Most of what I share here is about family outings and things we’ve enjoyed, but some of you may know that I also used to work as a paralegal. When I see “resisting arrest” in a local headline, I like to read a little further to see what the person is actually accused of doing.
Here in New York, resisting arrest is tied to an authorized arrest. In Louisiana, a charge called “resisting an officer” can also come up during a lawful detention. That’s why I’d look at where the story happened before assuming those two phrases mean the same thing. New York Penal Law § 205.30 · Louisiana Revised Statutes § 14:108
What Resisting Arrest Means Here in New York
New York treats resisting arrest as a Class A misdemeanor. The law applies when someone intentionally stops or tries to stop a police officer or peace officer from making an authorized arrest. That could be their own arrest or someone else’s. New York Penal Law § 205.30
The word I’d pause on is intentionally. Say an officer takes someone by the arm and the person pulls away. They might be trying to get free, or they might have flinched because it hurt. A headline might tell you they pulled away. I’d want to know what happened just before that. Under New York’s law, whether the officer was authorized to make the arrest matters too.
If you’re looking for a local resource on misdemeanor cases, there’s more information from Staten Island misdemeanor attorney Michael Vitaliano.
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Why You Might See Two Charges Listed
Say the police show up because someone reported a theft. If a person is later charged with both theft and resisting arrest, those charges refer to different parts of the encounter. The theft charge is about what allegedly happened before the officer arrived. The resisting arrest charge is about what the person allegedly did when the officer tried to make the arrest.
I know how easy it is to read a headline on your phone, move on with your day, and remember only that someone got arrested. If I go back to look up the story, I check the date. A story from the morning after the arrest may tell me what the person was charged with. A follow-up may tell me how the case turned out.
What Louisiana’s Law Covers
Louisiana’s law on resisting an officer covers a wider range of situations. One example is running away after an officer tells someone they’re under arrest. Giving false identifying information can also fall under the law in certain circumstances. That second example is easy to overlook if the word resisting makes you picture a physical struggle. Louisiana Revised Statutes § 14:108
A conviction under that law can carry up to six months in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both. Louisiana has a separate law for resisting a police officer with force or violence, which carries more serious penalties. Louisiana Revised Statutes § 14:108.2
What a Short Video Can Leave Out
If we were talking about one of these stories over coffee and you showed me a clip of someone pulling away, I’d probably ask, “Did you see what happened before that?” A longer recording might let you hear what the officer said. A video from across the street might show where people were standing, even if you can’t hear a word.
I touched on a similar idea in my post about landlord liability after a tenant’s dog attack. In that situation, something as ordinary as an earlier complaint can help explain what someone knew before the incident. Here, a few extra seconds of video might give you context you’d miss in the clip that got shared.
What About Background Checks?
You might also wonder what would show up on a background check after an arrest. The outcome of the case, the state’s rules, and the type of check can all matter. One place these checks come up is professional licensing. I cover an example in my post on travel nurse licensing challenges, where some states require a background check as part of the licensing process.
This post is for general information. If you have questions about a specific charge, a lawyer in the state where it was filed can explain what the law means for your situation.
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