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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   22105 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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This is totally retarded. The standard that best protects officers from being second guessed in the courts is the "moment of threat" rule (although it was dialed back a bit in Barnes) in which plaintiffs and courts cannot go back indefinitely into the encounter. That sort of thing is abused a lot in State civil courts that don't need to follow federal precedent -- for example in a civil suit in CA, you'll see arguments that officers precipitated the conditions for deadly force by standing in the way of a vehicle.

You really really don't want to open the door to evaluating these kinds of things based on what anyone did in the minutes up to the use of deadly force, let alone days before or just general "this guy is a thug" vibes. Even if it's true, it undermines the entire analytic structure and that structure is by far the most beneficial to law and order more generally.

This is totally retarded. The standard that best protects officers from being second guessed in the courts is the "moment of threat" rule (although it was dialed back a bit in Barnes) in which plaintiffs and courts cannot go back indefinitely into the encounter.

This was not "dialed back a bit" in Barnes. It was completely overturned and throughly repudiated in Barnes. (And rightly so -- imagine the Good case, only no Ross and the cop who was at her driver's door jumps up on the doorsill as she's driving away and shoots her because he's now in danger)

You really really don't want to open the door to evaluating these kinds of things based on what anyone did in the minutes up to the use of deadly force, let alone days before or just general "this guy is a thug" vibes.

From Barnes

Most notable here, the “totality of the circumstances” inquiry into a use of force has no time limit. Of course, the situation at the precise time of the shooting will often be what matters most; it is, after all, the officer’s choice in that moment that is under review. But earlier facts and circumstances may bear on how a reasonable officer would have understood and responded to later ones. Or as the Federal Government puts the point, those later, “in-the-moment” facts “cannot be hermetically sealed off from the context in which they arose.” Taking account of that context may benefit either party in an excessive-force case. Prior events may show, for example, why a reasonable officer would have perceived otherwise ambiguous conduct of a suspect as threatening. Or instead they may show why such an officer would have perceived the same conduct as innocuous. The history of the interaction, as well as other past circumstances known to the officer, thus may inform the reasonableness of the use of force.

(Omitted inline citation)

In this case, if those prior interactions were known to the officer, they may well be relevant.

It should be noted that SCOTUS didn't rule directly on officer-created jeopardy, just said that the "moment of threat" doctrine is wrong and totality of the circumstances is correct and sent the case back to the lower court for them to make the ruling with the proper standard. Does anyone know if the ruling has come out yet or if there are rulings for other cases with officer-created jeopardy made under the totality of the circumstances?

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