Knives - once and for all. LEOs? Lawyers?

[ldmaster]

I did put a link... Do the legwork! But you did say thanks, so.....

Sec. 38-119. - Certain knives unlawful.

(a)
It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, display, use, possess, carry or transport any knife or instrument having the appearance of a pocket knife, the blade of which can be opened by a flick of a button, pressure on the handle, or other mechanical contrivance.

(b)
Any such knife is hereby declared to be a dangerous or deadly weapon within the meaning of section 38-117.

(c)
In addition to any other penalty imposed by lawful authority, every person convicted of any violation of this section shall be required to forfeit any such knife to the city.

(Code 1950, § 845.3)

And then from the dictionary, the definition of "contrivance" - "a clever plan, or trick".

I am aware of one person who was convicted of carrying his kershaw blur, notice how this section doesn't have a maximum length requirement? This means that something as small as a chive can be unlawful. His total fine was 570 bucks. He said at trial he challenged the cop to prove it was a "mechanical contrivance" and the judge ruled that the simple demonstration of one finger opening the blade was enough, that the original intent was to cover knives that were meant to be opened with one hand.


Geez, I'm going to blather on here again... hold on...


In the not too recent past, I had a conversation with a cop working vice. He had arrested a known prostitute for prostitution again, but didn't actually have any offer of sex for money occur. He did it with a MUNCIPAL CODE definition of prostitution, that defines any "act in furtherance" to be unlawful. The act she committed? She was carrying condoms. That was all. He got his conviction. Folks, like in another thread where I didn't know anything about laws against shooting trees, DOESNT mean that there aren't any laws against that, as was pointed out to me chapter and verse. Police departments call this "using a tool" when they either get a law redefined by their city council to suit their needs, or creative in using the definition to gain an arrest. Municipal code has certain vagaries inherent in it. State law considers municipal code to be somewhat less than state criminal statutes (code), the rules of evidence are basically the same, but the rules of procedure in fighting a municipal code violation are quite curtailed from a defendants point of view. Because the state considers code violations to be, essentially, "not as serious" the strict rules of procedure are "abbreviated" (their wording) to help streamline the process of prosecuting someone for them, after all, it's not like they are being accused of a CRIME, just a "code violation". Except they forget that the "code violations" still get reported to the FBI and CBI and are TREATED as a criminal violation. Oh, and it's possible that your fine will exceed 1,000 - how? When you get charged with mulitiple crimes. Like you get angry at your friend, hit him then take his cellphone to find out what text messages he's sent to your girlfriend, while telling him to sit there and not move or you'd do it again. Let's see...

1. Assault - threatened to hit him
2. Battery - hit him
3. Theft - deprived him of property
4. Misuse of a telecommunications device to intercept a call/text that was not meant for you - obvious
5. False Imprisonment - told him to not get up

That's five separate 1,000 fines. Yippee!!!

Heck, you probably would confess to all that stuff right at the scene - goes something like this: "Yeah, I hit the jerk in the face, he was banging my girlfriend! See? I have the proof! I told him if he moved, I'd kick his ass again." I haven't seen this actually happen, but I do know that training is ongoing in "creative charging". Will some of them be dropped at court? Probably/maybe, the misuse probably and the theft maybe. But I've seen someone convicted of theft for taking their girlfriends cellphone out of her hand and refusing to give it back until the police arrived, so he could "prove" she had been unfaithful.

Folks, it is a dangerous and ugly world out there just to walk about it - and I'm not talking about criminals who would do you harm, either! It's why my advice to "get out of dodge" to people who defend themselves by displaying their weapon is given. So they do the "right thing" and call 911 to report the attempted mugging or assault, tell their side, and get arrested for doing so - even without the bad-guy/victim being present. You just CONFESSED to displaying your weapon in a manner meant to place someone in fear of their life, menacing. Why not "felony menacing"? Because THAT would put your charge in district court, and they like keeping the charges municipal because they're easier to prove AND the city attorney's that prosecute these things are not an independent agency like the district court is, they are beholden to the same folks (the city) for their jobs as you are - so it's sorta cozy, aint it!

You know the process concerning getting a record sealed after a certain amount of time? Works fine for CRS violations, but wait!!! A rule change last year made municipal code violations all but impossible to have sealed. This is according to a presiding judge that I asked the direct question of.

Welcome to Colorado, where's we're trying very very hard to be JUST LIKE Kalifornia!