Marblehead Police come through in the clutch

I'll play the lying criminal.

Officer, I was walking down the street, once within 25 feet of this gentleman's home, someone ran out of his driveway and up the street. As I came closer he pointed a rifle at me and told me not to move or else. Myself, I'll follow in M1911's footsteps and have no problems.
 
alright, so lets say your getting ready for bed and you hear something outside, you peak out the window and see someone breaking into your neighbors car.....you call the cops, but before the cops arrive you monitor the perps making thier way to your driveway. what do you do then???? just watch, or as they are walking towards your car, do you throw the lights on??? go outside and tell them to screw??? is that being the aggresser?
 
alright, so lets say your getting ready for bed and you hear something outside, you peak out the window and see someone breaking into your neighbors car.....you call the cops, but before the cops arrive you monitor the perps making thier way to your driveway. what do you do then???? just watch, or as they are walking towards your car, do you throw the lights on???
No harm in turning the lights on and it might scare them away.

go outside and tell them to screw???
Why go outside? What if they weren't there for your car -- now you've just opened the locked door for them. What if they are armed? How much is the deductible on your car insurance? How many hours of an attorney's time would that buy? It just isn't worth it.

The justice system is a mess. It is slow, horribly expensive, and unpredictable. You don't want to get caught up in it if you can avoid it.
 
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You'd have to tread very, very, very carefully. If you enter your neighbor's house without explicit permission, you could be considered trespassing. If you got in a tussle, with or without guns, since you went in after the punks, you could be considered the aggressor if you weren't careful. The castle law wouldn't apply (I don't think) because it isn't your property. If you had valid reason to suspect bad things were happening, entered the house and personally witnessed a violent crime occurring, and had a good lawyer, you might be able to get away with applying some level of force to stop the violent crime. Hopefully a lawyer type or someone with more knowledge can back this up, but I'd think you'd be in a huge legal grey area, and possibly fall out of the grey into "nono" land.

Don't even consider taking what I just said as legal advice. Call the cops. Let them handle it.

I agree with all of the above (except the "Castle Law" statement; as to which, see below).

I add this: when the police arrive on a call of B&E in progress at your neighbor's house, do you want to be standing in the beam of their flashlight holding a firearm?

(Application of the Castle Law in the context of a "defense of another" situation would depend on whether the "another" has the means and the obligation to flee. If your neighbor were attacked in his own house, it would be his presence in his castle that would be material.)
 
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I would confront them and I would be armed..in case they are. I work hard for what I own..you are not just going to take it...I am not saying I would use deadly force to stop it..but the law (CT Law) says I can use physical force to defend property.
 
If we were only allowed to shoot car thieves and the like dead on the spot I think the world would be a much more pleasant place to live [grin]

IN Texas you can. Frontsights webblast this week had a news video about a fellow that shot 2 BGs dead in the back as they were running away from the neighbors house with a bag of loot. He was on the phone with the police and told the dispatcher he was going to kill the scum. It cost him plenty and 7 months of litigation to be found innocent of manslaughter but he may still face civil prosecution from the scum family. So even where you can legaly defend property I don't think I would want to deal with it for replaceables.
 
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This thread is kinda depressing....makes me realize that the Law protects the cockroaches more than it does me. :(

I think it would be far more depressing to be facing prison time because you went outside to stop Mr. Crackhead from stealing your car stereo, things went south, ADA Ms. Niphong-wannabe caught the case, the press is camped out in front of your house to ambush-interview your wife, you got fired while you were jail because the judge remanded you, you signed over your 401k to your defense attorney, and your family is coming apart at the seams. But by golly, Mr. Crackhead didn't get your car stereo!!!

Think about what is at stake and what is important in the long run.
 
Ok, I'll bite. By the wording in your first post, it appears your car doors weren't locked, is that correct? Or did the hoodlums bust out the windows in all 3 vehicles? If the former, shame on you.


And I'll add another +1 to staying inside and being a good witness. Save your Rambo routine for Halloween or the airsoft field or something. [rolleyes] People that think they're just going to rush out and start pointing guns because some hooligan is rummaging through an UNLOCKED car for spare change so they can get their next heroin fix downright scare me. Use your head. Let the police do what they're trained and paid to do. Don't make things tougher than they already are in this state.
 
I would confront them and I would be armed..in case they are. I work hard for what I own..you are not just going to take it...I am not saying I would use deadly force to stop it..but the law (CT Law) says I can use physical force to defend property.

Well, since this thread is about Marblehead, MA, what you would or would not do in the OP's situation is irrelevant.

MA and CT are worlds apart when it comes to defending property, it seems.
 
Really?

The NH state constitution states that I have a right to bear arms for the defense of my property.

The state RSA's state that I have the right to use deadly force when in fear of my life or the lives of others.


Now to the application of the laws.

When's the last time a guy in NH got prosecuted and sent to prison or deprived of his rights because he used deadly force in defense of his property?

When's the last time it happened in Mass?

How often does it happen in either state?

Which state favors the perp over the defendant?
 
I think a lot of people are missing the point that if you stay in your house and the BGs rummage through your car you are probably going to live to see the sunrise. If you go outside and confront the BG and he just happens to have a weapon, you will probably be used as a sad reminder of why they think we need more gun control. going outside to confront them seems like you are just looking for a confrontation. I am a firm believer in deadly force only when ALL other options have been exhausted and for those that say they are only bringing the gun for protection.... if you think you may need a gun, why are you going?
 
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The state RSA's state that I have the right to use deadly force when in fear of my life or the lives of others.
Deadly force is allowed in MA in if you, are an innocent other, are in immediate danger of death or grave bodily injury. And the same is true of all 50 states.

In all states, you are not required to retreat from your home from an attacker who is illegally in your home. That is also true in MA. In many (but not all) states, when outside of your home, you are required to retreat from a confrontation if it is safe to do so. That is also true in MA.

In most (but not all) states, you are prohibited from using deadly force to defend property -- you can only use it to defend life. That is also true in MA. You can use force to defend property, but not deadly force.

MA laws concerning deadly force are very similar to the laws in most states. There are plenty of reasons to get out of MA, but you might be surprised at how close deadly force law in other states is to MA.

If you haven't already, I strongly recommend taking LFI-1.
 
To my understanding, you can be in the upstairs bedroom... and a crook is stealing your TV downstairs... you can't go downstairs and shoot him. Attempting to hold him at gunpoint until police arrive may result in you having to shoot him, which could also turn that attempt against you legally.

Even if someone is in your house, there isn't anything you can do unless you can prove they were heading toward you.

This is my understanding of the Castle doctrine and most of its variants (as applied in MA and NH). A really awesome DA might argue differently, but that leaves it to a gamble at best.
 
To my understanding, you can be in the upstairs bedroom... and a crook is stealing your TV downstairs... you can't go downstairs and shoot him. Attempting to hold him at gunpoint until police arrive may result in you having to shoot him, which could also turn that attempt against you legally.

Even if someone is in your house, there isn't anything you can do unless you can prove they were heading toward you.

This is my understanding of the Castle doctrine and most of its variants (as applied in MA and NH). A really awesome DA might argue differently, but that leaves it to a gamble at best.

Guess that's why you should 'not be able to sleep' and 'stay up to watch tv in the living room' the night that happens then, eh? [wink]
 
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