Walk It Through: The Takedown
Force believed immediately necessary, deadly force only in listed cases, and resisting even an unlawful arrest.
Officers move to arrest a woman outside a bar.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One arrest outside a bar. Whether any particular force was justified, and what claim may follow, are questions for a court and case law, and are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Degree of crimeHow the code grades a crime, from first degree down to fourth. A crime of the third degree carries between three years and five years and a fine up to $15,000.00.
- Disorderly persons offenseThe grade below the crimes, punishable by not more than 6 months and a fine up to $1,000.00.
- EludingKnowingly fleeing or trying to elude an officer after a signal to stop, in a vehicle or vessel: a crime of the third degree, or the second if it creates a risk of death or injury.
- Resisting arrestPurposely preventing, or trying to prevent, an arrest, graded by how: by other means a disorderly persons offense, by flight a crime of the fourth degree, by force or threat of force a crime of the third degree.
- Deadly forceForce justifiable in an arrest only by a peace officer, or someone summoned to assist one, who reasonably believes it creates no substantial risk to innocent persons, that the crime was one of the serious crimes the section lists, and that there is an imminent threat of deadly force or the force is needed to stop the crime or prevent an escape.
- Simple assaultAttempting to cause, or purposely, knowingly or recklessly causing, bodily injury; negligently causing bodily injury with a deadly weapon; or trying by physical menace to put someone in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.