“Don’t Want to Get Hurt? Obey the Damn Law” — A Cop’s Unfiltered Take on Resisting Arrest

The Consequences of Disobeying the Police

The Law is the Law

Much has been made about the use of force by police, especially in the smartphone, YouTube, and social media era. Every time police are involved in a physical confrontation, it seems, the altercation ends up on some media outlet, and it always looks ugly. Fights are ALWAYS ugly, that’s just the nature of the beast. What do you think happens when someone doesn’t want to go to jail, has hurt or is hurting someone, suffers from mental illness and doesn’t want to go to a mental health receiving facility, is drunk or on drugs, or decides he just doesn’t like the police and wants to dance? A physical altercation IS going to take place, and we are going to have to engage.  

You see, when we have to make an arrest, the arrestee is not permitted by law to resist and must comply with our orders and submit to that arrest. What we call this in most states is Obstructing Justice. This is a colloquial term, but I’ll use my own State of Florida’s legal term, Florida State Statute (FSS) 843.01 & 843.02- Resisting an Officer with or without Violence to his or her person. This means in short, anyone who “knowing and willfully resists, obstructs, or opposes any officer in the execution of legal process or in the lawful execution of any legal duty, by offering to do violence or not, to the person of such officer, is guilty of either a felony or misdemeanor” respectfully. Every state has its own version of this statute, but they all mean the same. You cannot resist arrest or impede or obstruct a law enforcement officer in the performance of their duty, period!  

When people do not resist, the overwhelming majority of the time, they get taken into custody, delivered to jail, and you never hear about it. There are hundreds of thousands of officer/citizen encounters daily where nothing happens and all parties walk away or are taken to jail, and not a finger is raised in anger. What about those times when the subject doesn’t comply with our orders and resists?  Once the decision is made to arrest and the person resists to a level of lethality against the officer, the officer can use force that can result in great bodily harm or the death of that subject. How can this be, you might say?

Here again, the law is very clear on this and states that we, the police, have the authority to “use the force necessary to effect the arrest.” What does that mean exactly? It means that the subject is going to jail for the alleged crime committed, no matter how serious or minor it may be, and if they resist, we can use force ranging from simple grabbing and handcuffing, all the way up to deadly force to take them into custody. We will escalate our force as the subject escalates their resistance to being taken into custody. 

We are a country of laws, and we are all subject to follow those laws, and when we don’t, the police are charged and sanctioned by law to arrest those who violate the law and deliver them to justice. They don’t always want to go, and the law does not allow for “well, he doesn’t want to go, so we’ll just leave him alone. Not a chance! It doesn’t work that way in law-abiding countries, and force may be necessary to arrest those who won’t follow them. 

Now let me get into one of the most dangerous, misunderstood, controversial, and misreported police/citizen encounters that take place nearly every day. You only hear about the ones that went sideways and have a political aspect to them, the shooting of a violator in a stopped vehicle. The most dangerous single action that an officer does is stopping a vehicle. The infamous Traffic Stop. Everyone has heard about the routine traffic stop. There is no such thing in police work as routine, though we say this all of the time, police included. Police stop a vehicle for a traffic violation, i.e., running a stop sign. To the officer, that is what he or she is thinking that just occurred, but what happens often is that the driver or an occupant of that vehicle has just committed a crime, serious or not, the car is stolen, has a warrant, or just doesn’t like the police. All of which is unknown to the officer. 

Here is what sometimes happens. The officer approaches the driver’s door, normal, and let me add some elements that you may not be aware of. It’s night, low light, dark window tints, perhaps a van with no windows, and with an unknown number of persons in the car. Feeling a little nervous now? This is what occurs every day and night in policing. I’ll go on. The officer reaches the driver’s door and sees the driver or occupant making quick movements reaching under or next to the seat. What do you think is going through the officer’s mind? GUN! Along with SHIT! That’s what we think he’s going for. 

So I/we take out my gun and stick it in your ear (something I’ve done uncounted times) and utter those words we always say as a warning and an order, “Don’t do it!” We say this multiple times and add colorful metaphors and yell this at you, and yet you the subject decide you’re not going to obey and make that last move for whatever you’re reaching for and pull that smoke wagon leaving us no choice but to shoot your stupid ass. We have the drop on you, gun in your ear, remember? Yet you do it anyway. Stupid is as Stupid Does, I suppose. But we are not going to wait for you to shoot us, and even if you don’t have a weapon and are making all of those “furtive movements” as the law calls it, we will be justified in the use of deadly force because your actions and disobeying our commands made us fear for our life. This is what happens every day. Once again, depending on who the subjects are, the color of their skin, the race of the officers, etc. Same old story, but the story nonetheless. 

One more type of incident we encounter frequently that just caught my attention again on the news was that of a young lady who was driving to work, running late, of course, and came across a closed road due to a street festival. You know, those with all of the tents and vendors and people walking about. An officer was manning his post, had yellow tape up telling anyone with common sense, you can’t go that way. Simple. But no! This young lady decided that she didn’t have to obey the officer, argued with him, and after being told numerous times “you can’t go this way,” exited her car and broke the tape. Ballsy! By the way, we don’t care that you’re late for anything. That’s your problem and not anyone else’s. Moving on.

She reentered her car and drove through because she’s entitled and can do whatever she wants, of course. The officer chased her down, got hurt in the process, but he did what she forced him to do and arrested her. We call this “Talking their way into Jail!” This is more than talk, but you get the point. Whether it’s a street festival or a crash or crime scene, if we say that you can’t go that way, you can’t go that way. Don’t complicate things and follow our directions, and go about your business. We don’t want to have to make that arrest, it’s paperwork we don’t need, but if you insist, we will show you the way to the Hoosegow, Slammer, Gray Bar Hotel, Jail! All because in all of these scenarios, you didn’t want to listen. The choice is yours.  

Oh, and one last thing. We like to say that there are two commandments: Thou shalt not lie to the police, and Thou shalt not touch the police. If you don’t do either of these two things, maybe you won’t go to jail, and you won’t get hurt. Are we clear?