Another packing politico
First, Lumpy, now state senator Burchett:
State Sen. Tim Burchett says he caught a group of youngsters during a break-in Wednesday, held them at gunpoint and fed them chocolate-chip cookies until Knox County sheriff’s deputies arrived.
That’s Southern hospitality, offering you food at gun point.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:35 am
I can’t find anything about cookies in the article. Was that from an earlier version?
November 16th, 2006 at 10:44 am
got my copy-and-paste-fu mixed up. Fixed
November 16th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Can you do what Tim Burchett did? I mean can you or I do what the Senator did?
Is a citizen allowed to detain people at gunpoint until the police arrive on a charge of burglary if those people are not armed? Did the Senator place them under Citizens Arrest?
Anyone?
November 16th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Well, he told them to stay put and they did. That’s not illegal. He was also armed and on his property, which is also not illegal. And drawing a weapon on 4 people who are unlawfully on your property is also not illegal.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Tennessee has probably the third or fourth strongest citizen’s arrest laws in the nation (Kentucky probably tops the list, where you are required to arrest a felon and may use deadly force). The act of a citizen’s arrest is legal there as long as you attempt to get the arrested individual(s) to the police at first possible opportunity and had reason to believe a felony had taken place or was likely to take place.
Typically, burglarly is a felony, and all Mr. Burchett has to proof is that he had a reasonable belief that the arrestees had entered his property illegally with the intent to commit any crime. He does not need to prove that the kids did those things, however, thanks to TN’s fairly nice Citizen’s Arrest laws. The busted lock pretty much proves everything he needs.
As to the use of a gun (which is a seperate issue than the arrest)… He might be tried, if he were a normal person, but all he’d have to show is that it was a reasonable response to five teenages, not really a hard task.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Disparity of force… he’s almost without doubt in the clear.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Btw, the media does it again. Keltec doesn’t make a .25.