With yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee vote to unanimously approve HB 479, the bill will now advance to the Senate floor where it is expected to pass with no resistance. Gov. Kemp and The Georgia General Assembly seek to felonize citizen's arrests with the hope it will prevent an embarrassing repeat of the Ahmaud Arbery killing.
What does this bill do? It felonizes any citizen's arrest no matter how heinous criminal or the crime unless you fall into at least one of the four enumerated categories called "Private Persons":
1) An owner of a retail establishment
2) An owner of a food service establishment
3) A weight inspector under Article 5 of Chapter 2 of Title 35
4) A licensee or registrant under Chapter 38 of Title 43
If you don't qualify as a Private Person after this law passes and you arrest a fleeing: murderer, child rapist, armed robber or any other criminal, you stand to be charged with false imprisonment, a 10 year felony in Georgia.
Good Samaritans at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta performed a citizen's arrest of a fleeing armed robber. Their good deed is a felony under HB 479 as none of the people who made the arrest were Private Persons.
https://www.11alive.com/article/new...fil-a/85-b2e9ab34-68cc-489e-9cf6-cc66facc60ef
What does this bill do? It felonizes any citizen's arrest no matter how heinous criminal or the crime unless you fall into at least one of the four enumerated categories called "Private Persons":
1) An owner of a retail establishment
2) An owner of a food service establishment
3) A weight inspector under Article 5 of Chapter 2 of Title 35
4) A licensee or registrant under Chapter 38 of Title 43
If you don't qualify as a Private Person after this law passes and you arrest a fleeing: murderer, child rapist, armed robber or any other criminal, you stand to be charged with false imprisonment, a 10 year felony in Georgia.
Good Samaritans at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta performed a citizen's arrest of a fleeing armed robber. Their good deed is a felony under HB 479 as none of the people who made the arrest were Private Persons.
https://www.11alive.com/article/new...fil-a/85-b2e9ab34-68cc-489e-9cf6-cc66facc60ef