Originally Posted by
UniChris
That's not how the law works.
If there's a potential victim in front of the truck (sadly, including even an officer who put themselves in that position specifically to create a conflict, resulting in the shooting of fully innocent drivers who paniced when a cop erroneously suspecting them of wrongdoing jumped on their hood) they can use that as a basis.
But if someone is merely running or driving away while presenting a vague possibility of future danger, then no. You're trying to resurrect a bit of common law that is rightfully deceased under modern case law.
So, the police are supposed to, in an instant, determine if a person who just plowed into a group of innocent people, backed up, and fled that area presents a 'vague possibility' of running his vehicle into someone else? Should they just wait to see if he does before taking whatever steps they felt necessary to prevent that from happening?
It's funny how people worry about how the law is to be applied to protect the rights of criminals after they have committed a terrible act, while the law did absolutely nothing to protect the victims of that act.