I'm guessing that the charges will be dropped due to negative publicity, or there will be a plea for some BS misdemeanor.

However, if this goes to trial and I was on the jury I wouldn't be able to say "Not guilty" fast enough. Jury nullification seems the right way to go in a case like this.

The Goddess writes: Every time somebody fails to speak up about something like this, fails to push back, we edge a little further down this road.

I don't think pushing back will be enough. It might slow the descent, but the fall is inevitable.

The search probably violated the 4th amendment. I say probably, because no one seems to understand what the law is anymore, it has been so eroded by the drug war, and the Patriot Act.

Probable cause for explosives, does not get you fishing knives. Fruit of the poisonous tree and all that.

However, the problem with taking it to trial, is the state has unlimited resources with which to pursue you. Most families with kids don't have the thousands of dollars they need to take crap like this all the way to trial. Even if they win they lose. This needs to change.

I'd be all for changing it to make the accessible for everyone. Everyone other than those who have a slam-dunk personal injury claim, that is. But what you suggest we do to change it?

Also, do you think the ACLU would involve itself?

Patrick, I believe there needs to be an almost total elimination of plea bargaining to reduce the incentive of prosecutors to over charge and charge at all in frivolous cases.

For Civil cases, we should go to loser pays, and class action lawsuits need to be so restricted that they are hardly worth pursuing because attorneys are the only ones really making money off of them. The abuses of class action outweigh the benefits.

Slam dunk personal injury cases are 99 percent settled out of court.

Unfortunately there is no good federal solution so the ACLU would have to spread itself very thin to take the battle to all fifty states where the overwhelming majority of criminal prosecutions take place.

Once the free-fall begins, there won't be anything that can stop it except the bottom. The free-fall has begun and we are headed toward the bottom. The question is, what lies at the bottom?

The pendulum has swung wide to the left and it will begin to swing back to center but, when?

The dust will settle but when will the final sweep occur?

The bottom is always dirty

The pendulum is heavily weighted and can't be held wide for very long

The final sweep is when the power holding the broom is just about at it's end of power.

What is going on now is a set up for the next administration.

Why is it that these reports only identify the victims of loony authoritarian government types and NEVER identify the perpetrators of these outrageous offenses against the rights of the people?

Why were "drug" sniffing dogs alerting on "black powder"?

I thought dogs were trained to alert for ONE thing. If dogs were trained to alert to several things the officer would have no way of knowing what the dog was alerting them to - is it drugs or poison or weapons?

So, either these dogs weren't trained properly, or the officer set the dogs up for a false alert just so the officer didn't come up empty handed in his search. You know he needs to justify the time and money spent. Who cares if it is a 17-old who gets screwed over?

Asshats, everyone of them involved in going after students like this!

The question is, what lies at the bottom?

[Dennis Hopper voice] Bad things, man. Bad things.

Last year in Cub Scouts one of the boys earned his fishing beltloop by bringing in a fish he caught and showing the other scouts how to clean and gut it. I don't think any of realized how much danger we were in.

And who doesn't carry some sort of knife in their car??

"And who doesn't carry some sort of knife in their car??"

I know, right!?! I've a huge Leatherman with a couple of very sharp blades. I put a multi-tool in my daughter's car, but she parks in the lot at the high school, so now I'm thinking to remove it.

At my high school (small, rural farming communities in the northern plains), it was common for us to keep loaded shotguns in the passenger compartments in plain sight, after football practice in the fall we'd get in a little pheasant hunting on the way home. My how times have changed!

This lunacy extends into Federal facilities.

I cannot have a pocketknife with a blade more than 3" long, but I can carry a butcher knife a foot long right into work.

Because, you know, butcher knives only cut dinner, not people.

"Oh, and P.S. You can kill somebody with a Number 2 pencil."

Don't give anybody any ideas Amy, next thing you know they'll ban pencils.

Perhaps we can fight back by pressuring the schools to remove every hazardous thing: chalk, chairs, food, desks, doors, stairs and computers can all cause choking and cranial trauma. it would be easier to shut down the building.

Someone please share a story of a public school leader who stood up for sanity not PC.

I live in Cobb County and haven't heard of this at all. I guess that's one way they get away with it. Wow.

Yup, this is your local GA police at work. Sometimes the Feds are actually necessary to protect us from the local cronies and thugs.

A poster above called this tomfoolery a swing to the left Seriously? Tough on crime a swing to the left? Thuggery by local southern cops a swing to the left? Hyperfear of crime and threat sensitivity is a right-wing value.

And dogs are trained to take subtle cues from their handlers and little more:

http://reason.com/archives/2013/01/31/this-dog-can-send-you-to-jail

"Probable cause for explosives, does not get you fishing knives. Fruit of the poisonous tree and all that."

To paraphrase our illustrious President: "Cop cues dog. Dog alerts. Probable cause. Kinda cool."

"I cannot have a pocketknife with a blade more than 3" long, but I can carry a butcher knife a foot long right into work."

Interesting. The federal facility that I work in has told us repeatedly that we are not allowed to bring in steak knives with our lunch.

"A poster above called this tomfoolery a swing to the left Seriously? Tough on crime a swing to the left? Thuggery by local southern cops a swing to the left? Hyperfear of crime and threat sensitivity is a right-wing value. "

Now that the Left is in power, they are all in for authoritarianism. Just as the Right was when they were in power.

"To paraphrase our illustrious President: "Cop cues dog. Dog alerts. Probable cause. Kinda cool."

To repeat something I have said before here. "Never consent to a search of your car." That opens the door to them using anything they find against you, regardless of what the original basis for the search was.

Make them get a warrant. Either call your attorney, or pretend to call an attorney while the police officer is standing there,and record your conversation with the police on your cell phone without telling him or her that you are doing so.

Make sure that you read the police officers I.D and address him or her by name so you have a record of who the encounter was with.

The less you have to hide, the more reason you have, not to consent to a search.

As soon as doing a vehicle search costs them most of the time on their shift, and most motorists refuse to consent, the sooner police departments will give this up.

By the way, the gun free/weapon free school zone act was found to be unconstitutional the first time it was reviewed by the Supreme Court. Congress rewrote it to try and fix the defects. And as far as I know, it has not been challenged constitutionally since.
If the authorities decided in their idiocy to prosecute this kid, I think this set of facts would make a very good test case.

nteresting. The federal facility that I work in has told us repeatedly that we are not allowed to bring in steak knives with our lunch.

Posted by: Cousin Dave at October 8, 2013 5:30 PM

I know you don't want to aggravate your boss, but ask them what the regulation is that bans steak knives.
Believe it or not, 90 percent of federal supervisors and HR people, don't know what the law is, or the difference between a law and a regulation, nor do they have the brains to appreciate the distinction.

If you ask them what the penalty is for bringing in a steak knife, and they say: "none as far as a personnel action, but we will call the police and have them arrest you" they clearly have no clue what authority they do and don't have.
(Hint I bet the O club, and dining facility on Redstone is not using plastic cutlery exclusively). Neither is the Golf course snack bar. )

Congress was very careful to limit their gun bans in Federal buildings to actual federally owned buildings like court houses and post offices. None of that federal law applies the the parking lot, the grounds, or federally leased buildings.
There is no knife ban under federal law that I am aware of.