Additional context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_R%C3%BCmeysa_%C3%96zt%C3%BCrk
On March 25, 2025, 30-year-old Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk was taken and detained by six masked plainclothes agents from the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, and removed in an unmarked car.
Given the following detention, which from the perspective of the person being detained could easily look like a kidnapping, how could a person determine if an agent (humans for now, but AI agents are coming) does hold legitimate government authority for an arrest and is not simply a criminal organization doing human trafficking?
Especially how could a person do that, while remaining physically safe, so assuming a proper physical distance. So answers which say, just give up and let yourself be handcuffed wouldn't really work, if the people detaining you end up being actual kidnappers. Also my first instinct when 2 or more masked people surround me wouldn't be, let's see if these people are undercover police and check their badge and comply, but holy **** I'm being kidnapped, run or maybe fight.
Could one use a gun in such a situation and claim self defense? It would seem reasonable, but I wonder what legal scholars think.
To some extent I already had this question with police in uniform, just having police like uniform and then going on a kidnapping spree isn't that expensive as a criminal organization, so if your answer can include both cases (masked, unmasked), that would be valuable.
Answers from other jurisdictions than the one tagged are welcome.
