View Single Post
Old April 8, 2012, 07:28 PM   #30
Aguila Blanca
Staff
 
Join Date: September 25, 2008
Location: CONUS
Posts: 18,414
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary L. Griffiths
I think a lot of the questions about the Florida SYG law revolve around the provision that:

Quote:
(2) A law enforcement agency may use standard procedures for investigating the use of force as described in subsection (1), but the agency may not arrest the person for using force unless it determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used was unlawful.
IMHO, this is one of the most important provisions of the law. It protects someone with a reasonable claim of self-defense from the expenses of defending his or her actions in court. While this is in some respects a laudable attempt to protect the innocent, it seems to substitute the findings of investigating police and prosecutors for those of a jury.
I don't think so. Other than a brief detention, the police in general cannot arrest anyone without having sufficient probable cause to persuade a judge or magistrate to issue an arrest warrant. It appears that ALL the Florida law is trying to do is prevent the police from jumping the gun (pardon the expression) and arresting someone before they have established probable cause.

I don't see that as a bad thing ...

And juries don't establish probably cause (unless there's a grand jury involved). If a case gets to a trial before a jury, someone has long since determined that there was probable cause for an arrest and charges.

Last edited by Aguila Blanca; April 9, 2012 at 08:32 AM. Reason: Typo
Aguila Blanca is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02714 seconds with 8 queries