continuity wrote:WhisperFan wrote:All they have as evidence is a video segment?
Not prosecutable! If the MPD can't locate and seize the actual magazine - NBC will claim is was not a real magazine, but a 'prop' That is a solid piece of rubber or plastic that looks like a magazine ... or that it was a 30 round looking magazine that has been modified to accept no more than 10 rounds (like in NJ when they modify 20 rounders to only take 15 rounds)
Bottom line, is that even if on the program they claim that it was an actual magazine, and they were intentionally breaking the law .... they would simply now claim that they were lying about it being a real magazine for emphasis or taking a little "journalistic license" but would never knowingly violate the law.
No case here - unless they seized the magazine from his hand during the taping and logged is as evidence!
I'm betting you know as well as I do, that since the magazine was presented as such, PC exists for an arrest of the violator. Video evidence corroborates it. If the adjudication process bears out that it was a prop, then it is what it is. But an arrest is appropriate. And that includes anyone involved with the presentation. If they were in observational awareness and didn't report it, they're liable to an arrestable charge of complicity. Producer, cameramen, janitor. Doesn't matter. If they saw it, thought they knew what it was, and didn't report it, they are complicit. Maybe even at the level of obstruction of justice.
Don't shovel out that drivel that the evidence doesn't support an arrest. In Ohio at least, the evidence relative possession warrants an arrest. (since the subject magazine isn't contraband in Ohio, I'm speaking to the evidence of illegal item possession in general)
Just saying.
I said not prosecutable ... not that it was not arrestable. So I'm not shoveling drivel. And perhaps I even mis-spoke .... it
is prosecutable ... just not winnable for the prosecution!
Even in Ohio, if I go on television and claim to be a serial killer, and even provide details .... I'll bet that I will be arrested .... and when an investigation turns up that I made up the story, and that all the people I described in detail how I had killed were, in fact, still alive - I dont think the prosecution would take the case to court, regardless of how guilty I looked on the TV segment.
In this case, the video segment could be used as supporting evidence if they had something else, the actual mag, a confession ..... something. But in, and of, itself. It could never be used as 'proof' ..... especially if there is a denial. Once an arrest occurs, and there is a denial .... then (as I'm sure you know) the burden of "proof" lies with the prosecutor. When NBC brings a prop that looks just like a 30 round magazine to court and says .... "We here at NBC are aghast that anyone would think we would knowingly break a law, especially one we firmly agree with. We had our legal department look into the issue before the segment, found that we could not use and did not want to use, an actual high capacity ammunition feeding device - we went to the prop department of one of many of our television shows and borrowed this fake magazine. As you can clearly see. The 'follower' is permanently attached to the interior of the magazine body. Not only can it not feed thirty rounds .... it can't even feed one!"
Then the prosecutor says, "But in the video segment mr Gregory claims that he is knowingly breaking the law and that it was an actual magazine" (which I don't think he ever did - but even if he did)
NBC - "Well, yes, we do apologize for that. It was meant to get a strong reaction from the audience ... and it did! But he wasn't under oath on the television segment, he is now! And after all, we all saw the White-house destroyed in the movie Independence Day, and again in Live Free, Die Hard ..... but we also know that it is still here, we thought we all knew that you can't automatically believe what you see on television." [as he rolls his eyes]
continuity wrote:I'm a liberal user of the application of discretionary authority. I've received sanctions for warning vs. ticket ratio.
Any sanctions for your 'arrest vs successful prosecution' ratio?
Just saying
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness.
Justice William O. Douglas
Yeah. I remember it well. I was falsely arrested by the LCSO, then the detective sent in a petition to the White House to get me charged.
