Actions of Police officers a sin?

  • Thread starter Thread starter punisherthunder
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

punisherthunder

Guest
I’ve posted a similar question before about this (Romans 13).
Anyways, the other night at my work, there was an assault incident of one guy on his daughter and well he was being placed under arrest. He was saying the cruelest, most vile things I’ve ever heard in my life at the police. He totally resisted arrest and didn’t want to be arrested. The officers responded back with some pretty physical stuff to get him under control.

I guess my question is, did the arresting officers commit a sin by having to physically subdue this guy? That kind of roughness a sin?
 
As long as he only exerted enough force to safely place this individual under arrest I would say no.
 
As long as the goal was to arrest the man and not to harm him the policeman is allowed to use “reasonable” force. So IMHO the policeman was just doing his duty.
 
Unless the guy was seriously injured, then I’m sure he deserved it.
 
Here is a scenerio…

My Preist out here in ND is a retired US Marshal. He retired because he came to realize that when the government handed down an execution order, he may have to carry out the execution because I guess they are the ones that do that. So he said he couldnt do it and left and became a preist.

So could you carry an execution?
 
punisherthunder said:
I’ve posted a similar question before about this (Romans 13).
Anyways, the other night at my work, there was an assault incident of one guy on his daughter and well he was being placed under arrest. He was saying the cruelest, most vile things I’ve ever heard in my life at the police. He totally resisted arrest and didn’t want to be arrested. The officers responded back with some pretty physical stuff to get him under control.

I guess my question is, did the arresting officers commit a sin by having to physically subdue this guy? That kind of roughness a sin?
Click to expand...
here is an answer
 
punisherthunder said:
I’ve posted a similar question before about this (Romans 13).
Anyways, the other night at my work, there was an assault incident of one guy on his daughter and well he was being placed under arrest. He was saying the cruelest, most vile things I’ve ever heard in my life at the police. He totally resisted arrest and didn’t want to be arrested. The officers responded back with some pretty physical stuff to get him under control.

I guess my question is, did the arresting officers commit a sin by having to physically subdue this guy? That kind of roughness a sin?
Click to expand...
YUP!! You best believe it!!
 
Roman_Catholic said:
Here is a scenerio…

My Preist out here in ND is a retired US Marshal. He retired because he came to realize that when the government handed down an execution order, he may have to carry out the execution because I guess they are the ones that do that. So he said he couldnt do it and left and became a preist.

So could you carry an execution?
Click to expand...
Never. And i say that fella did the right thing.
 
Roman_Catholic said:
Here is a scenerio…

My Preist out here in ND is a retired US Marshal. He retired because he came to realize that when the government handed down an execution order, he may have to carry out the execution because I guess they are the ones that do that. So he said he couldnt do it and left and became a preist.

So could you carry an execution?
Click to expand...
Seeing that capital punishment is a vaild punishment according to the Teaching of the Catholic Church, I might be able to.

I would take this into account before accepting any job that required it.

But as I have yet to be offered such a job I do not know right now what I would do.

But I do know that basicly capital punishment does not go against my faith. Now maybe the way it is applied does, but I haven’t really looked into that as I have not had such a cause to do so yet.
 
Hey Byz,

first of all, I absolutely love the Byzantine Rite. Just thought I’d let you know.

anyway, capital punishment is only accepted by the Church if there is no other way of keeping the person locked up, and thus, keeping society free from this person. This is certainly not the case in the US. Therefore, capital punishment is not a proper punishment within the US.
 
Homebrew_roots said:
Hey Byz,

first of all, I absolutely love the Byzantine Rite. Just thought I’d let you know.

anyway, capital punishment is only accepted by the Church if there is no other way of keeping the person locked up, and thus, keeping society free from this person. This is certainly not the case in the US. Therefore, capital punishment is not a proper punishment within the US.
Click to expand...
I disagree with you a bit.

It does not say that capital punishment is only acceptable if there is no other way of keeping the person locked up.

It says, “* the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor*”.

Now, the question is if locking up someone in jail is effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

This is where I am undecided. Some people are sentenced to prison yet do not serve their whole sentence. Others kill and terrorize other prisoners.

So the question is not can we just lock them up. The question is when we lock them up are we defending human lives. The answer is sometimes no as murders and other crimes do occur within prison.
 
ByzCath said:
I disagree with you a bit.

It does not say that capital punishment is only acceptable if there is no other way of keeping the person locked up.

It says, “* the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor*”.

Now, the question is if locking up someone in jail is effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

This is where I am undecided. Some people are sentenced to prison yet do not serve their whole sentence. Others kill and terrorize other prisoners.

So the question is not can we just lock them up. The question is when we lock them up are we defending human lives. The answer is sometimes no as murders and other crimes do occur within prison.
Click to expand...
Exactly. The issue of capital punishment, even in America, isn’t one that is clear or that can be easily decided on.
 
Speaking as someone who used to be a police officer, I think if the officer only used the amount of force reasonably necessary to arrest this person, then it wasn’t a sin.

Arresting someone who is angry and resistant is always a dangerous time for the officer and the suspect. So many things used to go through my mind when I made an arrest in situations like that.

How much force should I use to make the arrest and protect myself from being injured? How much force is too much? Where and how do I draw the line? Oh, and of course, the “line” can change every two seconds or so based on the suspect’s behavior.

Should I call for backup? Oh, wait, the other officers on my shift are all busy. How long will it take for my backup to arrive? Can I safely back away from the suspect until the other officers arrive, or is he so out of control that he is a danger to other people in the immediate area?

There were times I waited for other officers to arrive and there were other times where I didn’t. Every situation is different and there is no way to predict how someone will act when being arrested.
 
punisherthunder said:
I’ve posted a similar question before about this (Romans 13).
Anyways, the other night at my work, there was an assault incident of one guy on his daughter and well he was being placed under arrest. He was saying the cruelest, most vile things I’ve ever heard in my life at the police. He totally resisted arrest and didn’t want to be arrested. The officers responded back with some pretty physical stuff to get him under control.

I guess my question is, did the arresting officers commit a sin by having to physically subdue this guy? That kind of roughness a sin?
Click to expand...
No, the officer did not commit a sin. He did what he had to do.
 
Roman_Catholic said:
Here is a scenerio…

My Preist out here in ND is a retired US Marshal. He retired because he came to realize that when the government handed down an execution order, he may have to carry out the execution because I guess they are the ones that do that. So he said he couldnt do it and left and became a preist.

So could you carry an execution?
Click to expand...
US Marshal’s don’t execute people and they don’t get “execution” orders. They might have to transfer prisoners to prisons that they will eventually be executed at, but they aren’t the actual executioners.
 
I guess it’s just that I saw the police act very forcefully on this guy. And the more he cursed and struggled, the more forceful they got. But then again, this guy punched his pregnant daughter in the stomach. So maybe he deserved it.
 
punisherthunder said:
I guess it’s just that I saw the police act very forcefully on this guy. And the more he cursed and struggled, the more forceful they got. But then again, this guy punched his pregnant daughter in the stomach. So maybe he deserved it.
Click to expand...
He did not deserve it for his actions against the daughter. It is not up to the police to exat judgement. However, from your description, the police are not the ones who decided the amount of force. That was done by the arrestee when he resisted arrest. The police are legally and morally obligated to effect such an arrest for the protection of the innocent and need to protect themselves in the process. In order to do so, they must use more force than the resisting arrestee. A person being arrested can de-escalate the force being used against him at any point by complying.
 
I have to say I am just stunned with how calmly police are able to handle most situations with out-of-control people. They do a tough job and put their own safety on the line for the safety of the community. I really think we should try to give these people the benefit of the doubt. They can make mistakes, and hindsight is 20/20, but often they give the offending citizens more than enough benefit of the doubt before using physical measures.

Another person can be injured or killed if they don’t act with whatever force needed to get those situations under control. What if they hadn’t used force to get this guy under control and he was able to punch one of the officers in the face hard enough to break his nose, or injure a bystander?

The officers did what they felt they needed, to get this guy locked up away from society so he wouldn’t have the opportunity to hurt others.

This guy sealed his own fate by resisting so much. Most everyone knows that you follow the orders of a police officer, even if you think they are being unfair, and you contest it in court. Police are the trained professional in the situation. Its a job I know I could never do, and I am glad there are others that do.
 
ChristIsTheWay said:
No, the officer did not commit a sin. He did what he had to do.
Click to expand...
And in doing so, he lost his soul to the devil and may never repent for what he did, doing an earthly secular fat cat duty for today’s Herods.Remember Rodney King?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top