And no one has denied that his knife was legal under Maryland law. He was arrested for a knife that is illegal under BALTIMORE’S knife-control laws. You cannot have any knife with a spring in it in Baltimore. NO technology whatsoever is permissible.
The knife being legal or illegal is of no consequence to me. The fact is - He had a WEAPON.
They didn’t find the knife until after they decided to arrest him.
WTH? So my Gerber multi-tool which includes pliers, knife, can opener, and corkscrew, is illegal? I am so not visiting Baltimore.
Here’s the Baltimore ordinance:
“It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, carry, or possess any knife with an automatic spring or other device for opening and/or closing the blade, commonly known as a switch-blade knife.”
The knife he had simply was not the kind “commonly known as a switch-blade knife.” It did not have an “automatic spring,” it had a spring that assisted in opening the knife manually.
The ordinance may be poorly worded, but it clearly and specifically was intended to outlaw switchblades, which his knife wasn’t.