Colorado “Make My Day” Law Protects Man Who Defended Himself Against Cops

Earlier this year in Cortez, Colorado, Shane
French’s mother called 911 on him, complaining he was being
“verbally abusive” toward her. Cops showed up and verbally and
physically abused French, according to the man, who says he decided
to fight back against the cops. Police accused him of stabbing one
of the officers, who was holding French in a “bear hug,” and
arrested him on charges of assaulting a police officer and
resisting arrest.

French’s public defender
won him an acquittal, successfully arguing French was protected
under Colorado’s “Make My Day” law, but not before French spent 297
days in jail. Colorado was one of the first states to pass a “Make
My Day” law, which protects homeowners who use deadly force to
repel intruders,
back in 1985.

The prosecutor in the case continues to defend the actions of
officers, and may blame recent national attention to other cases of
police brutality for the jury’s decision. Or it may just be the
Associated Press, which reports:

[Jurors] may have been influenced by recent decisions not
to prosecute police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York
City in the deaths of two unarmed black men, District Attorney Will
Furse told The Associated Press. In the Cortez case, both French
and Eubanks are white, but the police shootings have spurred a
national conversation about use of excessive force by police.

Furse said it’s impossible to look at the case in a vacuum.

“Cases like this are certainly great ones to take to trial
because the community can get involved in determining the
appropriateness of the response,” said Furse, adding that he stands
by the officers’ actions. “The jury just was not satisfied we
demonstrated that the police acted reasonably.”

French, of course, was not the first person to shake off charges
stemming from using force to repel cops. Before Ferguson brought
the issue of police violence to the attention of the national
media, a grand jury in Texas
declined to indict a marijuana grower who shot and killed a
sheriff’s deputy during an early morning search warrant execution.
In 2012, Indiana
closed an odious loophole that would prevent residents from
defending themselves from cops in their own home, no matter what
the cop was doing, up to and including capital offenses.

Only the jurors in Cortez know why they made the decision they
did. More jurors aware of the decisions they can make and more
legal protections for individuals defending themselves from
aggressive cops is certainly one component of reducing incidences
of excessive police violence.

h/t Stanton Smith