Actually, Wisconsin was already ahead of Indiana on this issue. In
State v. Hobson, 218 Wis.2d 350, 577 N.W.2d 825 (1998), which the Indiana Supreme Court cited in its decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Wisconsin would no longer recognize common law privilege to forcibly resist an unlawful arrest in the absence of unreasonable force.
In
another thread, I posted:
The Indiana Supreme Court's decision in
Barnes v. State is consistent with the law in most other states--and certainly the modern trend. I agree with the court's rationale that "allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest—as evident by the facts of this instant case."
There is NEVER any set of circumstances under which I personally would ever resist an LEO, regardless of how wrong he was. Regardless of whether the law allowed resistance to unlawful police conduct, anyone who physically resists an officer has a death wish.
Violations of our rights can be redressed later in court. Any person who is the victim of any violation of his or her rights (whether a civil rights violation by the government or a private tort or breach of contract) has a duty to mitigate damages. The Indiana Supreme Court--and most other courts that have already come to similar positions--made the right decision.
In this vein, I happen to be handling a case--which I will post in the West Virginia forum when I am ready to fully publicize it--in which my client, a fellow attorney, was unlawfully detained for over a half hour for open carrying around noon on a Saturday in a popular restaurant in his city; his driver's license, concealed handgun license, and handgun were unlawfully seized from him; and one of the officers involved made a not-so-subtle threat to shoot my client. My client handled this situation perfectly and, as a result, was able to walk away in the same physical condition as he began this encounter and in possession of all of his property (including openly-carried handgun). He could have resisted (WV happens to be among the states that have not yet expressly disavowed an individual's right to resist a police officer acting unlawfully) at the risk of either the Rodney King treatment or perhaps a few new orifices, but his calm, cool, and collected handling of this incident only helps expose the egregiousness of the violations of his rights that he suffered. His live testimony of what happened is much more valuable than anything the medical examiner could have said had my client chosen a different response and ended up at Forest Lawn.
