Citizen's arrest …. Would you, could you?

[barstoolguru]

In my search for an answer on “how to” and “under what laws can you” it is clear that it is not clear. This seems to be a subject that gets lost in the multitude of laws that govern everything else.
On one side of the law it gives us the right too and then the other side takes it away saying you can’t do certain things. Some states say that it has to be a “felony” and others like Texas just says it has to be a “breach of the peace” so before any of you start flaming me I have no intention of trying to do someone else’s job, heck I don’t even want to do mine just trying to get a grasp on what can be done if it has too

Here are three examples of how people see it.
Would you, could you, would you watch someone walk away from a crime?

There is this citizen.......................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efgLHgsBmM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efgLHgsBmM)

Then there is this guy........ Scared me too............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFW2epVOfUY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFW2epVOfUY)

then there are these guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaeojHxzjvY

[David Armstrong]

Repeat after me.....just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[Misty02]

This guy has a very low life expectancy if he practices what he preaches.

Then there is this guy........ Scared me too............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFW2epVOfUY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFW2epVOfUY)


The other two, one is a cartoon, the other a TV character.

.

[Angry Fist]

I'll leave the arrestin to the cops. I only have a license to kill.

[Deaf Smith]

barstoolguru,

Citizens arrest is not like an LEO arrest.

You are in indemnified from a lawsuit for such as brutality or violating their rights or any number of complaints they may produce with the help of a lawyer who finds you have deep pockets.

You are not shielded from criminal charges if you were wrong.

You do not have 'backup' like a LEO has (lots of buddies in blue.)

You can CLAIM you were using your citizens arrest powers while they CLAIM you were attacking them. It's up the judge and jury to decide what happened.

And if the bad guy shoots back and you are hurt, you have no city supplied health insurance, nor job protection, nor pension, to fall back on.

Now does that mean I would never use a citizens arrest? No. Could happen. Held two people for cops before, but I didn't claim a 'citizens arrest', just held them.

But before I tried to arrest anyone I'd do my best to get the cops there. And if that is a no go I'd do my best to collect any evidence and then hope for the best.

Deaf

[kikr]

I really don't care about making any arrest. If a situation is bad enough to warrant my intervention I either want the aggressor to run away screaming "don't shoot me" or laying on the ground bleeding out. Detaining someone is a higher risk than I'm willing to take.