Crime of Lynching in Los Angeles – California Penal Code 405a & 405b
Basically, people can be charged with lynching in Los Angeles, California. This whole crime set centers around the riots.
A lot of times, there's been riots in Los Angeles' past, and new laws have been developed in order to prosecute those people who were involved in these riots, where they're fighting and clashing with the police, destroying property, and basically going wild in the streets of Los Angeles.
Fighting with Police at Riot
Pursuant to Penal Code §405A requires that the police are grabbing someone who is involved in a riot, for example, and somebody else comes along with trying to help them with fighting with the police assisting the person break free and then they can be charged with this lynching crime which is a felony. They could be looking at up to four years in prison.
Also, the person who is involved in the clash with the police can be charged with lynching because they basically prevented this from happening.
It was foreseeable once they began to riot and fight with the police that, they would cause other people to become involved. Sometimes, they actually call for people to help them. In this case, they can be charged with lynching and face a felony on their record, the loss of their right to bear arms, and a host of other penalties that go along with this lynching charge in Los Angeles.
A lot of people think that lynching can only be charged when someone is actually trying to hang somebody from a tree, for example, like they used to do in the South of America years and years ago. Still, his lynching charge has been revived and brought up because of all these rights and because of all these issues where people are clashing with the police.
When our law enforcement officers are trying to do their job and other people interfere with that job and even assist someone who is being detained or arrested by the police or even hurt the police during that time, they can be charged with the crime of lynching, and the prosecutors and police can utilize Penal Code §405a and §405b.
If you're being charged with a lynching charge and you cannot figure out why because it doesn't make sense because you weren't lynching anybody, it really has to do with this issue of a riot, issues with the police and somebody helping them.
It could not even be a riot situation. It could be a situation where the police are trying to detain somebody on Los Angeles streets, and other people become involved.
We see this all the time when people are videotaping the police being in clashes with individuals. Then the public gets involved in either trying to help the person or fighting with the police, so it's not that surprising if you're charged with lynching if you got involved with the police and you were not cooperating with them in the performance of their duties.
Defenses To Lynching
One defense is that you were not involved in any fight with the police and that you were mistakenly grabbed, which happens all the time, especially when there's a mob acting crazy on the streets.
Sometimes, they start grabbing people. Identifications were made; it was dark outside. Other times, I've seen a really good defense in these lynching cases pursuant to Penal Code §405A is when the police are not in the performance of their duties, and they are just roughing people up out in public, and people are just trying to defend themselves.
Then, a jury might find that they're not in the performance of their duties. They're not going to hit somebody with a felony lynching charge and the police did not act properly. Sometimes the police come, and there's a bunch of them – they're almost like a gang sometimes.
They get in a big fight with a crowd and start yelling back and forth, but they need to perform their duties. They're just causing trouble and trying to order people around.
The people argue no, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm just out here trying to enjoy the night. I didn't attack anybody. I didn't commit any violence. I didn't vandalize anything. I didn't steal anything, and the police should not have grabbed me. I didn't do anything wrong.
The police don't have any right to grab me. This could be a defense if you could bring forth video evidence and other witness statements, and just by the surrounding circumstances, the case is not a lynching case. If you were not involved with any riot, and you haven't done anything illegal, then the police shouldn't be able to grab you, rough you up, detain you, or arrest you.
Again, this happens all the time. I've been doing this for twenty-five years. Fortunately, the pendulum is starting to swing because videotape has really caught the police off guard, and now they can be sued civilly.
They could even have criminal charges leveled against them when they're grabbing people, claiming this Penal Code §405A lynching or other charges, and someone has videotape showing the police were acting improperly, were not in the performance of their duty, and were just being jerks out there. The public didn't like it and just defended themselves.
In this case, if you could prove this to a jury, then you could avoid a conviction for this lynching charge and get out of the criminal justice system as fast as possible, but you're going to need an attorney who has been down this road before, had success, knows how to fight these cases when the police are involved, and they are acting impermissibly.
