State Law Requires Bystanders To Help Police Make Arrests

By John Vibes

If you saw a police officer assaulting someone and attempting an arrest, would you get involved? If so, whose side would you take? In some places, like South Carolina for example, citizens are actually required by law to help a police officer with an arrest if they are asked.

According to Section 23-15-70 of the SC Code of Laws, any person refusing to assist an officer in making an arrest could face fines of up to $100 and the possibility of 30 days in jail.

The law states that,

Any sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable or other officer specially empowered may call out the bystanders or posse comitatus of the proper county to his assistance whenever he is resisted or has reasonable grounds to suspect and believe that such assistance will be necessary in the service or execution of process in any criminal case and any deputy sheriff may call out such posse comitatus to assist in enforcing the laws and in arresting violators or suspected violators thereof. Any person refusing to assist as one of the posse comitatus in the service or execution of such process, when required by the sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable or other officer shall be liable to be indicted therefor and upon conviction shall be fined and imprisoned, at the discretion of the court any person who shall fail to respond and render assistance when summoned by a deputy sheriff to assist in enforcing the laws and in arresting violators or suspected violators thereof shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction shall be fined not less than thirty nor more than one hundred dollars or imprisoned for thirty days.

Obviously, this law overlooks the fact that the police are not always on the correct side of the law. Oftentimes they assault and arrest innocent people; so if a civilian were to help them, they would actually themselves be committing a moral transgression by assisting in a kidnap or assault.

This law could potentially be forcing people to do something that they find to be immoral, and it is basically asking them to side with the police in every situation. In fact, there have been some instances across the United States where bystanders have intervened during an arrest, not to help the officer, but to protect the suspect from the officer; because, after all, in most arrests the officer is actually the aggressor. This fact can be confidently stated because a majority of people locked up in today’s prisons are actually non-violent offenders.

Furthermore, this law could put innocent bystanders in danger by pushing them into the middle of a scuffle between multiple people who likely have weapons.

This story caught national attention this week after a local report called attention to the bill and even seemed to show support for it. In the article, an extreme example was used of a suspect who risked the life of a child, which is obviously a circumstance where the media is using the most extreme example possible to justify government overreach.

John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. John is currently battling cancer naturally, without any chemo or radiation, and will be working to help others through his experience, if you wish to contribute to his treatments please donate.

Image Credit: Matthew Cooke


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27 Comments on "State Law Requires Bystanders To Help Police Make Arrests"

  1. …this is stupid….

  2. How can a corporation which the state is compel a sovereign to do anything with their corporate rules if you do not work for the state?

  3. They keep pumping out sillier and sillier codes (of behavior) to distract us from the codes already on the books that would change the entire game if everyone knew about them like these:

    “Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer’s life if necessary.” Plummer v. State, 136 Ind. 306. This premise was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case: John Bad Elk v. U.S., 177 U.S. 529. The Court stated: “Where the officer is killed in the course of the disorder which naturally accompanies an attempted arrest that is resisted, the law looks with very different eyes upon the transaction, when the officer had the right to make the arrest, from what it does if the officer had no right. What may be murder in the first case might be nothing more than manslaughter in the other, or the facts might show that no offense had been committed.”

    “An arrest made with a defective warrant, or one issued without affidavit, or one that fails to allege a crime is within jurisdiction, and one who is being arrested, may resist arrest and break away. lf the arresting officer is killed by one who is so resisting, the killing will be no more than an involuntary manslaughter.” Housh v. People, 75 111. 491; reaffirmed and quoted in State v. Leach, 7 Conn. 452; State v. Gleason, 32 Kan. 245; Ballard v. State, 43 Ohio 349; State v Rousseau, 241 P. 2d 447; State v. Spaulding, 34 Minn. 3621.

    “When a person, being without fault, is in a place where he has a right to be, is violently assaulted, he may, without retreating, repel by force, and if, in the reasonable exercise of his right of self defense, his assailant is killed, he is justified.” Runyan v. State, 57 Ind. 80; Miller v. State, 74 Ind. 1.

    “These principles apply as well to an officer attempting to make an arrest, who abuses his authority and transcends the bounds thereof by the use of unnecessary force and violence, as they do to a private individual who unlawfully uses such force and violence.” Jones v. State, 26 Tex. App. I; Beaverts v. State, 4 Tex. App. 1 75; Skidmore v. State, 43 Tex. 93, 903.

    • All these dangerous raids on the wrong house could end up with dead policemen and it would be their own fault. How come they can’t get a simple thing like an address right?

      How would we even know if it was a lawful arrest?

  4. “Je ne parle pas Anglais, officer”

    • Da, izvinite no ya ne govoryu po angliskyi, eshche raz, chto vy khotite?

      I am not going to put myself in harm’s way to come to the aid of the state just like that. I am not going to get paid, I might not have the kind of immunity a police officer in that state has and who is going to pay for the rest of my life perhaps even if I get hurt? What if I am inept and actually wind up helping whoever I am supposed to oppose with this insane law? What if I’m inept?

      Say the officer orders me to pick up the gun so it is out of reach for the subject. I dutifully go and pick it up, but because I am a klutz I fumble and it drops right into the hands of the subject. Next thing he flicks the safety off and empties the clip right into the face of the officer. The subject gets up and runs away. Later it turns out the officer lived and is saying I gave the gun to the subject on purpose. Now what? I’m going to get hit with various charges from obstructing an investigation to facilitating escape to conspiring with the subject to maim the officer? Am I going to have to pay every medical bill of the officer as well as lost income?

      The law is dumb as shit and usually the kind made at the very end of a republic. That’s when they get greedy and think there is no limit to what they can demand.

      • I don’t have this problem because I don’t live in a Police state Country – Spasibo !

      • …what if I am able-looking, but physically disabled?

        • Bingo. What if you’re on your way to the pre-school to pick up your children, what if you’re on probation, what if you’re experiencing PTSD for military or other reasons, what if the arrest turns out in court to have been illegal? They done pushed it too far, on this and several other counts letely (i.e., civil asset forfeiture/criminal theft of citizen assets, etc.). It’s war, act accordingly.

  5. Sure, go help that cop who is bashing in someone else’s head – but then the cop might shoot you to keep you from testifying against him. Those making the laws – don’t have any interaction to the police — they live in nice gated communities or townsites. – Not in the real America.

  6. …I’d just let the person go….and claim that I am incompetent as a policeman, never been trained and all that. What…are they going to fire me?
    RJ O’Guillory

  7. Recall the false flag of 9/11? Recall the thousands of private citizens who exposed themselves to trauma/ill affects from the myriad of compounds in the dust – Asbestos, if you look into the reasons for WTC to be chosen, you’ll notice the COST to remediate same was in the billions of dollars, money the port authority DID NOT have. Solution?
    Have SilverSTAIN, acting on a spiritual “surge”, lease those buildings IN SPITE of the asbestos AND being almost totally VACANT, forty two days prior to THREE buildings coming down – one of which wasn’t hit by ANYTHING, (other than the impact of the cost of remediation had they NOT been “removed”).

    But, I digress, apologies. SO, all these people who suffered exposure and are dying/have died were REFUSED medical aid because they; “were not employees of the city”.

    So, in yet ANOTHER act of treachery, the Shabbos Goi make it LAW to help an Israeli-trained brute (illegally/or w/o cause?), take down a fellow citizen, possibly end up being shot or “eaten” by a vicious mutt THEY train so they can THEN laugh and tell you to f**k off cuz you ain’t employed by us/you ain’t a “cop” etc. etc.?

    Will they feed/cloth/keep the snow off of your family? ROFLMAO!!! yeah, you BET they will! Just like they rushed in to help ALL those poor fools on 9/11.

    What was it “Schultzie” used to say on Hogan’s Heroes? I KNOW NUTTING!!? I suggest you all practice “tunnel vision” or doing an about face so quickly it gives you (lol, Reagan et al used this during the many interrogations over Iran Contra they got away with), “PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY”.
    Because, truth be told, in the end, you’ll probably save the life of some poor schmuck labeled a “domestic terrorist” by dual citizen – run DHS for the heinous crime of being a veteran, a precious metal collector or a citizen fed UP with the “Judas Class” and their owners.

  8. I would help if the officer is in danger…otherwise it’s best for citizens to just video it.

  9. I guess the 13th Amendment doesn’t apply in SC yet…….

  10. yeah right…NOT…would face a greater risk of the cop or his/her partner shooting me.
    Just like in Minnesota where cop shot the woman who had called them. She was waiting out side and was by passenger side of police car. Stupid moron cop heard a noise , pulled his gun and shot her several times thru the police cruiser window he was sitting in at the time :0 !! She is dead . cams were not on and his partner is only witness. One can guess where that will lead – nowhere!
    This human excrement has 3 complaints against him already, been on force less than 2 years! Department is NOT releasing what the 3 complaints were about. By the way, he is a Somali Muslim immigrant- woman was white.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4705434/Minnesota-cop-shot-dead-Sydney-woman-investigation.html

  11. One day maybe, yes, you will learn as I have, that you have no government protecting you. It is all corrupt, all organized crime. Learn the 10 elements of communism. Understand that it is satanism. It is a war of deception using your ignorance of their ways to rob and enslave you while masquerading as government.
    They call themselves jews but they are not, they are liars. They are the synogogue of Satan. Revelations 3:9

  12. There is no way in Hell I would ever intervene to help and/or aid someone tussling with another, especially a cop. What wasn’t talked about is the civil liability one could face from the “perp” in a court of law. Wanna get sued into bankruptcy because you helped a cop take him down? No, I didn’t think so…

  13. Dave from San Antonio | July 19, 2017 at 3:05 pm |

    Let’s say you have a CCL. You draw and attempt to assist on request of the officer. Police back-up just happens to arrive just as you, with drawn firearm, are attempting to help. What do you think the back-up is going to do? Remember…you have a drawn firearm and are advancing towards the officer…
    In any case…as a private citizen, not contracted to provide security…maybe the bad guy’s family could sue you should things go sideways and in our current legal system…they would probably win.

  14. This is supposing that a bystander can make an almost instantaneous decision as to the legality of the arrest and the request by a police officer. Anyone not having those skills and making a wrong decision to assist could find themselves as accessories to an illegal act. Unless an individual is a trainer legal practitioner the only reasonable action in these circumstances is not to assist. This is a stupid law made by stupid law makers who ought to have that privilege removed from them and given to others more capable..

    Why bother to have police at all if ‘hue and cry’ law is to implemented. This was the law before public policing became universal, that persons must answer the ‘hue and cry’ and come to the aid of others as a criminal act was being perpetrated, with the alleged guilty party to be captured and held until the authorities could take possession of the prisoner and make their decision on whether arrest and charges are to be made.

  15. This coud be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. Wrong on so many levels.

  16. Well, I don;t mind stepping in to stop a criminal, but I’m not jumping in “at order” without a paycheck. I’m in it to win it, not to get fame on a 10 second breaking news flash. AND, it must be (unless it’s obvious) determined that WHO the officr is arresting has done anything. I’d hate to assist an officer arrest a man, woman; child (these days) only to find out they were innocent of the accusation/crime. So, it would have to be done “in progress” of a crime.

  17. All fine and dandy until a false arrest is proven; & then you are sued in a civil action, and possibly a criminal action.
    Keep clear of the cops at all costs! NEVER call the cops for help; you end up getting shot , arrested, beaten, etc. by these psychopaths!

    • Think it’s bad now? Remember the billions of hollow point 10mm rounds and pistols ordered by DHS? Recall that dual citizen created/run sewer has been training 18 to 22 year olds as “Youth first responders”? (Insert Neo CHEKA Jewish youth groups such as those used in Poland/Danzig/Russian Gulag archipelago, collective Christian/Muslim body count in the tens of millions https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d5455a5a265e5d26893b9e95758f113d3805b6ac05c07d3a8b47b53657f7d64b.jpg ), Not sure how many classes they’ve graduated/armed and set loose yet, but as you begin reading stories in the kosher media about how this or that group TRIED to peacefully take a precious metal club into custody, they exploded in rage and those pink-cheeked indoctrinated little sycophants were FORCED to annihilate them all – Body cam footage will NOT be released as it is vital to national security…..

  18. Slave labor is apparently now constitutional in South Carolina. Um, NOT. Been telling people for years that cops are like the overseers on the plantation…only there to keep the riff-raff (us) from becoming an annoyance to the Massa. It’s official.

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