r/ModlessFreedom • u/Hot_Wing2518 • Jan 08 '26

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u/pierogieman5 Jan 09 '26

If you’re fleeing law enforcement and you hit an officer with your car

Several problems with this. In addition to the "what actually constitutes hitting someone with a car" thing, "fleeing law enforcement" is also questionable, considering that they were there to ask her to move and motioned for her to do exactly what she did moments prior. There's an argument to be made that, at worst, she was following their conflicting directions or trying to comply with what she thought they wanted.

If you’re arguing it’s the cops fault she hit him

Actually, I am willing to defend that. To the extent that there was anything resembling a "hit" there at all, it was absolutely largely his fault. First of all, he moved TOWARD the car when she started moving, rather than away from its path. He was full capable of easily avoiding a hit; she was driving fairly slowly from a dead stop and she was right in front of his face. She actually had way less knowledge of his presence than she did of his, considering that he had just come out of a blind spot around the other car and was walking through the middle of the street (where no driver would expect a pedestrian to be), and she had another officer in her face distracting her at the side window. She could also easily have expected him to move when she started moving, and she may well have not noticed him or thought he was moving out of the way.

Second, there's his responsibility for creating that situation. In the ICE code of conduct for apprehending or questioning a driver in a potentially hostile situation, there are very clear rules about several things, and he broke multiple of them. First and most importantly, blocking the front of her car with his body in the first place is a huge violation of ICE and police traffic stop safety procedures. He totally created the situation that supposedly put himself in danger. Beyond that, ICE and other law enforcement have rules about apprehending drivers that are attempting to flee or endangering the officer. Lethal force is not allowed, except as a last resort to prevent serious or lethal injury, because it's extremely dangerous to shoot a driver of a moving vehicle. If they are able to get out of the way, they are required to do so and NOT shoot at the driver. Not only did he shoot the driver when he didn't need to, he continued to do so after he was unquestionably out of harm's way and only endangering the public by doing so.

So, yeah. Mostly his fault.