I think I know the answer but just checking…
If you have like multiple cameras running and the cop is completely giving it away, saying “I’m going to kill you, specifically for fun, not because I fear for my life, which I do not” then maybe. You might get away with it if they stupidly catalogued their own criminal acts as part of some corruption scheme that is later uncovered. And maybe his department doesn’t assassinate you afterward.
But in a normal circumstance, no. The justice system assumes its own justification, and if the cop dies then they’ll assume the cop was doing his job to the letter, and any threatening actions by the cop are retroactively justified because you demonstrated that you were a dangerous person. It’s an intentional catch-22.
If the cop is just a psychopath who decides that evening he wants to murder someone, then under the laws of the United States, it’s illegal for you to survive that encounter.
EDIT: Like, to be clear, it would be treated as a serious crime if George Floyd had lived another day on this earth
It really depends on the circumstances, but it happens sometimes
Depends on the context, people who survive shooting back during no knocks have gotten away with it.
If a uniformed pig on the street starts attacking you though, I’m unaware of any cases where somebody fought back and survived without being prosecuted
In Indiana at least, technically you can during a no knock raid.
Realistically they’d keep sending cops til they killed you I’m certain.
Realistically they’d keep sending cops til they killed you I’m certain.
That would be a really amusing movie. Trained assassin gets a wrongful no-knock raid and kills infinity cops for two hours, each raid becoming more and more over the top.
There was someone who was acquitted for a self-defense killing of a cop, sometime in recent decades. I distinctly recall reading about it, I’ll try to find documentation about it.
EDIT: I might be remembering the Ruby Ridge case, with Randy Weaver killing the marshall who’d just killed a 14 year old… Almost positive it was somebody else and a state or local PD cop though.
Here are some:
https://archive.is/WbFP9 (helps to be white)
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/you-can-stand-your-ground-in-texas-even-when-you-kill-a-cop/ (helps if you’re “a self-made oilman” in a “palatial home”)
I was probably thinking of some no-knock raid or other, that seems to be the most common way people are acquitted of police killings as self-defense.
Here’s a good example (wiki) of a self-defense argument succeeding for a police killing, but the pigs totally killed the guy a decade later as revenge:
In 1985 Penn’s vehicle was pulled over in the Encanto area during a traffic stop by San Diego Police officers Thomas Riggs and Donovan Jacobs. Civilian police ride along Sara Pina-Ruiz was in the squad car when a physical altercation ensued resulting in Penn shooting and killing Riggs with his own service revolver, shooting and injuring Pina-Ruiz. Penn also shot and wounded Jacobs and ran him over with the police squad car while fleeing the scene.
Penn argued that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense after being attacked and beaten. Penn was acquitted in 1986 on the more serious murder charge for killing Riggs. In a second trial in 1987 Penn was acquitted of all lesser charges.
Lots of extenuating circumstances with this one (wiki) don’t think anyone died, but damn:
Larry Davis (May 28, 1966 – February 20, 2008), later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was an African–American man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession.