FEBRUARY 9--Felony snowball throwing charges have been leveled against two Virginia college students for allegedly pelting a city plow and an undercover police car during Saturday's blizzard. Charles Gill and Ryan Knight, both 21, were nabbed by cops in Harrisonburg, where they attend James Madison University. According to police, the pair first targeted a city plow last Saturday afternoon. The driver responded by calling cops to report the frosty fusillade. When police responded to the scene in a bid to identify the assailants, their unmarked vehicle also came under an icy assault, according to a Harrisonburg Police Department press release. Gill and Knight, a guard on JMU's basketball team, were then apprehended and booked into jail for throwing missiles at occupied vehicles, a felony. Gill (top) and Knight are pictured below in Rockingham County Sheriff's Office mug shots. If convicted of theLet that sink in for a moment. These two young men are facing FELONY charges for THROWING A DAMNED SNOWBALL. This is beyond-the-pale ridiculous, folks. They're being charged with the kind of charge normally levied at malcontents that drop bricks off of highway overpasses - hardly the same category as a snowball to the windshield.
felonious snowball tossing, the men each face between one and five years in prison, and a maximum $2,500 fine.
This is EXACTLY why we need to re-think the whole "ZOMG FELONS CAN'T HAVE TEH GUNS" business - if it's a felony to throw a damn snowball at a car, pretty much the entire population of the United States north of Georgia has committed a felony. It's hard to justify obeying the law when it turns out that not only is the law an ass, but it can come back to bite you in the ass in ways you never even dreamed of.
A felony charge for throwing a damn snowball - just when you thought they couldn't possibly get more ridiculous...
That is all.
14 comments:
Everything made into a Felony to strip you of your basic rights. This is the Tar Baby of tough on crime non sense...There are times to be tough on criminals that hurt people, steal property and openly flant the law...Oh wait, does that not describe politicians?
Continued proof that common sense isn't so common.
The prosecutor in this case should be publicly horsewhipped for the crime of Blatant Stupidity. THAT should be a felony.
What he's doing is gaming the system, figuring they'll plea down to a lesser charge. I hope they fight it.
If convicted, they will become "Prohibited Persons" and will no longer be entitled to their 2A Rights under Federal law (Felony conviction of a charge carrying a prison term of one year or greater).
Is it time for revolution yet?
I think we need to call for more regulations training, and possibly licenses. I know that this amount of cold white temptation doesn't occur so often back east, so there would probably be large costs for shipping in snow for classes, but wouldn't it prevent such disrespectful behavior towards law enforcement in the future?
Wait a minute... [tingle tingle tingle] My spider-sense suggests there's more to this story than meets the eye.
Sure enough...
The two suspects are charged because they threw shovels of snow onto the windshields of the plow and the cop cruiser. Not snowballs. Shovels-full of snow. Heavy, thick, wet snow that would spread out and stick, and take several seconds to wipe away. In the middle of a major blizzard. When road conditions were already hazardous.
That's more than 'throwing a damned snowball,' Jay. I don't think the two punks in question deserve a felony conviction, mind you, but a nice fat fine or a double handful of hours of community service would work quite well. It's clear that they've spent more time in bars than in classrooms, and they need a short sharp lesson in Things Decent People Shouldn't Do.
I am of the opinion that passing legislation should be a felony, and should potentially be eligible for the death penalty.
Yes Congressmen. Eventually you will pass enough dumb laws that "We the People" will execute you.
A felony has become meaningless. We need a new classification that means "predatory crime".
In Pennsylvania, if you don't pony up $50 and register with the state as a contractor you can be charged with a felony.
Looking at the statute itself (Va Code §18.2-154), they may have an out.
"Any person who maliciously shoots at, or maliciously throws any missile at or against, any [...], or any motor vehicle or other vehicles when occupied by one or more persons, whereby the life of any person on such [...] motor vehicle or other vehicle, may be put in peril, is guilty of a Class 4 felony. In the event of the death of any such person, resulting from such malicious shooting or throwing, the person so offending is guilty of murder in the second degree. [...]
If any such act is committed unlawfully, but not maliciously, the person so offending is guilty of a Class 6 felony and, in the event of the death of any such person, resulting from such unlawful act, the person so offending is guilty of involuntary manslaughter." [emphasis mine]
The intent of the statute itself is clear, and the act it's intended to outlaw should be a crime (and an act that puts someone's life in danger is certainly a valid target for being a felony). This, however, does not meet the standard of putting someone's "life in peril" as required by the statute. They may be able to argue that and avoid a conviction, but I don't know if it will succeed (which is why their attorney will probably advise them to take whatever plea the prosecutor eventually offers). It looks like there may not be any precedent, so they may have a shot, anyway.
This looks like a case of the police and prosecutor abusing the system to get a conviction. Bring up a felony charge to convince them to plead to a misdemeanor.
This is one example of why I think the plea system should be done away with. Either the .gov can prove the crime in a trial or they can't, and they should have to prove it every time. As it stands now, prosecutors will routinely hit people with a ridiculously serious charge in an attempt to scare them into submitting to a conviction of a lesser charge to avoid a trial.
This is how they almost got Gotti.
Repeat after me: I will not believe what the MSM tells me.
They used snow shovels to throw snow on the windshield of the plow driver. He called the cops. A cop in an unmarked car shows up. They used the snow shovels to throw snow into his car. Exactly what happened depends on whether you believe the cop's account (of when he identified himself).
I'm sorry, you're still not convincing me that what these two gentlemen did rises to the level of a felony offense.
Was it stupid? Sure.
Should they face some sort of penalty? Sure.
Would 40 hours of community service be reasonable? Sure.
2 years in jail and a permanent criminal record over PUTTING SNOW ON SOMEONE'S CAR? NFW, sorry.
Jay, don't forget the permanent loss of Constitutional Rights!
I could see a felony charge if there had been an injury or death, but not for this. Really, the law should be rewritten to allow for a misdemeanor charge.
IIRC, it's a felony because some punks got off for dropping bricks off an overpass because "Nobody actually got hurt".
It's worded the way it is, so that the legislature doesn't have to individually identify every POSSIBLE type of missile that could be thrown.
Chucking a shovel full of snow on the windshield of a moving car on an icy day is about as dangerous as hunting cats on a city street with a .38.
Worse, if the car ends up sliding out of control into a crowd.
A snowball on the rear quarter panel is one thing -- a shovel full of the wet slushy crap we actually had that storm is another.
These jackasses endangered everyone on the road, or side of the road, by doing what they did.
Maybe stalwart Yankees can drive fine on iced roads when they suddenly have lost all visibility (not even teh windshield wipers will clear that much slush), but Virginians tend to have a startle response, jerk the wheel or hit the brakes, and skid out when stuff like this happens. Even cops.
Wow, that is way over the top. Even for us Brits, only firearm-related crimes can contribute towards anything like that, and we don't even have an RKBA!
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