Hold onto your holsters,
folks: shooting a cop dead is now legal in the state of Indiana.
Governor
Mitch Daniels, a Republican, has authorized changes to a 2006 legislation that
legalizes the use of deadly force on a public servant — including an officer of
the law — in cases of "unlawful intrusion." Proponents of both the
Second and Fourth Amendments — those that allow for the ownership of firearms
and the security against unlawful searches, respectively — are celebrating the
update by saying it ensures that residents are protected from authorities that
abuse the powers of the badge.
Others,
however, fear that the alleged threat of a police state emergence will be
replaced by an all-out warzone in Indiana.
Under
the latest changes of the so-called Castle Doctrine, state lawmakers agree
"people have a right to defend themselves and third parties from physical
harm and crime." Rather than excluding officers of the law, however, any
public servant is now subject to be met with deadly force if they unlawfully
enter private property without clear justification.
"In
enacting this section, the general assembly finds and declares that it is the
policy of this state to recognize the unique character of a citizen's home and
to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her own home against unlawful
intrusion by another individual or a public servant," reads the
legislation.
Although
critics have been quick to condemn the law for opening the door for assaults on
police officers, supporters say that it is necessary to implement the ideals
brought by America's forefathers. Especially, argue some, since the Indiana
Supreme Court almost eliminated the Fourth Amendment entirely last year. During
the 2011 case of Barnes v. State of Indiana, the court ruled that a man who
assaulted an officer dispatched to his house had broken the law before there
was "no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police
officers." In turn, the National Rifle Association lobbied for an
amendment to the Castle Doctrine to ensure that residents were protected from
officers that abuse the law to grant themselves entry into private space.
"There
are bad legislators," the law's author, State Senator R. Michael Young (R)
tells Bloomberg News. "There are bad clergy, bad doctors, bad teachers,
and it's these officers that we're concerned about that when they act outside
their scope and duty that the individual ought to have a right to protect
themselves."
Governor
Daniels agrees with the senator in a statement offered through his office, and
notes that the law is only being established to cover rare incidents of police
abuse that can escape the system without reprimand for officers or other
persons that break the law to gain entry.
"In
the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these extremely
narrow conditions are met," Daniels says. "This law is not an
invitation to use violence or force against law enforcement officers."
Officers
in Indiana aren't necessarily on the same page, though. "If I pull over a
car and I walk up to it and the guy shoots me, he's going to say, 'Well, he was
trying to illegally enter my property,'" Sergeant Joseph Hubbard tells
Bloomberg. "Somebody is going get away with killing a cop because of this
law."
"It's
just a recipe for disaster," Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police
President Tim Downs adds. "It just puts a bounty on our heads."
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