Resisting an officer sounds confrontational by nature, but is it really? In the state of Florida, if you resist an officer without violence you will be arrested on the spot. It’s considered a non-violent obstruction of the law, since you are getting in the way of execution of that officer’s legal duty. That could mean interfering with an officer’s arrest of your friend. If that still doesn’t sound like a big deal to you, maybe this will: Resisting Without Violence is a first degree misdemeanor, that can carry up to one year in prison, or a full year of probation and a $1,000 fine.
For your attorney to build a proper defense, a knowledge of the pure definition of “resisting without violence” must be understood, as well as some examples.
A common example would be if you were defending yourself against an officer who was engaging in some form of police brutality. We hear about police using “excessive force” all the time now, so this could be a usable defense. It is also possible that you were resisting an officer without even knowing it. Sometimes cops make arrests while not in uniform. In this case, your defense could be that you believed the person to be impersonating a police officer.
It might seem hard to fathom that resistance and non-violence can go together and lead to you being behind bars, but it can happen. Florida prosecutes people to the fullest extent of the law who have been accused of acting violently, and non-violently, towards law enforcement officers. With the proper legal guidance from your defense lawyer, you can find a way to plea down to avoid formal conviction or incarceration, and possibly even get the charges dropped completely.
