Lawmakers: Allow use of force to escape riot
COLUMBUS – Two Southwest Ohio lawmakers, responding to this summer’s protests, want to allow Ohioans to use deadly force to escape a riot.
Under current Ohio law, residents can fatally shoot someone who enters their home or vehicle without trying to flee. That principle is called castle doctrine.
But a new proposal from Republican Reps. Cindy Abrams of Harrison and Sara Carruthers of Hamilton would add another scenario: anyone could use “reasonable force, including deadly force, to escape the aggravated riot or riot” if the person was facing “imminent bodily harm.”
The person “may take any steps necessary to flee or escape from persons engaged in aggravated riot or riot,” but it would not be required under the proposed legislation. Abrams said this scenario would apply if a person was trapped in a riot and in fear for his or her life.
Under Ohio law, a riot is defined as a group of four or more people gathered to cause violence, intimidate public officials, hinder education at schools or commit crimes in addition to disorderly conduct. Those who participate in a riot face a first-degree misdemeanor.
The change is part of House Bill 784 , which was introduced Monday. The bill also would increase penalties for those who vandalize property or assault police officers during a protest that turned violent.
“The disrespect right now is devastating to the uniformed police officers,” said Abrams, a former Cincinnati police officer. “They take an oath to protect and serve you and they take that oath seriously.”
For example, anyone who damages government property or a cemetery during a riot would face a second-degree felony.
Someone who seriously injures a police officer during a riot would face a third-degree felony. Under current law, the assault of a police officer is a fourth-degree felony.
Under the proposed changes, a police officer who is injured or has property damaged while responding to a riot could file a lawsuit against the person who causes the damage and the
pects in those situations will be made by supervisors or the city attorney’s office.
Columbus police officers are concerned about the reaction the change will get from the public, he said, particularly from business owners who may not be able to see shoplifting suspects arrested or prosecuted.
“Now we take a report, send that to the prosecutor’s office and they’ll make a decision about what they do with it,” Ferrell said. “In the past, we could arrest or give them a court date.”
The exceptions to the new directive will also take some figuring out, since what one supervisor might subjectively consider mitigating circumstances might not be what the prosecutor’s office or other police supervisors would consider mitigating circumstances.
“I think there’s a lot of emotion involved with everything going on in the world, and this is another way in their eyes of stripping the police of being able to do their job,” Ferrell said. “That is the officers’ concern.” bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner jfutty@dispatch.com @johnfutty