And...

Posted on: September 1, 2017 at 20:29:29 CT

Plummer v. State, along with Bad Elk v. United States,[19] is cited in Internet blogs and discussion groups but often misquoted.[20] The misquote is that "citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer's life if necessary"[21] although the Plummer quotation is a fabrication because the quoted text does not appear in the text of the Plummer opinion.[22] Several other sources note that Bad Elk is no longer good law,[23][original research?] what one legal commenter stated was a "bizarre, irrational or merely grossly wrong understanding of law...."[24]

Modern sources describe Plummer and Bad Elk as applying when there is an unlawful use of force rather than when there is an unlawful arrest; under contemporary law in the majority of U.S. jurisdictions, a person may not use force to resist an unlawful arrest.[25]