Posted on 05/02/2015 10:14:52 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Is Prosecutor Mosby correct that Gray’s arrest was unlawful because knife was legal?
A new talking point claiming that Freddie Gray’s original arrest was unlawful has arisen, propelled by the claim yesterday by Prosecutor Mosby that the knife seized from Gray by police was legal to possess in Maryland.
As reported by the New York Times:
Ms. Mosby faulted the police conduct at every turn. The officers who arrested him “failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest, as no crime had been committed,” she said, describing the arrest as illegal. Officers accused him of possession of a switchblade, but Ms. Mosby said, “The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law.”
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
These statements are remarkably insensible coming from someone who has attained the position of state prosecutor.
Mosby Issue #1: Spring-Assisted Knives Almost Certainly ARE Illegal Under MD Law
First, it raises a question of whether Mosby is simply facially incorrect in claiming that Gray’s knife is legal. It has been described in news reports as “spring assisted.” If that description is explicitly false and there was no spring assist mechanism, then it is likely that Gray’s knife was not unlawful.
If, however, it was spring assisted than it certainly seems it would be unlawful under Maryland law.
The Criminal Code of Maryland, §4-105, defines a “switchblade knife” as:
(1) a knife or penknife having a blade that opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring, or other device in the handle of the knife.
The way a spring-assisted knife mechanism works is that a spring in the handle of the knife takes over the opening of the blade after the blade has been opened a small amount by pressure applied to the blade by the users fingers. Thus, the statutory definition would certainly seem to apply to spring-assisted knives.
Clearly, if a spring-assisted knife falls within the statutory prohibition, and it has been widely reported Gray’s knife was spring-assisted, possession of this unlawful knife would provide probable cause for Gray’s arrest.
It is notable that Mosby has yet to address this issue of the precise mechanism of Gray’s knife. This is an odd oversight, given that this issue would likely be determinative of her claim that the knife was not unlawful. For those unclear on the mechanistic differences an assisted-opening knife and a switchblade, the video below may be informative (the first knife is the assisted-opening, the second the switchblade):
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Mosby Issue #2: Jurisdictional Sloppiness
Second, Mosby’s statement reflects remarkable jurisdictional sloppiness, especially coming from a state prosecutor who works primarily in a subsidiary jurisdiction of that state. As noted above, Mosby is quoted as explicitly stating that:
The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law. (emphasis added)
The description of the charge brought against Gray explicitly provides that he
"did unlawfully carry, possess and sell a knife commonly known as a switch blade knife, with an automatic spring or other device for opening and/or closing the blade within the limits of Baltimore City. (emphasis added)
It is notable that it is not at all uncommon, particularly in “blue” cities, for those cities to have substantially more restrictive weapons laws than do surrounding urban areas. Anyone who has ever driven through the state of Maryland will have seen that there is a dramatic difference in social culture between inner-city Baltimore and the bucolic Maryland countryside.
Indeed, the City of Baltimore has adopted as an ordinance of its City Code §59-22, which states in relevant part:
Switch-blade knives. (a) Possession or sale, etc., prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, carry, or possess any knife with an automatic spring. (emphasis added)
Thus (and again assuming Gray’s knife was spring-assisted, as widely reported), even if Mosby is correct (unlikely) that the knife was legal under Maryland state law, it would still arguably have been illegal under Baltimore code §59-22.
Mosby Issue #3: Weapons Possession Usually Illegal When on Probation
Third, it raises questions about whether the knife was illegal per se, or whether it was the possession of the knife by Freddie Gray that was illegal. Gray was a convicted felon, and an examination of his criminal record suggests it highly likely that he was on probation when he was arrested and found with the concealed knife. (Anybody with definitive information on Gray’s probation status, please contact me directly.)
In my experience, it is an invariable condition of probation that possession of a concealed weapon of any type is prohibited.
Note that the explicit language in the Statement of Charges reads that Freddie Gray
"did unlawfully carry, possess and sell a knife commonly known as a switch blade knife, with an automatic spring or other device for opening and/or closing the blade within the limits of Baltimore City. (emphasis added)
Thus if Gray was on probation, and his probation prohibited his possession of a concealed weapon, this unlawful possession would provide adequate probable cause for Gray’s arrest.
Mosby Issue #4: Misunderstanding How Probable Cause Actually Works
Mosby’s asserts that the police failed to establish probable cause for Gray’s arrest on the basis that she later determined Gray’s knife (the basis for the arrest) to have been legal. As reported by the New York Times, Mosby claims that the arresting officers:
"failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest, as no crime had been committed."
This is simply not how probable cause works in the context of an arrest .
Here’s what probable cause does not mean: That the officer making an arrest has determined that the facts on which the arrest is founded are true to an absolute certainty, and that the arrest becomes illegal should these reasonably believed “facts” later turn out to be untrue or mistaken.
This should be self-evident by the inclusion of the word “probable” in the phrase “probable cause.”
Arrests often go uncharged, and charges are often dismissed, and defendants are even acquitted at trial, often based upon a later conclusion that the underlying facts which suggested a crime are untrue or mistaken. None of these outcomes makes the initial arrest illegal.
When an officer makes an arrest based on an articulable statement of probable cause, that arrest becomes illegal only if the officer knew or reasonably should have known that no crime had, in fact, been committed.
In short, police are entitled to make reasonable mistakes, and such a reasonable mistake does not make the arrest illegal.
Such a mistake may, of course, make further prosecution of the offense impractical or outright unjust. But that’s a completely different matter than whether an arrest was unlawful.
In the Gray instance, the arresting officer may in fact have been mistaken about whether a spring-assisted knife falls within the statutory prohibition on possession of a switchblade, or on whether Gray’s possession of the knife while (presumably) on probation was an offense subject to arrest.
But unless he actually knew or reasonably should have known either of those possibilities to be the case, legally-speaking probable cause for the arrest existed, and the arrest itself was not a crime.
Again, if the officer were mistaken the arrest may be defective for purposes of further prosecution. But this does not mean that an officer is limited to making an arrest only in circumstances where criminal conduct is a legal and moral certainty.
A society in which this were required, or permitted would be, I expect, a society that most Americans would find an unpleasant place to live.
Thus, even if it turns out that the knife was legal and that Freddie Gray were legally permitted to possess the knife under the circumstances, if the police officer reasonably believed that either of these were offenses subject to arrest, and neither knew or should have known that this belief was incorrect at the time of the arrest, then there existed probable cause for the arrest, and the arrest itself is entirely lawful from the context of that officer’s conduct.
The apparent political theater in the announcement of the charges is getting growing criticism, reminiscent of what accompanied the George Zimmerman over-charging and politicized prosecution. Alan Dershowitz on NewsMax:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
There’s a strong “anti-cop” contingent here which really befuddles me. Sure, no one likes “jack-booted” bullies who run roughshod over the public, but what do they think their communities would look like without the police?
To be fair though there is only a handful of them who like to make a lot of noise .
Many of us know who they are.
Baltimore is a sewer of corruption.
I have an assault knife with a 30-blade magazine. Unregistered.
If he were indeed a snitch, it could have been his regular meetup time with the popo.
Despite the whole legendarium concerning “stand up guys” pretty much everyone who’s an independent operator is a snitch to some degree.
According to Kelly and Hannity in disguise guests he was seen making a drug deal, he ran one way and other guy the other way. He also apparently was a very good snitch and well known to cops covering the beat which is known for drug dealing. Very long rap sheet. And apparently a University - I think Maryland U - did drug testing and was positive for heroin and pot.
Also was known for acting up when arrested.
Then why didn’t his arrest report mention any warrants?
Equally befuddling is the notion among some folks that
running from the cops or fighting with the cops or even
pissing off the cops ought to be overlooked.
If you do any of the above, whatever follows is your own damned fault.
If a cop runs your ID and you have warrants, you are going to jail.
Doesn’t matter if you are black or white or Jesus Christ.
If you run from the cops, expect to get your ass kicked... at a minimum.
This whole incident has to be looked at in the totality of the circumstances. Freddie was a known drug dealer, he was in an area of high drug trafficking; He, supposedly was exchanging something with another blk male when he made eye contact with the police Lt. and ran.
On face, this has already been decided by the Supreme Court as “reasonable suspicion” that there was illegal activity and a police officer may stop and investigate further.
Cops stop Freddie and he has already: 1. thrown away the drugs; or 2. eaten the drugs during the foot pursuit. (A Baltimore officer stated on Hannity that the prelim tox report showed heroin and marijuana in Freddie’s system)
Since there are no drugs, there is no drug offense. In all liklihood, Freddie, being a convicted felon was not allowed to carry either a spring-assisted knife or a gun.
Since he was charged under the City ordnance, it was probably the more restrictive of the two. So while the State’s Attorney was correct the knife may have been legal under State law, it was certainly illegal under City ordnance.
There is going to be a lot more “bad press” coming out for the Mayor and this Prosecutor. It could be a very long summer for the cops in Baltimore.
If anyone ever fit the bill as "a usual suspect" it was Li'l Freddy the Felonious Farmacis. Nice rap sheet on the non-choirboy.
Common is the convict in prison who is possibly innocent of the charges that brought him there. However, he is not innocent of others, reason the police who know these people well, and a cheesy set-up may have been used to get'im off the streets of your fair city.
Freddy be dead because he wasn't restrained. Restrained that is, in prison for the previous charges which got him no more than the proverbial slap on the wrist.
Our "communities" would be a lot safer if the police simply killed everybody. The simplistic claim that bad behavior is justified is just as idiotic as the claim that there is an epidemic of police violence.
When a person dies in police custody, that is a very serious matter, and one doesn't have to be reflexively anti-cop to recognize that.
The problem here is that the prosecutor is not treating this as a serious matter. She apparently didn't use the police investigation, rushed to present charges, and overcharged what she did present. Eventually, this is all going to be walked back, and then there is going to be even more hell to pay than before.
When a guy with the arrest record Freddie had is as well known to all the cops, I don’t see a need to chase him if he runs simply for making eye contact. He’ll obviously be back before long.
What arrest report? The charge notice pictured above?
That's for one charge. They don't list 'em all , like a receipt from Walmart. No doubt there are others.
That point aside, the officers in question should NOT be charged with false arrest or "imprisonment" for executing a "technically correct" arrest.
If he was a snitch. There would be motive to keep him quiet
Which leads to my speculation that he ate his stash and had a seizure in the back of the wagon. Flip flopping around like a fish until he banged his head.
Since Grey had a long criminal record, it is likely that he was recognized by the officers.
If Grey was recognized as being a convicted felon, likely on parole or probation, possession of a weapon would likely have violated the terms of his probation, and would have generated both probable cause, and also a reason for him to run.
Freddie died ACCIDENTALLY, IMO. Nothing malicious about it! I'm guessing he swallowed the drugs he was dealing to avoid being found by cops, then had a tantrum and slipped off his bench in the truck and cracked his neck.
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