RUNNING FROM THE POLICE/RESISTING ARREST

The state can not allow citizens to refuse to comply with police orders under most circumstances, but the penalty should not be summary death. It is particularly offensive when the police know who the fleeing citizen is, in most cases they should be rounded up later and extra time should be tacked on to their penalty for fleeing. When our state police have rules of engagement that look a like the US Military rules during at hot war when dealing with enemy combatants we clearly have a big problem.

But here is the thing, our officers ARE generally following the rules that they have been given. If we dont like the action then the thing to do would be to ring up their bosses the politicians and ask them WTF!. Condemning the cops is rarely the right move.

Well, what was the suspect fleeing? Possibly a broken brake light? If that's the case, I can't see the public hazard. Like, maybe he will drive with a broken brake light again?

The police do not chase for minor traffic violations...the person was "stopped" for the tail light but was fleeing from a warrant.

Hawk:
The "penalty" is not death. The death is the result of either a mistake or an escalation and is the fault of the subject who flees/resists.
"Rounding up later" could open the agency to lawsuit if the subject goes on to hurt or kill someone in the interim. And since there is no such thing as a crystal ball...

I thought "fleeing" was considered "resisting" in the legal world. And I thought one could be brought up on a charge of Resisting and that this charge is independent of other charges - a charge that carries a sentence and can be used alone or as an add-on to other charges. So even if a law officer asks you to stop to get directions to Dunkin Donuts, if you take off running you are then and there guilty of "fleeing." Doesn't matter if you are innocent of everything, anything else ... you are getting a penalty. But I have no idea what the penalty is for fleeing and I admittedly have no idea if my perceptions of the legal system are correct to begin with.

I believe the act of fleeing a law officer should be a crime you can be found guilty of even if you have done nothing else illegal in your entire life. I completely agree that fleeing a law official can reasonably result in all kinds of bad stuff because we humans are imperfect and emotional animals. We therefore need to send s strong message to avoid the actions that will create the scenario in the first place.

I think that if you flee a law official, for those convicted of something else, "fleeing" gets you a minimum of an additional 30% of all sentences combined but no less than 6 months. If you are convicted of fleeing and nothing else then a mandatory minimum of 2 months incarceration seems like a good place to start. But maybe 2 months is too harsh for someone who has never spent even one day in incarceration. The objective of any punishment should be to reform, not break, the offender and that can be a tricky affair.