The shooting was excessive use of force for purposes of state law battery claim.
Under the California Penal Code, a peace officer who makes, or attempts to make, an arrest need not retreat or desist from his efforts because of resistance of the person being arrested. That officer will not be deemed an aggressor or lose his right to self-defense by use of reasonable force to prevent escape or overcome resistance. Cal. Penal Code § 835a (West 2015). Here, the court will probably find that Mr. Templeton used excessive, unreasonable force because decedent was not under arrest and possessed no weapons that threatened great bodily injury or death.
A. The Plaintiff must prove unreasonable force was used to make a prima facie showing of battery.
The Plaintiff must prove unreasonable force was used. Edson v. City of Anaheim, 63 Cal. App. 4th 1269, 1272 (1998). The Plaintiff must show that the Defendant acted unreasonably in using deadly force. Id. A police officer may use reasonable force to make an arrest, prevent escape or overcome resistance. Id. The officer’s use of deadly force is reasonable if the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious injury to him or others. Brown v. Ransweiler, 171 Cal. App. 4th 516, 525 (2009). The standard jury instruction for a police battery recognizes that a peace officer who uses unreasonable or excessive force in making a detention commits a battery upon the person being detained. Id. at
There are several different types of force. These types of force include verbal commands or persuasion, physical force (unarmed), force using weapons that are non lethal, force that involves using weapons such as the bean bag gun or taser, and lastly, deadly force. All officers have to give way to each force option before last resorting to the use of deadly force, unless of course if the officer is in a life or death situation. This may be the only way to use deadly force in the first and last resort. They have a couple of weapons that they carry in case the need to use them arises. They carry a baton, tasers, handcuffs, guns and they also have police dogs. Some police do follow the guidelines for using force. Others may abuse their authority and not use force properly. It is really only up to the officers to do the right thing. Some cops are great and live to protect our communities while others abuse their authority.
Police have the uncontested right to use force when necessary to apprehend a suspect. If the force exceeds that which is necessary it is defined as excessive force and is illegal. An officer’s discretion on use of force is a based on judgment. They do not know if a judge will later rule an instance of use of force as excessive or not. There is a fine line between what is considered acceptable force and what is considered excessive force. All an
Objective reasonableness comes from a simple test; would another reasonable officer or person placed in the same exact situation find the original officer’s use of force reasonable? It is important that person judging the original use of force does not “Monday morning quarterback” the situation, meaning the judge should not say, “I would have done it this way” or “what the officer
Law enforcement officers are given much power and authority over one’s civil liberties. Not only do they have a duty but also a responsibility to enforce laws and ordinances in their jurisdiction, maintain order and protect its people. In some cases, the only way to accomplish this is through legitimized use of force. Use of force can best be described as "the amount of effort required by a law enforcement officer to induce compliance of an unwilling subject" (nij.gov, 2012). With that said, law enforcement officers have been given the right to apply only enough force necessary to control a situation, while defending others, preventing escape, during self-defense and while a subject is resisting arrest (Pollock, pp. 234). It is not until that force becomes excessive that it becomes say an issue.
Multiple sources help define excessive force as “any force beyond what’s necessary to arrest a suspect and keep the police and potential bystanders safe is excessive force” (Segan, 2014). Were the circumstances justified by Wilson to shoot Michael Brown during their confrontation? According to Officer Wilson, it was a life or death situation. One of the criterias for a situation to be considered a use of excessive force, is if the force being used is
Federal law protects law enforcement officers by using the same logic seen in the Graham vs. Connor case. Excessive force cannot be
At final, the Supreme Court vacated and remanded the lower court’s ruling. The Court said that all claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force whether deadly or not in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop or any other seizure of a citizen are properly analyzed under the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness standard, rather than the under a substantive due process. The court also stated that a seizure occurs when a law enforcment officer terminates a free citizen’s movement by a means interntionally applied. An officer may sieze a person in many ways including: traffic stops, investigative detentions, and arrests are all seizures under the 4th amendmet. To seize a person, an officer may yell, “stop”, handcuff, a baton, or a firearm can be used to comply the subject with officer orders.
The use of force is inevitable in police work. In many situations the lives of officers or civilians can be taken by not using force when necessary or using it improperly. Many factors come into play when an officer decides to use force. This includes is the use of force justified, has the officer been properly trained to use force, and will the department be held liable if the force is used improperly?
There were boycotts of the malls in Baton Rouge, people were marching even holding up traffic. This didn’t only occur in Baton Rouge, but across the U.S. people were standing up for this injustice. Alton Sterling was selling cd in front of a convenience store when two officers approached him, the situation escalated Mr. Sterling was shot several times resulting in his death. Baton Rouge police did not provide much information about what escalated the incident between the officers and Sterling or what prompted an officer to fire his weapon. A witness, however, described police as “aggressive” and said Sterling was armed but was not holding his gun or touching his pockets during the incident. The level of force an officer uses varies based on the situation. Because of this variation, guidelines for the use of force are based on many factors, including the officer’s level of training or experience.
This can happen in the form of beating a person while making the arrest or using any unnecessary force against the person. Sometimes police beatings can be racially based or can happen due to an argument between the officer and the person. The use of excessive force in the law enforcement industry is not tolerated in any form. If a police officer is found guilty in using unnecessary force on a person they will be terminated from their job. Using unnecessary force is one of the more know types of police misconduct being that when excessive force is used on a person there is normally charges pressed on the officer and the case is brought into court and therefore into the media.
Police officers have the California Penal code 835a under their disposal. 835a lets officers use reasonable force to affect the arrest, prevent escape and overcome resistance. Police officers are never fully informed of each call they receive, which is why many officers are trained to quickly respond and modify their approach whenever a call gets picked up. Assessing the situation and adapting is what officers are trained to do. Unlike citizens at home, who are being informed of the details after the fact, officers are trained to protect themselves as well as the greater public. Whenever a police officer exercises use of force, officers are mandated to file paperwork and provide statements of what occurs. Citizens may believe that because officers have a position of power,
the use of excessive force. Many people have witnessed or have become victims of police brutality. In their line of duty, police officers are sometimes faced with threatening circumstances that enable them to make haste decisions when expecting the worst at the same time hope for the best outcome. A police officer is given the power to maintain law and order as well as to take away any right of a citizen when a situation permits (Heydon, 2005). Thus, they have the responsibility to apply the forces in a recommended way. Therefore, police are trained to use the least amount of force necessary to make an arrest by using escalations of force. However, sometimes police exceed the minimum amount required to diffuse an incident or protect them, which leads to misconduct or undue violence when not warranted.
Whenever a law enforcement officer places an individual under arrest or is involved in a deadly force scenario the officer has used some degree of force. The incidents where an office has to make a split second decision and use physical force to control a situation is known as “Use of Force.” The use of force varies as situations present themselves to the officer and they must decide what level of force is necessary to control the situation. Often the use of force is subject to much debate and not a year goes by without some media coverage of some law enforcement officer accused of using excessive force. In dozens of studies of police use of force there is no single,
On common misconception that many in the public have is that deadly force always means excessive force (Miller, 2015). In reality, “necessary force is the amount of force required to control a given situation so as to preserve the life and maintain the safety of police officers or vulnerable citizens at the scene-excessive force is any use of force beyond that required for safety and control” (Miller, 2015, par. 2). Is this misconception, lawyers searching out family members, valid reasons, or something else why so many lawsuits are being filed after police deadly force encounters. No one will probably ever know the true reason.
(2) The defense forced that exceeded the limit, which is directly caused by mental shock that was great because it was an attack or threat of attack, not convicted.