0:00 hello out there legal warriors can you
0:02 be charged with the crime for using
0:04 pepper spray for using pepper spray to
0:06 defend yourself well you might be
0:08 surprised by that answer so if you're
0:11 interested in this area of the law or
0:13 you carry pepper spray to defend
0:14 yourself stay tuned because this is the
0:16 video for you
0:18 [Music]
0:21 my name is attorney lance freyr and i've
0:23 been defending people charged with
0:24 crimes for more than 20 years and that's
0:27 all throughout washington state i'm
0:29 putting out these videos to help educate
0:30 the public so if you find this useful
0:32 please like and please subscribe more
0:33 people will get the help they need now
0:35 let's just jump right into it i mean
0:38 a lot of people carry pepper spray and
0:40 when i thought about making this video i
0:42 talked to my staff and one of my own
0:43 paralegals just pulled out pepper spray
0:44 right from her purse you know it should
0:46 be okay
0:48 is what we all think no problem to use
0:50 pepper spray to defend ourselves it's
0:52 non-lethal the police use it and it's
0:55 wild widely available right and a lot of
0:58 people watching this video may have
1:00 pepper spray or have their loved ones
1:02 that do and so why am i making this
1:04 video because i've seen a lot of police
1:06 reports lately where people are either
1:09 being investigated for crimes or even
1:11 charged with crimes for using pepper
1:14 spray
1:15 apparently in a way the police don't
1:17 like
1:18 and what is pepper spray well i'm no
1:20 expert but i think of it as a little a
1:23 tube maybe a liquid tube that's got a
1:25 high test high capsaicin type a
1:28 pressurized liquid or mist
1:31 that that disables someone that makes
1:33 their eyes red and disables them it's
1:35 non-lethal it's really meant to be a
1:37 defensive measure you know it's one of
1:40 the
1:41 lower levels of force used by law
1:43 enforcement and it's allowed in
1:45 washington state at least for the for
1:47 the public to carry that
1:48 and so
1:50 what are the factors we need to be
1:52 worried about if we are in a situation
1:55 where we think we need to use this
1:57 pepper spray to defend ourselves how can
2:00 we do it
2:01 in a way and how can we talk about it
2:03 later to minimize the chances of us
2:06 having problems with law enforcement
2:08 because let's think about it um if we're
2:10 using pepper spray we were probably in
2:12 our minds in an emergency situation
2:15 we're probably afraid uh we're afraid
2:17 we're going to be assaulted
2:18 or worse and we're trying to get out of
2:20 that situation so
2:23 the what you have to know about in
2:24 washington state is
2:27 if we were to use pepper spray against
2:29 someone without a valid reason without
2:32 sort of a self-defense reason that could
2:34 be considered and will be considered an
2:37 assault
2:38 assault in washington state is any
2:40 unwanted touching including by something
2:43 that you spray or throw spit even that
2:46 is a salt and depending on what happens
2:49 to the victim of the assault depends on
2:52 the level of assault if it's uh you know
2:54 how serious the charge is the salt in
2:56 the fourth degree is any unwanted
2:57 touching no injuries stuff like that
3:00 assault in the third degree is a felony
3:03 and that is like
3:04 negligent infliction of bodily harm in a
3:07 pepper spray situation
3:09 um there's a whole bunch of different
3:10 other ways and assault in the second
3:12 degree even a higher level felony which
3:15 is a strike offense three strikes and
3:17 you go to prison for life believe it or
3:18 not i'm assaulting the second degree is
3:20 basically substantial bodily harm being
3:24 uh inflicted and those uh
3:27 definitions are in the law and sort of
3:29 the beauties in the eye the beholder a
3:31 police officer
3:33 thinking that someone used pepper spray
3:35 for an unjustified reason
3:37 could choose to arrest or refer for
3:40 assault 4
3:42 assault 3
3:43 or even assault 2. i've seen all of
3:45 those believe it or not i've seen all of
3:47 those fairly recently
3:49 so what do you have to think about well
3:52 again
3:53 technically using pepper spray
3:56 is an assault but there's defenses to
3:58 assault
3:59 and so self-defense so if an officer
4:02 believes that somebody acted in
4:05 self-defense they're probably not going
4:06 to think about that use of pepper spray
4:09 as an assault are they so what do we
4:11 have to worry about
4:12 well we use the pepper spray we only
4:14 want to be using that from a legal
4:17 standpoint if we're really subject to
4:20 intimate imminent assault or something's
4:22 actually going on not
4:24 if we just use it because we're scared
4:26 that might be a good idea still to do
4:28 but if we describe it that way we're
4:30 going to have some more problems with
4:32 law enforcement so in general
4:34 self-defense in washington state is
4:35 we're allowed to defend ourselves
4:38 against attack but
4:40 our
4:41 defense use of force has to be
4:43 proportional to the use of force against
4:46 us so if someone's pushing us
4:48 outside of our home at least we probably
4:50 can't shoot them in the head
4:52 right
4:53 and if someone is just cursing us
4:56 maybe we're not allowed according to the
4:57 police to use pepper spray to just get
5:00 them away from us and so it's going to
5:01 depend on the officer so
5:04 if you're in a situation where you've
5:06 had to use pepper spray and you've
5:09 called the police because you're scared
5:11 i mean you're rightful use the pepper
5:12 spray and you're scared
5:14 or the police get involved
5:16 it's going to be really important that
5:18 the way you put it to the police makes
5:20 it look like you just weren't mad and
5:22 getting even with someone right it
5:24 wasn't a relative that wasn't behaving
5:26 so you sprayed them to get the the heck
5:29 out of your room or your car or whatnot
5:32 you want to make it very clear
5:34 to law enforcement that i only use this
5:37 because i was literally being attacked
5:40 pushed shoved like this um something
5:43 that was uh you know it needs to be true
5:45 but something that
5:47 justifies your use of of that type of
5:50 force because it is a use of force
5:53 so um an example where uh it might be
5:56 justified in the officer's minds as
5:58 someone's trying to get into your car
6:00 right that's you know someone's trying
6:01 to get in your car
6:03 and uh it's clear that you have reasons
6:05 to believe they wish you harm well that
6:07 car is sort of attached to you so you
6:09 get a little more leeway there to keep
6:10 them from entering your property in my
6:13 opinion right this is just information
6:15 not legal advice but in my opinion you
6:17 usually get a little more leeway there a
6:19 little more leeway if someone's trying
6:20 to get into your home a little less
6:22 leeway if you're in a bar or something
6:24 right
6:25 police are going to come and look at
6:28 you know what was the reason
6:30 that the pepper spray was used and also
6:33 what happened to the person that the
6:35 pepper spray was used on right if they
6:37 fell and cracked open their head and now
6:39 they have a
6:40 fractured skull we've got more problems
6:42 right because
6:43 there's more
6:44 injury that was created by our use of
6:47 force even though we know it was
6:49 justified
6:51 the more scrutiny that's going to be put
6:54 on the person using the force or the
6:56 pepper spray in this case so
7:00 if
7:01 you never get to tell your side of the
7:02 story uh to the the police and you hear
7:05 the police are involved then it's you
7:06 know it's definitely time to get a hold
7:08 of an attorney so they can think about
7:10 whether or not um you need to uh put out
7:13 your side of the story or not to the
7:15 police it's generally not a great idea
7:16 to do that on your own but oftentimes
7:19 these are situations between people who
7:21 don't know each other the use of that
7:22 type of pepper spray and believe it or
7:25 not the original aggressor the one who
7:28 caused
7:29 the suspect
7:31 in this case who used the pepper spray
7:33 to use the pepper spray is often the one
7:34 who then calls the police
7:36 right they then call the police because
7:38 they're you know they can't see and
7:40 they've got you know red in their eyes
7:42 and they can't believe they've been
7:43 attacked in that way
7:45 and so it's very common
7:49 for
7:50 people in the defense bar to see a
7:52 situation where
7:54 there's an aggressor the person defends
7:57 themself in the way they think best with
7:58 pepper spray and then it's the aggressor
8:00 who calls the police
8:03 so
8:04 something to be aware of
8:05 what what i typically uh
8:08 will try to do in these situations is
8:10 really work with the client to go
8:13 through
8:14 exactly how they were feeling
8:16 exactly what it is in their background
8:19 that made them
8:20 feel that way and exactly what is it in
8:23 the relationship
8:24 between the person who was pepper
8:27 sprayed and the user of the pepper spray
8:30 that caused such fear of imminent harm
8:34 to the person using the pepper spray
8:36 again we want to show that we're
8:38 actually being physically attacked or we
8:41 had a reasonable fear of imminent harm
8:44 in the harm was commensurate or
8:46 proportional to the amount of force that
8:49 we used and we want to show that we use
8:51 the minimal amount of force to protect
8:53 ourselves and therefore our action would
8:56 be legal
8:58 so
9:00 there's lots of other permutations i've
9:02 seen all types of cases with pepper
9:04 spray and drive through lines
9:07 in it you know different types of fast
9:09 food restaurants where there's a a fight
9:11 about things what we don't want to do is
9:14 we don't want to portray ourselves as we
9:16 got angry so we pepper sprayed the son
9:19 of a gun right if if it appears that we
9:22 use this
9:23 non-lethal form of defense in an
9:25 aggressive unjustified manner we're
9:27 going to get arrested we're going to get
9:29 arrested we're going to get charged and
9:31 so we've got to be careful of what we
9:33 say and how we say it and when we you
9:35 know use this type of force so
9:38 i hope you found this video useful if so
9:40 please like and please subscribe and hey
9:43 if you're in this type of situation
9:44 you're worried about something that's
9:46 happened you think you might be charged
9:47 with a crime or even worse you have been
9:49 feel free to give my office a call again
9:51 we've been defending people treasure
9:52 with christ for more than 20 years we'll
9:55 listen to what happened we'll identify a
9:56 way forward and we will be there for you
9:58 thank you
10:02 [Music]
10:06 you
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