People v. McNeil
| Decision Date | 07 January 1965 |
| Citation | 15 N.Y.2d 717,204 N.E.2d 648,256 N.Y.S.2d 614 |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | , 204 N.E.2d 648 The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. George B. McNEIL, Appellant. |
Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, 21 A.D.2d 1, 247 N.Y.S.2d 734.
Defendant was convicted of third degree assault and of resisting an officer.
The Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York, Haddock, Byrne, and Galloway, JJ., entered judgment, and the defendant appealed.
The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment and held that even if the arrest of the defendant for jaywalking and disorderly conduct was unlawful, defendant, who struck police officer twice with clenched fist when ordered out of police car after being transported some four or five blocks to precinct station, was guilty of assault in the third degree and of resisting an officer. Breitel, J., dissented.
The defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, contending that he was entitled to resist allegedly unlawful arrest with reasonable force.
Isidore Dollinger, New York City (Walter E. Dillon, New York City, of counsel), for respondent.
Judgment affirmed in a memorandum. The physical attack by the defendant on the uniformed arresting officer cannot, under the circumstances, be considered reasonable resistance to an unlawful arrest. Such combative behavior, stemming from an initial, reasonable request by the policeman that the defendant identify himself for the purpose of receiving a summons for jaywalking and occurring, as it did, at a time and place removed from that at which he was taken into custody, must, instead, be viewed as a 'counterattack (pursued) merely for the sake of revenge or the infliction of needless injury'. (People v. Cherry, 307 N.Y. 308, 311, 121 N.E.2d 238.)
All concur.
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People v. Turner
...consequences of their acts. Even a completely unlawful police arrest will justify only 'reasonable resistance' (People v. McNeil, 15 N.Y.2d 717, 256 N.Y.S.2d 614, 204 N.E.2d 648). An unlawful arrest would afford a 'the right to resist and use 'force and violence' against the officer 'in pre......
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United States v. McCarthy
...The counter-attack should occur in close sequence to the unlawful arrest and as part of the resistance to such. People v. McNeil, 1965, 15 N.Y.2d 717, 256 N.Y.S.2d 614, 204 N. E.2d 648; People v. Allen, 1964, 15 N.Y. 2d 558, 254 N.Y.S.2d 369, 202 N.E.2d 911 The right to exert sufficient for......
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People v. Briggs
...only reasonable force can be utilized (Penal Law, § 246(3); People v. McNeil, 21 A.D.2d 1, 247 N.Y.S.2d 734, affd. 15 N.Y.2d 717, 256 N.Y.S.2d 614, 204 N.E.2d 648; People v. Cherry, supra; People v. Daniels, supra). What is reasonable will, of course, vary with reference to the severity of ......