The following excerpt is from Salcido v. The County Of Madera, No. 1:10-CV-195 AWI DLB (E.D. Cal. 2011):
All claims that law enforcement officers used excessive force, either deadly or non-deadly, in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other seizure of a citizen are to be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment. Graham v. Connor, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1871 (1989). The key inquiry in a Fourth Amendment excessive force case is whether "the officers' actions are 'objectively reasonable' in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation." Id. at 1872 (citations omitted). The analysis of whether a specific use of force was objectively reasonable "requires a careful balancing of the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests against the countervailing government interests at stake." Id. at 1871.
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