Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 8, 2012

What constitutes an arrest? Under what circumstances is it defensible to place a citizen under arrest?

The U.S. Supreme Court?s ruling in the 1983 case Florida v. Royer states that an individual in an encounter with the police is under arrest under any circumstances in which a reasonable person would assume that he is not free to leave. A recent police academy tutorial covering the legal aspects of arrest explains:  ?An arrest basically is a `seizure? of a person? ? whether permanent or temporary.

In contemporary America it?s quite common for police to detain and handcuff people ? or even to inflict summary punishment through the use of a Taser -- for the purpose of ?officer safety,? even though the officers will insist that people thus restrained are not under arrest.

This contrasts sharply with the events described in the 22^nd Chapter of the Book of Acts, in which Paul was bound by Roman police ? and then set free because it was illegal to bind and punish a Roman citizen before he had been found guilty of a crime. To that extent, the degenerate Roman Empire had a higher standard of Due Process than the one that prevails in the supposed Land of the Free.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.