Would you?

[CavMedic]

From the simple description, in a heartbeat.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Yes

 

[9mmfan]

I would not stand by while a uniformed officer was getting beat. Who's to say the thug wouldn't go after any witnesses when he was done with the cop?

 

[actaeon277]

Officials: Gun-toting veteran saves life of Bastrop deputy | www.statesman.com

 

[ajeandy]

Absolutely.

 

[Robert Richardson]

It would be my pleasure.

 

[You'll shoot your eye out]

Here is another opportunity to relate my experience of way back in 1999. cliffsnotes version; Domestic violence, neighbor adult brothers. 7 police officers respond. Damn fool young officer has his back turned to a man who I know absolutely is an extremely violent schizophrenic. Cuckoo boy has not even dropped his steak knife.

I calmly approach and offer the information. While explaining myself to the officer, I am viciously attacked by the ranking officer of the group for no apparent reason as 6 other officers watch on. Taken by surprise, I wad him up and throw him to the ground. As he regroups and takes a second run at me I am now righteously indignant. I get the opportunity to wad him up for the second time and throw him down again.

At this point several officers physically restrain their fearless leader and pull me to the side asking if I was injured and they were very sorry. One minute later the attacking officer is announcing me under arrest and is not listening to his friends. Schizo boy has fled.

9 months and $10,000 later I have finally beaten a litany of false and fictitious charges, but am under a judges orders to absolutely NEVER approach, speak to, or otherwise interject myself in any way into any police officers business, EVER.

SO......... With this in mind I hope and would very much like to be man enough to obey my instructions and let the officer be beaten to death while I am calmly standing by being a good witness.

Unfortunately I sometimes recognize that I shouldn't do something........ And then I go ahead and do it anyway. I suppose that it all boils down to which thing makes me more angry, the memory of my adventures with a dirty JBT and his crooked judge and prosecutor friends....... Or the sight of a man taking a severe beating.

I believe I will let the officer be beaten for a while like I am supposed to, until it seems that his life is in danger. Only then will I reluctantly intervene, lamenting that I will be spending another night in jail. Rest assured that you WILL be sorry that you helped him as no good turn ever goes unpunished.

 

[dbishop728]

I would definitely help and hope someone would do the same for me. Every department has their bad apples both fire and police but don't let it effect how you look at the rest of them. I can see how your experience would leave a bad taste in your mouth but for every bad one there are 10 good ones. Of course don't quote me on the 1 in 10 stats lol

 

[Concerned Citizen]

Dude (shoot your eye out) that's an awful story. I wish you were making that one up.

Anyways, I would intervene if it thought the LEO was in danger of being beaten to death. If it was an off-duty beating an impersonator, he should be stopped from beating the suspect to death, so not a scenario I would think likely. This type of scenario could have any number of possibilities, it would be hard to think of them all when I was watching someone possibly be killed. Don't think I could just be a good witness if someone's life was in eminent danger.

 

[ART338WM]

Depends on what state I'm in, as I'm large and posses a reasonable amount of experience in unarmed self defense and street fighting I know there are lots of ways to get a person to stop hitting another without doing them significant harm. If I were in a state like neighboring IL, I would help but go to extreme lengths to minimize my potential legal liability, and certainly would NOT use deadly force, unless I was absolutely certain the officers life was in immediate danger. If in my home state of Indiana, I be less concerned about my liability.

Now for the reality check for my above statement: Try to have the presence of a cool composed mind set and complete the above thought process in a mere split second and then act accordingly. IMHO the sad fact of todays world is if you acted to help anyone and if said attacker sustained injury I have no doubt my fault or not I would undoubtedly be sued.

I have a excellent example of a personal experience that shows just how fast and easily a person who with the best of intentions while coming to some ones rescue, could instead actually risk committing a terrible mistake.


About 30 years ago when I was a young man who foolishly felt himself bullet proof I was involved in the fallowing incident. It was about 2:30 in the morning on a weekday. I was asleep in my room with the window open as it was a nice cool late spring night. My room was in the front of my home, the window faced towards the street. I was ( I will NEVER forget) awakened to literally blood chilling screams of "HELP ME "HELP ME" of a young woman. Without thinking I jumped out of bed DID NOT call the police and ran out my front door in my Tshirt and boxers to see a adult male chasing a adult female around the huge landscaping brick flower bed in my neighbors front yard. As I was closing in I started telling "WHAT THE HE!!S GOING ON HERE? I don't recall exactly anymore, bot the girl said words to the affect; "stop him he's trying to hurt me" As I was about to take physical action against the man he said; "Stop I'm her brother" I instantly hit the brakes as did all of us. I asked the girl if it were true was he her brother and she confirmed it as true.

At this point I wanted to kick her but and told her so. I also realized how utterly ridiculous I must have looked dressed only in my underwear. I said I was leaving and calling the police, which I did. Once the police arrived, I now fully clothed told the officers what I heard then witnessed. The police went over to their house and had them come out explain themselves and apologize to me.


After the brother and sister went back inside, I asked the cop what would have happened to me if someone else had called the police and they would have pulled up and saw me there in my underwear regardless of what stage to situation was in? He replied; "What the hell do you think"? We get a call of a woman screaming for help and we arrive at the seen to big guy dressed only in his underwear, which in of itself is a minor violation of the law, now include a woman screaming for help?

Yep you guessed it, I would have been arrested and thrown in jail. \


As I'm sure all reading this the thought has crossed their mind what would have happened if I would have ended up assaulting the guy, I don't even want to think about that. I can just see it now, the brother and sister telling the officer; "but officer we were just minding our own business when this big, crazy, half naked guy jumped us" "I can't possibly imagine what he was thinking?" as the officers cuff me and put me in the squad call.


I learned a big lesson from that night of interrupted sleep. You had damn well be absolutely certain what your doing before you decide to harm a complete stranger to protect another complete stranger, and above all ealse MAKE SURE your fully dressed before you attempt to impersonate Sir Galahad.

 

[oldpink]

Definitely

 

[rdavis006]

I would help an officer in need and deal with consquences in a rare situation described by another poster in such a case of a police impersonator

 

[seagullplayer]

I would help, armed or not. The fact that the one on the ground was a cop is not the deciding factor.

 

[Rocketscientist]

Not only would I have drawn, but I would have fired the first clear shot that presented itself.. One lucky head strike with a baton can be lethal... same with bats, sticks, bricks, or any other blunt object. Verbal commands be damned in a situation like this. The next strike could be the one that caves in the officer's skull while you're standing there yelling at the guy to stop.

 

[Bapak2ja]

Thanks for the education. Really, no idea what I would do. I would like to take out the bad guy, but I do not want to wind up in a cell with bubba for the rest of my life. Or flat broke from legal fees.

Does CC liability insurance cover something like this?

Given today's environment, I cannot understand why anyone would want to be a cop, especially any Caucasian. You LEO's have my respect and appreciation.

 

[gunsisgood]

Why not just call 911 ?

 

[pudly]

Why not just call 911 ?

During the struggle, Jermaine was able to take Eller’s police baton and then proceeded to strike him over the head somewhere between six and 12 times.

So, they could document the murder scene?

 

[You'll shoot your eye out]

Why not just call 911 ?

BECAUSE........ When seconds count, the police are only minutes away! (i can't believe nobody else took this free shot)