Posted on 12/30/2011 8:01:27 AM PST by marktwain
New York Police Department officers arrested a Tennessee nursing student at Manhattan’s September 11 memorial this week. Despite having a license for her .32-caliber pistol, the NYPD has a zero tolerance rule for firearms at Ground Zero.
Meredith Graves, 39, has since posted $2,000 bond and will have to return to New York in March to explain herself in court. The city is charging her with felony weapons possession, a crime which carries a minimum of three-and-a-half years.
Graves and her husband were visiting the Big Apple so she could attend a job interview for a position at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in Long Island when they stopped by the recently-opened memorial to pay their respects. Upon seeing a sign warning visitors that firearms were forbidden, the nursing student asked an NYPD officer if there was a place she could check the licensed weapon in her purse that she had forgot about. Now Graves will never forget that things in New York aren’t quite the same as down south.
Although Graves was honest about her legally-obtained and registered weapon, cops are charging her with a felony for having the gun outside of the state of Tennessee.
"You'd think states would reciprocate with the Second Amendment. She has a license to carry in Tennessee," Graves' mother-in-law, speaking on condition that she not be named, tells the new York Post. "Everyone down there carries, and she just forgot. She was being honest, and this is the treatment they give innocent people."
The Post adds that Graves walked up to a cop at the memorial and asked him, "I have this gun. Where can I check it?" She was then brought to another NYPD officer and explained her predicament again before being booked on the felony.
The concept of mens rea developed in England during the latter part of the common-law era (about the year 1600) when judges began to hold that an act alone could not create criminal liability unless it was accompanied by a guilty state of mind. The degree of mens rea required for a particular common-law crime varied. Murder, for example, required a malicious state of mind, whereas Larceny required a felonious state of mind."
We have created many crimes by which innocent people can be trapped.
I feel for her. When traveling you really really should educate yourself on the gun laws of where you are going.
Kind of a stupid explanation. The relevant issue is her violation of NY state and city laws, not entrance rules for the specific location.
The relevant issue is not her being outside TN, it's her being in NY.
Very poorly written article.
In police-states, the laws and rules are so complex, that the average citizen is always breaking some law. The only question then is if / when authority finds it convenient to enforce the law on you.
“...student asked an NYPD officer if ...”
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There’s your problem, right there.
I have to ask why any Police Officer wouldn’t just say “Put that away, conduct yourself normally and there won’t be any trouble.” Just to save the poor gal the hassle. Moreover, that oath they swear (Police Officers) to uphold and defend the Constitution... protect it from all aggressors; foreign and domestic... are those just empty words, spoken so they can get a job bullying the public they are sworn to serve? I know if I was a cop I couldn’t bring myself to arrest someone for exercising their Constitutional rights. The law of the land is simple and above all others.
She should-a known that. Secondly, never ever ever, never ever provide evidence against yourself in a criminal matter...ever!
Police are a necessary aspect of a civil society and without them, there would be utter chaos.
With that said, American citizens are under an ever increasing scrutiny by law enforcement since 911. Almost as if the terrorist have won in their efforts to erode our personal liberties.
If you provide information to a cop, they will use it to investigate you and or charge you with a crime if they deem necessary.
This woman would have been sooooo much better off just leaving and returning another day w/o personal protection that could save her life if some thug accosted them to or from ground zero.
She should-a known that. Secondly, never ever ever, never ever provide evidence against yourself in a criminal matter...ever!
Police are a necessary aspect of a civil society and without them, there would be utter chaos.
With that said, American citizens are under an ever increasing scrutiny by law enforcement since 911. Almost as if the terrorist have won in their efforts to erode our personal liberties.
If you provide information to a cop, they will use it to investigate you and or charge you with a crime if they deem necessary.
This woman would have been sooooo much better off just leaving and returning another day w/o personal protection that could save her life if some thug accosted them to or from ground zero.
Double tap...sorry, just habit.
I think NYC has even busted visiting cops for carrying. Zero tolerance stupidity knows no bounds.
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Because the PO would have absolutely no way of knowing anything about this woman's background, record, intentions or stability. The PO did his/her job.
I wonder how many freepers would change their tune if the person with the weapon had been a black male from Compton instead of a (presumably) white woman from Tennessee.
How many bad guys would ask the cop for a safe storage place for their weapon?
Yes she should have checked the laws in NYC. However what matters is that a. the laws are unconstitutional b. she had no criminal intent. Why should she abide by unconstitutional law, NYC is still within sovereign US territory last time I checked, and the supreme law of the land is USC. Can somebody explain to me what legal right does NYC or Chicago have to infringe on the 2ND amendment rights,and nobody says anything: not Fed Gov,not justice department (and not just Obama’s but also Bush,etc..). Why does Fed Gov defends all other civil rights when violated by states,except 2ND amendment,what’s different?
This unfortunate incident must be used to break the back of gun control in NYC, just like Rahm Emanuel says: ‘No Crisis Should Go to Waste’. Will see what NRA-ILA does.
This would make an interesting Constitutional case if the NRA or some other supposedly Pro-2nd Amendment organization were to live up to their claims.
She realized (via reading a sign) that she could not carry her firearm. So she finds the closest LEO and explains the situation and her desire to “check” the firearm so that she can abide by the law... and gets arrested for it. Had she stayed silent or gone and put the gun in her rental car/hotel room without a word - she would not have had any issues (likely). Had she been subjected to a search of her purse or gone through a metal detector - she would have not been in any more trouble. Had she pulled out the gun and showed it off to the crowd - she would have been in no more trouble.
A felony???? That would cause her to lose her permit in TN, and her firearms rights forever...
So much for being honest.
Here’s some advice. Never, ever, under any circumstances talk to a cop if you can at all avoid it. Avoid them like the plague.
Just following order. Where have I heard that before? So will it be acceptable when their job includes confiscating all weapons and rounding up and interring dissenters in re-location (concentration) camps?>
Ignorance has a cost. Stupidity has a higher one.
/s
NYC is a f&*(ing foreign nation. Don’t ever visit it unless you have to for business. It’s no better than the DPRK, and it’s time we stop feeling anything for them.
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