Originally Posted by
SactoDoug
The criminal can sue and win if excessive force is used. You can't beat someone to a pulp while trying to arrest them unless you have a gold badge.
You can put an arm lock on them and hold them until the police arrive. If they fight against you, then you are within your rights to defend yourself.
All of this sympathy for criminals is surprising. How many of you sympathizers think the woman in the video should be charged with battery for knocking the thief off the bike?
A "criminal" can sue for just about any cause, whether real or imagined. And read the california code, use of pepper spray is classed in the same way as deadly force---which by definition is "excessive" and illegal in california to protect property... And since you seem to be backing away from the pepper spray argument, your arm lock and defending yourself isn't likely to help you when their lawyer paints you as a vigilante who misinterpreted their actions and started the violence...
Oh, and I have no sympathy for thieves (of any kind), one of the reasons I live in Texas, where
lethal force is an option to protect property..