Posted on 05/06/2015 2:35:08 PM PDT by Kaslin
I wouldn’t trust anything AARP says.
False.
The knife was found after the suspect was detained and frisked in what is known as a Terry Stop , for the legal case which upholds the lawfulness of the police action.
I wonder how long the State will drag their feet on releasing the toxicology report.
Good info. Thanks.
Then they killed him.
You mean forfeited their rights to a firearm, right? Since when do you lose your right to carry a pocket knife if you are a felon?
“They simply detained him.”
You still need probable cause to detain someone.
Bingo, you can’t claim probable cause based on something you found after you searched a person you detained, because you needed the probable cause BEFORE you detained them in the first place.
“They didn’t find the knife until after they decided to arrest him.”
Probably true...but the sequence of events was they saw Freddie, and he ran.
Now SCOTUS has determined that merely running from police is cause for the police to give chase. People may or may not agree with that, buts its the current interpretation, and that is important when it comes to prosecuting the cops. And, its likely the cops then yelled ‘stop’...and when Freddie kept running, he was violating their commands - further cause for them to pursue him.
Now you are right that they probably had their minds set on arresting him for something, around half way through the chase. But looking at the technical progression of events, they did absolutely nothing wrong when they chased and tackled him, under the law.
The knife...the code ( http://lawofselfdefense.com/statute/md-baltimore-code-%C2%A7-59-22-switch-blade-knives/ ) seems to expand the definition of a switch blade beyond ‘automatic spring’ and also includes ‘or other device for opening and/or closing the blade’. The wording is sloppy...but if that knife has any type of spring assist that allows you to open it with one hand, the cops aren’t guilty of wrongful imprisonment. They are allowed to make reasonable mistakes on the job, without being criminally prosecuted - and the sloppy wording leaves a lot of room for mistakes.
The officer's charging report filed with the court said the knife was a "spring-assisted, one hand operated knife."
“Then they killed him”.
Yeah, while simultaneously calling for medical assistance several times enroute as shown in the dispatch audio tapes.
Maybe you should wait for the autopsy and toxicology reports. Every symptom Gray exhibited is consistent with heroin overdose: difficulty breathing, convulsions, heart attack, loss of consciousneess, coma. I don’t tink the officers are responsible for the heroin he ingested.
Correct, at least as I understand it.
That simply is not the device “commonly known as a switchblade knife.”
Severed spine?
That’s fine. Just as long as the knife is not used as the probable cause.
The probable cause for the search was a known drug dealer fleeing from police. A dealer who had just been observed making a hand to hand transaction.
Wonder if anyone else has been successfully prosecuted under that statue for possession of the same type of knife Gray had. Kind of hard to believe he's the first person ever to run afoul of that.
With a wound that was consistent with a bolt in the back of the van. Heroin induced convulsions in a confined space can kill you.
The bolt and wound correspondence is not, at this point, evidence. It’s speculation.
Possibly accurate speculation, of course.
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