Current Events > It's no longer a crime in California not to help a police officer

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/04/us/california-police-help-trnd/index.html

California Governor Gavin Newsom did away Wednesday with a law that made it a crime to refuse to help a police officer.

The law dates back nearly 150 years to California's Wild West days, when cowboys and outlaws roamed the state.

The California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872 made it a misdemeanor for "an able-bodied person 18 years of age or older" to refuse a request for assistance from a police officer "in making an arrest, retaking into custody a person who has escaped from arrest or imprisonment, or preventing a breach of the peace or the commission of any criminal offense."

It was widely used by authorities to legally form posses to hunt outlaws.
State Senate Bill 192, which repeals the law, was first introduced on January 30, and it was sponsored by Senator Bob Hertzberg. Hertzberg originally tasked his interns with identifying outdated laws when they discovered it.

"Thank you to my interns for finding a law that belongs in the history books, not the law books," Senator Hertzberg said.

Cory M. Salzillo, legislative director or the California State Sheriffs' Association, told CNN that the bill sends a message that discourages cooperation or giving assistance to law enforcement, and that it creates this notion that you shouldn't help law enforcement.

"We are unfamiliar with concerns with this statute other than it was enacted many years ago and carries a fine for a person who disobeys it," the CSSA said in a statement in June. "There are situations in which a peace officer might look to private persons for assistance in matters of emergency or risks to public safety and we are unconvinced that this statute should be repealed."

A good move by California.
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Good.
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Nice
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I work security and can say this with certainty: barring some bizarre situation where the police backup hasn't arrived to grab a bunch of people they somehow singlehandedly detained, they aren't going to ask for your help. By that I mean, say there were a bunch of kids they picked up breaking curfew and the officer's just waiting for their parents to pick them up and one books it. If you were one of the parents and showed up just before the one books it, they might ask you to watch the rest. That's about it for civilians. I guess there's also the "hey could you set up these road flares and flag drivers away from here as I assist this car wreck" scenario.

Now if they deputize you, you could use force and most liability would fall on the officer, but that only really is a thing that happens if you called the officers to help you check a warehouse or something that just got broke in to and you're with them and they detained a suspect as another one darts towards the door. You can use force like an officer to try and keep that detained suspect in place. That said, it isn't likely in the city, maybe in more rural farmland areas.
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Hell yeah
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gunplagirl posted...

I work security and can say this with certainty: barring some bizarre situation where the police backup hasn't arrived to grab a bunch of people they somehow singlehandedly detained, they aren't going to ask for your help. By that I mean, say there were a bunch of kids they picked up breaking curfew and the officer's just waiting for their parents to pick them up and one books it. If you were one of the parents and showed up just before the one books it, they might ask you to watch the rest. That's about it for civilians. I guess there's also the "hey could you set up these road flares and flag drivers away from here as I assist this car wreck" scenario.

Now if they deputize you, you could use force and most liability would fall on the officer, but that only really is a thing that happens if you called the officers to help you check a warehouse or something that just got broke in to and you're with them and they detained a suspect as another one darts towards the door. You can use force like an officer to try and keep that detained suspect in place. That said, it isn't likely in the city, maybe in more rural farmland areas.

You took the law's origins too literal
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Good.

they have no obligation to protect us, so....
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The police have no legal obligation to help us, it makes sense that should go the other way as well.
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Irony posted...

gunplagirl posted...

I work security and can say this with certainty: barring some bizarre situation where the police backup hasn't arrived to grab a bunch of people they somehow singlehandedly detained, they aren't going to ask for your help. By that I mean, say there were a bunch of kids they picked up breaking curfew and the officer's just waiting for their parents to pick them up and one books it. If you were one of the parents and showed up just before the one books it, they might ask you to watch the rest. That's about it for civilians. I guess there's also the "hey could you set up these road flares and flag drivers away from here as I assist this car wreck" scenario.

Now if they deputize you, you could use force and most liability would fall on the officer, but that only really is a thing that happens if you called the officers to help you check a warehouse or something that just got broke in to and you're with them and they detained a suspect as another one darts towards the door. You can use force like an officer to try and keep that detained suspect in place. That said, it isn't likely in the city, maybe in more rural farmland areas.

You took the law's origins too literal

Nah, that's literally the examples they give for the training classes to get your security license/ renew it in Oregon. Oh, yeah. Security and loss prevention people need a license to do so in Oregon, if one bothers you then request to see their dpsst license and if they don't have it then you can report them and they would be subject to a fine and at least having it temporarily revoked pending an investigation.
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Tmaster148 posted...

Cory M. Salzillo, legislative director or the California State Sheriffs' Association, told CNN that the bill sends a message that discourages cooperation or giving assistance to law enforcement, and that it creates this notion that you shouldn't help law enforcement.

Fuck this guy. You shouldn't help cops if you don't want to. Cop legally don't have to protect you and this law forces you to help them
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Good, though now I wonder if the law had even been employed. Seems like it would be found to be a constitutional violation.

OctilIery posted...

though now I wonder if the law had even been employed

highly unlikely. people just want something to bitch about. welcome to 2019