Washington State Supreme court upholds conviction on man carrying a paring knife in Seattle

Washington State Supreme Court ^ | 12/31/2015 | Washington State Supreme Court

[SeaHawkFan]

http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=906084MAJ

Go to link to read.

[SeaHawkFan]

Read opinion at link.

Incredibly corrupt. It's legal to open carry in Seattle, but a 5-4 majority claims Seattle can enforce a law against any fixed blade knife or a folding knife with a blade more than 3.5"

Expect this to go to the US Supreme Court.

[Redmen4ever]

In Baltimore, the jury through out the charge that the police illegally arrested the fellow who subsequently died of a severed spinal column, because his knife wasn’t illegal under Maryland law. As a result, the arrest was good, and it became very difficult to make any other charge stick.

[Still Thinking]

Wait, the arrest was good because the knife WASN’T illegal? Aruh?

[JoSixChip]

Wait, the arrest was good because the knife WASN'T illegal? Aruh?

It's Baltimore, that's just how they roll in the hood.

[Boogieman]

Usually, stuff like that comes down to whether the cops thought it was illegal, whether their suspicion was accurate or not. They’d have to show the cops knew it was legal and arrested him anyway for it to be “false arrest”.

[Uncle Miltie]

I carry my hunting knife through Seattle daily. Catch me if you can.

[Still Thinking]

OK, that makes sense, but if that’s the case, the post to which I responded was very poorly worded.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Paring knife should be small potatoes. The carrier should have claimed he was an itinerant chef.

[BatGuano]

Hard to make sense of your sentence. “Threw” rather than through and “because his knife wasn’t illegal,” (a double negative to confuse,) the arrest was good?

[bgill]

The jury foreman should have stood up and said, “We, the jury, find the defendant innocent of all trumped up charges that have wasted the court’s time and the taxpayers’ dollars.”

[Captain Rhino]

It is an odd opinion.

The majority holds that the 2nd Amendment doesn’t apply because a paring knife - even when carried for personal defense - doesn’t meet their definition of “arms.” Ironically, if I read the opinion correctly, had he been carrying a Kabar (which absolutely meets the city code definition of a “dangerous knife” and whose traditional use is as a weapon (an “arm” as opposed to a kitchen tool)), the challenge to the city code (as unconstitutionally infringing on Evan’s 2nd Amendment rights) might have done better.

Interesting that the traditional use of the object carries more weight with these “judges” that the intended use by its owner. Until, of course, they need it not to.

And here all these years I had thought that merely forming my hand into a fist made it a weapon.

[Redmen4ever]

Sorry.

The grand jury threw out the false arrest charge, meaning it was not unreasonable for the police to arrest the man for possession of an illegal knife. Without the false arrest, it will be very hard to make the other charges stick.