I’ve heard of a citizen’s arrest before, but I’ve never actually seen one performed. My best memory of a citizen’s arrest is from Mad Magazine in the 80’s, with a cartoon of two wrists with a rubber band around them above the caption Citizen’s Arrest handcuffs. Har-har! The topic piqued my interest today, so I began a short electronic quest to find out a little information about Citizen’s Arrest, and how it applied to Karl Rove.

I first checked some legal issues. I am not a lawyer, nor am I in law school. In fact, the only time I’ve been in court was to answer charges, but I won’t get into that here. I’m just a schlub writer trying to make sense of a nonsensical world. So, I checked a short page written by an alleged Constitutional Lawyer in Boston, David C. Grossock, circa 1994. The full text is here but I’ll summarize.

It seems that the Ninth Amendment gives citizens the right to arrest and detain someone who committed a felony in their presence, or if they have reasonable suspicion that the person committed such an act. The citizens are to charge and detain the suspect and turn the suspect over to authorities ASAP. The citizens are pretty much there to help out an overburdened police force, though I’m sure some may see this as vigilante justice. As long as tights and capes aren’t used, I suppose it would be okay.

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