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Over on the Mom with a Gun blog, Tammy put up an excellent post about talking to the police after a self-defense incident.
Although it’s true that “it’s better to be judged by twelve than carried by six”, it’s also true that surviving a deadly force encounter only to lose your liberty and your family’s financial future to the jaws of the legal system is something of a pyrrhic victory.
So very true! Go read the whole thing.
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Good article. Here’s an interesting data point for you, in case you haven’t seen it yet: You Tube – Don’t Talk to the Police
Jeff ~ Thanks for posting that link. I have seen it many times before, as it is often linked every time this subject comes up anywhere on the web. It is traditional advice, most appropriately given to guilty people (and criminally insane people), as the examples in the video all show.
“Don’t talk to the police” may also be good advice for people who have not been the victims of an unprovoked attack against them. But for those who have been the victims of such an attack, it’s important to be a good witness and tell the police about that crime. This is especially true if you responded to a lethal-threat attack with appropriate levels of force.
The actions you took in self-defense will be immediately obvious to the police on scene, and may possibly be far more obvious than any evidence of anything that happened before you took action. This means your actions are the “crime” they will investigate unless someone clues them in that there was another crime that they also need to collect evidence of.
Remember, the police aren’t on scene to collect evidence of your innocence, but to collect evidence of crimes that have been committed. If the only crime they know about is the “crime” that you committed when you defended yourself, that’s the only evidence they will look for and (possibly) the only evidence they will find. So instead of keeping your mouth shut and allowing the crime against you go uninvestigated, let them know there was indeed another crime to investigate. Then shut up.
I’m with ya. 🙂 I have many friends who are law enforcement, and they’re all good people. So obviously the world isn’t as black-and-white and everyone would like it to be. Treat law enforcement with respect and you’ll get respect in return.
Thanks for linking to this, Kathy – I think it’s hugely important that people who make the choice to be armed for self-defense know what to expect, legally, emotionally, and otherwise in the aftermath of a lethal force encounter. As much as I surely don’t want to be raped, tortured, and killed by a predator, I also don’t want to lose my liberty, my home, my assets and my friends and family because I defended myself.
I also think it’s important for people to understand that in general, self-defense is an affirmative defense, which means that before you can claim self-defense you essentially have to admit to the elements of a crime (manslaughter, murder, assault with a deadly weapon) and THEN say, “I committed that crime, BUT I was justified because…” If the legal system doesn’t hear or believe your “because”, you’ve essentially entered a guilty plea to the crime.
(Standard disclaimer: I am a paralegal but not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.)
momwithagun – excellent point. As as soon as you say “it was an accident” or “I didn’t really mean to kill him” or “the gun just went off,” you’ve surrendered your ability to claim self defense since there are no affirmative defenses for negligence (they’d just have to charge you with a different crime other than murder… like negligent homicide). i.e. you can’t say you accidentally meant to do something. Yet another reason to speak with a professional first.
Sadly, most people have never thought about any of this… and hopefully none of us will ever have to go through this first-hand.