by Jack
The story in the ER says, CHICO — A woman (20-year-old Megan Carey) was pepper sprayed by a Chico police officer who was attempting to arrest her on suspicion of public intoxication Friday morning. She was treated by medical personnel on scene and then taken to Butte County Jail on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting an officer.
Here’s the weird part, for about the last half century it has been the view of the courts that you can be arrested for 647f PC, public intoxication, or you can be arrested for 148 PC, resisting arrest, but you can’t be arrested for both. The reason is this, being in violation of 647f requires that you are unable to care for your own safety or the safety of others, you’re basically wasted and the brain is on hold. Resisting (148) requires a deliberate and conscious action. You would not arrest an accident victim with head trauma that is combative for resisting and the same theory applies to drunks, so says the court. It’s has happened that an officer was so disturbed by an aggressive drunk’s actions that they tacked on the resisting (148) as a throw away charge, but I can’t recall a case where the local courts convicted anyone for both charges, it’s one or the other.
Has something changed?
I guess underage drinking is not a crime in Chico.
Our Police forces have changed, The militarization and training of local police forces has a new mindset.
The fact they now have drones, grenade launchers ect which were intended for terrorist attacks has made them think they are an elite gov force.
The profit prison system hires low wage untrained workers and can not handle real criminals so the laws are under attack to fill empty beds in these soon to be Chinese style work camps manned by the poor..
All we hear is the new labor model is based after China a communist country and our workers are now told they have to compete with slaves.
Yes we have a problem with our laws when banks and other financial institutions are allowed to be in the profit prison system.
Our system of local judges and courts have been under attack and bought out for years by an extreme faction and we all know their last name.
Our media is ran by approximately 6 mega corporations both left and right Tv and print.
Independent thinking, working together, and ignoring the politicians and their lies will lead us to a unity to take back of our country.
There is not a single grassroots org in that game now. We have to create it with all of us for a common goal. Divide and conquer has a long history and only we can stop history from repeating.
Peace and Prosperity to all Americans.
Dewey, I have to admit the militarization of law enforcement has had a negative psychological effect on officers as well as the public’s pereception. The public is more than a little put off at seeing police officers dressed like soldiers and carrying automatic weapons.
I am glad to see more conservatives taking note of instances of excessive force by the police. Previously when I posted articles detailing police abuse against peaceful Occupy protesters I was met with either silence or derision. Jack, you seem like one of the good cops.
Chris thanks for that. My position has never changed over the years and I’ll be the first to admit cops can get a little heavy handed at times and I will call em like I see em. But, in most cases they deserve the benefit of the doubt. Cops for the most part really want to do good, afterall this is the reason the majority got into law enforcement and it’s their life’s passion. Statistically speaking, bad cops rank among the lowest percentil of any occupation. We once said, “There’s more bad preists than there are bad cops” but that example doesn’t hold up so well anymore.
What do we expect? Right now our police are understaffed and underfunded. When you send these guys out to downtown which is a haven for stabbings, homeless transients, and the recent “riot” we have a tense police force. At some point we need to wake up in this town and start demanding services. I want downtown cleaned up. I long for the days when the college students were the problem.
But I do agree that some of the responses are ridiculous. More and more I’m reading about law enforcement discharging their firearms in an irresponsible manner. If the article in the ER is correct, 5 officers shot at a woman last night and she was hit with 2 bullets. That is completely irresponsible. It reminded me of the shooting frenzy in Torrance when the police shot up a neighborhood trying to hit the newspaper delivery people. Law enforcement needs to get this under control. That woman needed to be stopped, but 5 officers shooting and missing seems to have not been the best way.
I am disturbed by the increasing amount of unnecessary police force being used in Canada and The United States at the same time. How does that happen? Better yet why?
15 years ago the police were still serving the public.
I would need more information to decide whether the officer was out of line. Drunks can be hard to handle and extremely abusive and combative. I do agree that our officers must conduct themselves as professionals. I also believe that citizens have an obligation to be civil…too many of us give the citizens a pass on that obligation. the policeman’s job today is incredibly difficult and stressful…I too would tend to give him the benefit of the doubt.
As for your question…has the training become lax?
“That woman needed to be stopped, but 5 officers shooting and missing seems to have not been the best way.”
Yes, it smells of panic, which is unprofessional. Firefighters drill their responses to scary situations (when they’re not cooking and/or eating). Alas, the average cop personality is not big on role playing. But I thought the rule was if there was any chance at all of hitting someone and/or thing else, you were supposed to hold your fire.
What’s more, if you cannot halt the suspect, without risking damage to yourself or others, you’re suppose to let ’em go.
In this case, particularly, the suspect was not armed (except for the Honda) and, spazzed-out druggie that she seemingly was, would not have been difficult to track down.
Libby, we’re talking about two different events. The one I was talking about is a drunk female who was arrested for resisting and being drunk. I was citing the technical reasons the court has long said you can arrest for either one, but not for both as being drunk and out of control is a defense to resisting which requires a deliberate and conscious act. Personally I would like to see both because not all drunks are unaware of what they are doing, even they they may meet the standards of 647f of the penal code.
I disagree with the courts on this and wish more would allow a 148 charge (resisting) and being a combative drunk (647f PC)