.

For now, I understand why they have this law, but I'm not sure it's way is the right way of handling unlawful entry by officers or raiders

[Maurepas]

I think it's fair. They'll think twice about a random "drug raid" now, which serves nobody but the department itself.

A fresh change to see a Republican law I like.

[Cestyr]

What constitutes unlawful entry? A random drug raid with a warrant or a response to a domestic dispute?

[Rynatia]

Police officers will be injured or killed because some idiot does not understand the law.

[Alaje]

I think it's a sound law.

What constitutes unlawful entry? A random drug raid with a warrant or a response to a domestic dispute?

I'm guessing warranted raids and domestic dispute calls would be under lawful, since they'd be enforcing a department sanctioned operation in those instances.

[Magmia]

What constitutes unlawful entry? A random drug raid with a warrant or a response to a domestic dispute?

I believe its any entry without a warrent or consent, but I'm not sure.

[Galla-]

I think it's fair. They'll think twice about a random "drug raid" now, which serves nobody but the department itself.

A fresh change to see a Republican law I like.

This

[Cannot think of a name]

What constitutes unlawful entry? A random drug raid with a warrant or a response to a domestic dispute?

This is what I was thinking. Sort of a permanent solution to something that might be open for debate or at least not something the shooter might be completely up to date on. I'm all for protection of the people and all, but...shooting a cop? Surely we can do better.

[The Theban Legion]

Sad thing because my father just had to essentially illegally enter the home of a known meth dealer because they had left their kid in the house unattended for around 2 days...

Now nobody was in the house but the infant child but if there was some strung out mad man/woman waiting on the other side with the law on their side to shoot my father down for trying to save their malnourished child that would be a sad, unjust, and immoral day indeed.

[The United Soviet Socialist Republic]

:palm:
Police officers will be injured or killed because some idiot does not understand the law.

Agreed. Terrible law that will allow criminals to do/sell drugs or murder people in their own home and when cops come knocking they would be allowed legally to shoot the police officers.

[Trilobitia]

:palm:
Police officers will be injured or killed because some idiot does not understand the law.

Agreed. Terrible law that will allow criminals to do/sell drugs or murder people in their own home and when cops come knocking they would be allowed legally to shoot the police officers.

This is just factually, categorically, incorrect on every point possible. Did you even read the article in the OP?

[The United Soviet Socialist Republic]

Agreed. Terrible law that will allow criminals to do/sell drugs or murder people in their own home and when cops come knocking they would be allowed legally to shoot the police officers.

This is just factually, categorically, incorrect on every point possible. Did you even read the article in the OP?

Yes actually I did.

[Galla-]

This is just factually, categorically, incorrect on every point possible. Did you even read the article in the OP?

Yes actually I did.

Then how would it be legal for them to shoot police officers who are legally attempting to enter their home?

[Big Jim P]

The police are not above the law. Good. However, the law should me modified to protect officers serving a legally issued warrant to search a premises.

[Trilobitia]

This is just factually, categorically, incorrect on every point possible. Did you even read the article in the OP?

Yes actually I did.

If this is correct, then you would understand that this law only allows you to shoot at a police offer if they are entering your home unlawfully. Taking into consideration that you posted as if it allowed you to shoot at a police officer in any scenario, I doubt you actually read it.

[The United Soviet Socialist Republic]

Yes actually I did.

If this is correct, then you would understand that this law only allows you to shoot at a police offer if they are entering your home unlawfully. Taking into consideration that you posted as if it allowed you to shoot at a police officer in any scenario, I doubt you actually read it.

Yeah tell me how the Hell a cop will legally enter the home of a criminal? I did read it, chances are the legal ways into a criminals home will be locked/barricaded.

[Magmia]

The police are not above the law. Good. However, the law should me modified to protect officers serving a legally issued warrant to search a premises.

Thats my only concern with the law; can they be able to properly protect the officers who are there legally?

[Risottia]

...In Indiana, police officers are upset over a new law allowing residents to use deadly force against public servants, including law enforcement officers, who unlawfully enter their homes.

I oppose the use of deadly force against ANYONE unless it's the only way to stop a threat to a person's life. Then again, one wonders why public servants and police should enjoy a special protection when committing an unlawful act. And I'm very worried that law enforcers would want to have the privilege to step over laws. Such people aren't fit to be part of the police forces of a democracy.

Yeah tell me how the Hell a cop will legally enter the home of a criminal?

Maybe you could have heard of things such as "warrants". It's a piece of paper, signed by a judge who, upon reviewing the consistence of the allegations about a citizen (see the concept of "habeas corpus"), orders the police to violate some of the suspect's rights (such as the right to privacy of his own domicile) to a given extent.

[Trilobitia]

If this is correct, then you would understand that this law only allows you to shoot at a police offer if they are entering your home unlawfully. Taking into consideration that you posted as if it allowed you to shoot at a police officer in any scenario, I doubt you actually read it.

Yeah tell me how the Hell a cop will legally enter the home of a criminal? I did read it, chances are the legal ways into a criminals home will be locked/barricaded.

1: A police offer can legally enter the home of a citizen when they have convinced a judge that there is probable cause and attain a search warrant for the citizens home.

2: The use of the term ''criminal'' is semantically slanting things in your favor. Having police enter your home does not make you a criminal. You become a criminal when you are arrested, put on trial, and deemed guilty by a jury of your peers.

3: I am not sure what you were trying to say in the last part of your post. The ability of a police offer to legally enter a person's home has nothing to do with the entrances to the house being psychically barricaded in some way.

[Galla-]

If this is correct, then you would understand that this law only allows you to shoot at a police offer if they are entering your home unlawfully. Taking into consideration that you posted as if it allowed you to shoot at a police officer in any scenario, I doubt you actually read it.

Yeah tell me how the Hell a cop will legally enter the home of a criminal?

With a warrant.

And no one is a criminal until they're actually found guilty, you're being presumptuous with the whole "guilty until proven innocent" schtick, but I'm assuming you're a communist so that's not rly surprising at all.

[Cestyr]

Yeah tell me how the Hell a cop will legally enter the home of a criminal?

With a warrant.

And in the case of a domestic dispute or even a noise complaint where warrants aren't needed or required?

[Trilobitia]

With a warrant.

And in the case of a domestic dispute or even a noise complaint where warrants aren't needed or required?

We deal with those situations in the same way we do before the law was passed. By exempting the need for a search warrant in the first place.

[Galla-]

With a warrant.

And in the case of a domestic dispute or even a noise complaint where warrants aren't needed or required?

With consent.

[Magmia]

With a warrant.

And in the case of a domestic dispute or even a noise complaint where warrants aren't needed or required?

If they are not legally required, then they're not entering unlawfully

[Questers]

"The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it. The rain may enter. The storms may enter. But the king of England may not enter. All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement."