Adrian Peterson arrested for resisting arrest.

[ALLD]

By KRISTIE RIEKEN AP Sports Writer
HOUSTON July 7, 2012 (AP)
Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson was arrested on a charge of resisting arrest after an early morning incident where police say it took three officers to subdue him.

Houston Police Department spokesman Kese Smith said Peterson was at a downtown nightclub early Saturday morning when an off-duty Houston police officer working security asked Peterson and a group of people he was with to leave because it was closed. The man, who Kese said identified himself as a police officer, left to tell other patrons to leave the club before returning to Peterson's group to again tell them to leave.

Kese said Peterson turned around and told the officer that he heard him the first time and pushed him in the shoulder, causing him to stumble. The officer told Peterson he was under arrest and to put his hands behind his back. Peterson began yelling, pulled away and "assumed an aggressive stance" so another off-duty officer came to help. Peterson continued to struggle with them both.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireSto...uston-16732651

[Devilsdancefloor]

WOW wonder if they heard DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? C'mon man just freaking leave

[GBMelBlount]

Peterson began yelling, pulled away and "assumed an aggressive stance"

A year ago he probably would have tried to out run them.......

[st33lersguy]

Peterson is setting a bad example for kids looking up to him with this kind of behavior

[86WARD]

WHy didn't he just run? He is the best RB in the league...

[ALLD]

Maybe if he was holding a football he would have done better.

[GodfatherofSoul]

I'll wait for AP's version of what happened. I've dealt with some of these off-duty cop/bouncer types before and I'll just say I'm taking the official story with a spoon full of salt. If AP pushed the officer down in a bar-full of patrons, "assaulting an officer" would be a lock which is why I'm skeptical.

[tube517]

Was William Gay trying to arrest him?

Sent from my Thrive using Tapatalk 2

[BnG_Hevn]

Did they identify themselves as police officers?

I can't stand it when off-duty cops think they are on top of the world.

[ALLD]

Did they identify themselves as police officers?

I can't stand it when off-duty cops think they are on top of the world.

You are 100% correct with that statement. They are egomaniacs.

[SteelerEmpire]

I'll wait for AP's version of what happened. I've dealt with some of these off-duty cop/bouncer types before and I'll just say I'm taking the official story with a spoon full of salt. If AP pushed the officer down in a bar-full of patrons, "assaulting an officer" would be a lock which is why I'm skeptical.

Yea. I've ran into an "off-duty" police officer a couple of times before as well... they never showed me a badge. There's two sides to every story, and then their's the actual truth.

[JayC]

[BigNastyDefense]

My GF works for the police department, and one night I got into an altercation with an off-duty cop who worked at a bar we were at as a bouncer. He grabbed her ass, and I shoved him to the ground.

I had the cuffs slapped on me, but once the owner of the bar showed the video of what happened to the cops, I was (surprisingly) let go. He never identified himself to me as an off duty cop, I had no idea who he was, and my GF told him to leave her alone when we first got there.

He's lucky that when I shoved him down that I didn't jump on top of him and start hitting him. I got my message across, and in the end he got fired from his bouncer job and was reprimanded by the police department with a three day non-paid suspension.

So yeah, I am taking this with a grain of salt. Not all cops are egomaniacs, but many are.

[steelerdude15]

I'll wait to hear more to come to a conclusion.

[LLT]

I'll wait for AP's version of what happened. I've dealt with some of these off-duty cop/bouncer types before and I'll just say I'm taking the official story with a spoon full of salt. If AP pushed the officer down in a bar-full of patrons, "assaulting an officer" would be a lock which is why I'm skeptical.

I work in the law enforcement field and you are on to something. You can (virtually) never have a resisting arrest charge by itself. Assaulting an officer is probably the intitial charge, or simple assault in some states that dont recognize the officers authority as a police officer while they are "moonlighting". In a nutshell...if Peterson assaulted the officer after he identified himself as such, its assaulted an officer....if he pushed the officer before he identified himself, and while the officer was acting as a bouncer, its simple assault. The resisting charge would be added after the fact.

Im tired...so I hope that makes sense.

[steelreserve]

As far as I understand it .. when you're off-duty, you're not a cop, you're security. Unless there's some fairly serious shit going down and you're the only one who can stop it before the on-duty police get there. The guy got into an argument with a bouncer, that's all. Sounds like just another off-duty cop trying to throw his weight around.

[ALLD]

Off-duty cop wannabe LBer with a big attitude problem.

[SteelerEmpire]

As far as I understand it .. when you're off-duty, you're not a cop, you're security. Unless there's some fairly serious shit going down and you're the only one who can stop it before the on-duty police get there. The guy got into an argument with a bouncer, that's all. Sounds like just another off-duty cop trying to throw his weight around.

Actually anyone can make an arrest. It's written in the constitution. Hell I've had to do it before... more than once. But "citizens arrests" are usually 'always' ugly. You basically have to beat the hell out of somebody and detain them there until the "squad car arrestor's" (cops) get there. The last one (bout 6 months ago) I chased down this guy that assaulted this old lady. Finally caught him, beat the s**t out of him, and held him there in a wrestling pin for 20 minutes til the cops got there. I did suffer a high ankle sprain from jumping down a flight of stairs and landing on concrete while chasing his azz. It didn't really even start hurting til the next day though, I guess because the adrenaline was pumping that night. But I basically had to use crutches for the next 6 weeks.
But that's just an example that citizen arrests normally never go easy.

[LLT]

As far as I understand it .. when you're off-duty, you're not a cop, you're security. Unless there's some fairly serious shit going down and you're the only one who can stop it before the on-duty police get there. The guy got into an argument with a bouncer, that's all. Sounds like just another off-duty cop trying to throw his weight around.

No...that is incorrect. An off duty police officer retains law enorcement authority. In fact, an off duty officer is REQUIRED by law to act if they witness a crime and can be held liable if they fail to do so. If not in uniform, however, they are required to identify themselves as an officer and show badge and/or ID if asked.

[NCSteeler]

No...that is incorrect. An off duty police officer retains law enorcement authority. In fact, an off duty officer is REQUIRED by law to act if they witness a crime and can be held liable if they fail to do so. If not in uniform, however, they are required to identify themselves as an officer and show badge and/or ID if asked.

But in the end , there seems to be no legal way of facing a "resisting arrest" charge without being charged and arrested for some other crime, correct?

[steelreserve]

No...that is incorrect. An off duty police officer retains law enorcement authority. In fact, an off duty officer is REQUIRED by law to act if they witness a crime and can be held liable if they fail to do so. If not in uniform, however, they are required to identify themselves as an officer and show badge and/or ID if asked.

True, and regardless, I would expect that most police officers, if they saw a crime in progress, would step in and do something whether they were on duty or not.

But I was talking more about what someone in Peterson's position is liable for. When you're an off-duty cop, I don't think the law gives you the same legal protections as when you're in uniform - e.g., things like assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, etc., don't apply. Unless you make it very loud and clear to everyone that you're switching out of "civilian mode" and into cop mode, show your badge, announce yourself, etc., and have a good reason for doing so.

In other words, if you're working as a bouncer, you only have the same legal protections as a bouncer, unless there's some emergency or near-emergency that would require a cop. Which I don't think some run-of-the-mill scuffle with the patrons really qualifies as.