I haven’t stolen stuff from Greg in a while and this is a great post by him. I learned a couple (3 to 5) things. Also check the links he provides.
I recently received a very interesting question from a friend and fellow blogger. He asked the following: “How should an armed citizen best help a police officer if that officer is under violent attack from another individual or group of individuals?”It’s a great question. I think many folks with CCW licenses would be willing to help a cop in trouble. As a cop, I welcome all the help I can get if I’m in a bad situation. Three recent incidents (here and here and here) demonstrate examples where armed citizens saved police officers’ lives. Here are some guidelines for folks who want to help an officer in trouble….
Source: How to Help a Cop During a Life-Threatening Struggle | Active Response Training
In NC, you ARE allowed to use lethal force to defend another- BUT only if that ‘other’ would have been justified in using lethal force to defend themselves, and there is NO allowance made for limited knowledge. IOW, if the person screaming for help started the fight, and you didn’t see it… or the person beating them down is a police officer off-duty or in plain clothes, or the person they tried to pickpocket a minute ago, and you didn’t know it…
…guess what? Yup- jail time.
Don’t mix in unless you are damn good and sure that there is no other choice and that you’re in the right. Calling the cops and recording what’s happening (especially if you shout loudly that this is exactly what you are doing, e.g. “Hey dudes! I got a couple of clean pics of both of y’alll’s faces and the cops are on the way, is that gonna be a problem? “) may be the best thing you can do.