Task force determines that Freddie Gay’s knife was, in fact, illegal. Since the whole basis of the prosecutor’s charges was that officers “failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest, as no crime had been committed,” what does she do now?
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Bottom line: if you don't want to get jacked by the police, quit being in situations that put you in contact. The cops knew this joker by name. Taking out the trash.
My neighbor back in the 80's was a cop, and when people asked him what he did for a living, said he was a garbage collector.
Whether or not the departed felon of a thug was carrying an illegal knife or not is not the reason he was stopped in the first place, I believe that had something to do with dealing drugs.
No, he just saw the cops and ran. I haven't heard one thing about drugs. Cops are like sighthounds (I used to own a Saluki): when they see someone run, they chase. Maybe he was dealing drugs, maybe not, but I think the reason they arrested him was the concealed spring-loaded knife.
After a chase, with the suspect swearing he did nothing wrong, the cops ALWAYS ask "then why did you run?" More often than not, they were running from arrest warrants.
Innocent people don't run from the cops.
The second amendment is about "arms" not just "guns" any law against carrying an edged weapon is as Anti-Constitutional as any law against carrying a gun. Now, what the individual does with said "arm" is another matter. But I hate the fact that so many conservatives sit still for this kind of law.
Oh I think the law is stupid, but cops are not in the lawmaking business. Like I always tell people, we don't even WANT cops picking and choosing which laws to enforce. That would be ugly. Point is, Baltimore has a law on the books against spring-loaded knives and Freddie Gray had a spring-loaded knife. Then a STATE DA says, "Hey, that's not against state law," like she's so stupid she doesn't even know that state law and city law might not be the same.
Hey, Oblama is a constitutional.scholar and professor, even though he appears to have never read the document. Cut her some slack.
And she looks like she could be Obama's daughter.
Can we say OOOOIPSIE?
Mosby is a radical progressive operative disguised as a State's Attorney... what do you expect her to do?
She gave her constituents what they wanted. Welcome to mob rule in another dying black led democrat machine run big city. The riots, burning, and looting put the stake in the city. The city government's reaction to it drove the stake through. Baltimore is dead for at least 50 years if not forever.
I did some nosing about this. To play devil's advocate...
If it's a switchblade, gravity knife - it appears illegal to carry concealed but not illegal to own or carry unconcealed.
If it's a spring assisted folding knife (which was noted in the police report) it appears a big gray area. I can't find anything one way or the other nosing around. It seems to hinge on the term "spring-assisted." It seems MD law allows it, but there's no preemption law on knives in MD so every city can make their own laws, which Baltimore (and some other cities) do.
It appears spring-assisted is not illegal to own or illegal to carry concealed or visible in MD but may be illegal in Baltimore, again depending upon the interpretation of "spring-assisted." (There is a difference between a spring-assisted knife and a switchblade. A switchblade is automatic and only requires the push of a button to open. A spring-assisted knife requires you to push on the blade to start the opening before the spring takes over and therefore is not automatic).
Then you get into what constitutes concealed. The cop could see it, so was it concealed or open carry? (The pocket clip was visible which normally means you can see the top of the knife sticking out of the top of the pocket).
Based on all of this it doesn't seem to me to be a stretch for a liberal judge to declare the law as void due to it being vague.
Regular folding knives are OK statewide (with a found exception in Gathersburg, which outlaws carrying knives).
All of that is irrelevant, since it's illegal for a convicted felon to carry ANY weapon concealed.
"Based on all of this it doesn’t seem to me to be a stretch for a liberal judge to declare the law as void due to it being vague." -- It's at least vague enough to be misinterpreted by the arresting officers, who didn't have a paralegal research team in the van with them that afternoon.
I'm not arguing they didn't have a right to arrest the guy. I think they did. I'm more talking about what may happen next regarding the knife charge being upheld or not.
It's pretty much irrelevant what happens to the knife charge. The point is that a cop making a decision on the street had reasonable cause to arrest Freddie Gray since we can't figure it out for sure here in the comfort of our seats in front of our computers.
When your stupid, and can't figure out how to run the village, remember it takes a TASK FORCE......