Texas would have done better by staying out of both the Union and the Confederacy.
Not a great development.
Sounds pretty bad. Even if we assume that the Texas law on misdemeanor trespass sticks, that is such trespass remains illegal, it still remains that they’re authorizing civilians to arrest people for misdemeanors. That’s pretty thin.
For example, what happens if an armed illegal immigrant group runs into an armed vigilante group and they exchange fire? Both can claim legal self defense. At a glance, merely trespassing isn’t an action that waives one’s right to self defense. Sticking around after the party representing the property owner has reasonably ordered you off their land is a different story, as is breaking into someone’s house. But that doesn’t seem to apply here.
And crimes can be sticky. If one member of a group commits a crime, like say kidnapping, murder, etc, then the rest can be liable as well.
I think this would be on safer ground, if it were closely supervised by local law enforcement (or former law enforcement) such that legal liability was reduced to a reasonable level, and let law enforcement do the actual arresting.
Texas would have done better by staying out of both the Union and the Confederacy.
Not a great development.
Sounds pretty bad. Even if we assume that the Texas law on misdemeanor trespass sticks, that is such trespass remains illegal, it still remains that they’re authorizing civilians to arrest people for misdemeanors. That’s pretty thin.
For example, what happens if an armed illegal immigrant group runs into an armed vigilante group and they exchange fire? Both can claim legal self defense. At a glance, merely trespassing isn’t an action that waives one’s right to self defense. Sticking around after the party representing the property owner has reasonably ordered you off their land is a different story, as is breaking into someone’s house. But that doesn’t seem to apply here.
And crimes can be sticky. If one member of a group commits a crime, like say kidnapping, murder, etc, then the rest can be liable as well.
I think this would be on safer ground, if it were closely supervised by local law enforcement (or former law enforcement) such that legal liability was reduced to a reasonable level, and let law enforcement do the actual arresting.