In California overturned the law, which many called «a relic of the days of the Wild West.»
The Governor of the Golden state Gavin Newsom signed a bill repealing the law under which to deny the request of a police officer for help is a crime.
California law Posse Comitatus from 1872 determined refusal to assist the police during, for example, of arrest, an offence for «any able-bodied persons aged 18 years and older.»
Posse comitatus derives from medieval English common law, but were widely used in the first years of independence of America, including as a tool for the enforcement of the fugitive slave Act.
Senate bill 192, sponsored by Senator Bob Hertzberg of Los Angeles, cancels the old law. Herzberg called the law «a relic of a bygone era» that puts people ahead of the «moral dilemma».
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Against this bill were the Association of the sheriffs of the state of California, which stated:
«There are situations in which law enforcement may ask individuals for help in emergencies, and we are not sure that this law should be repealed».
Himself Gavin Newsom has not made a statement when he signed the bill.
The act «occurred» in the state in 2014, when the County Sheriff’s office Trinity used a Posse comitatus, in his defense, when the couple filed a lawsuit, claiming that the request for assistance, the Sheriff almost cost them their lives.
It was about the incident when the 911 caller is a neighbor of the couple. She asked for help. The corporal with the Sheriff’s office had to travel very many miles to the scene of accident (this happened in a remote area), so while he was driving, asked the couple – Norma and Jim Handsaw – check out their neighbor. The lawsuit claimed that the corporal reported that the neighbor whispering into the phone: «Help», and so the danger was real.
When Norm and Jim went into the house of a neighbor, they found her and her boyfriend killed, and the killer attacked the couple with a knife and seriously injured them.
