Man, I’m really glad we’re getting dangerous bouncers off the street. Â It’s always easier to arrest people for technicalities than go after actual hardened criminals.
Lying on an application to buy a firearm, or an application to carry a gun, has always been illegal under Pennsylvania law. The problem, explained Deputy Police Commissioner William Blackburn, was that the application used by the Police Department made it difficult to determine if the applicant was lying to illegally obtain a gun or was just confused by terminology.
Yes, it’s illegal, and has traditionally been used when you find someone who has committed a crime, and you’re looking for other things to throw at them, or throw at associates in an attempt to get them to turn witness. Â How is the City of Philadelphia making the streets safer by going after people for paperwork violations? Â Was Emmit Bethea a threat to public safety?
Why is the city wasting resources on paperwork violations, when they aren’t prosecuting real criminals who assault people, rob people, or even hardened criminals who are caught with guns? Â I’m not arguing that Abraham isn’t in the legal right. Â The law is the law. Â But her priorities are horribly out of whack if she considers going after paperwork errors a priority over going after real criminals.
They’re doing this because it’s cheap and they can put it in the papers, not because it’s important. Keep in mind that when the NRA had to team up with the Feds to actually prosecute violent gun crime in Philadelphia in the late 90s, it was because Lynne Abraham’s district attorney’s office wouldn’t.
Similar thing happened recently with Corbett’s efforts against straw purchasers. That city hadn’t prosecuted one straw purchaser until the state AG went in there and started doing it.
Either way, I’m not condemning Abraham for enforcing the law here. That’s her job. But I have to wonder if this is the best use of limited resources when it comes to enhancing public safety.
This reminds me of an old joke:
I once came across someone looking intently at the sidewalk under a street light. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied that he was looking for a quarter he’d dropped.
“So you think you dropped it around here?”
“No, I dropped it over there.”
“Then why are you looking here?”
“The light’s better here.”
I will bet that for every one person Philly nabs on this falsification sting, there will be an umpteen number of recidivist violent parolees that they could be busting on parole violations and sending back to prison.
I could have sworn that years back someone got away with false information on the 4473 because to require truthful information on it would be compelling him to testify against himself.
Last I heard (and what I heard I could be WAY wrong) they really couldn’t prosecute people for it because of that.
“I’m not arguing that Abraham isn’t in the legal right. The law is the law”
While that is true, it ignores the fact that the legal system depends on prosecutors and police exercising judgement about when to enforce those laws. Blindly prosecuting people even when there was no intent to do wrong is just as bad as those “zero-tolerance” policies in public schools. They’re hiding behind rules because it’s easier than thinking.
Before people start making me out to being the bad guy get too know me first I’m not a bad person I am just trying to make a living I never hurt nobody with my firearms, they were used for work and my own protection thats it an all my firearms are accounted for but none the less I was arrested put in jail and given a high bail, now I have to go to court and then pay my lawyer too fix all of this in the mean time my company is falling apart so please be fair and don’t judge me I didn’t commet a crime, but what I really would like is for everyone to please stop dragging my name and my company name in the mud, and for the one’s who think it’s funny I do know how to spell an if they just took the (TIME) to read my company name is not spelled wrong it’s my name (EMMIT) spelled backwards (TIMME) so try to see it from my side in getting a raw deal so in closing thank you for your time.