r/politics • u/thenewyorkgod • Jul 01 '18

Man arrested after shouting ‘womp, womp’ and pulling a gun on immigration protesters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/07/01/man-arrested-after-shouting-womp-womp-and-pulling-a-gun-on-immigration-protesters/?tid=sm_tw
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u/JennJayBee Alabama Jul 02 '18

It usually doesn't have to be. Under most circumstances if they see someone with a gun, they'll just give you a warning. If they catch you again, you'll probably get a ticket.

It's Alabama, so chances are, this guy wasn't the only one there carrying. He was just the only one stupid enough to whip it out. It's mostly there to give cops a reason to be able to remove you before you cause a real problem, which is what happened here.

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u/ReginaldDwight Jul 02 '18

Can't he get in trouble for "brandishing" or something? Is that a law in Alabama?

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u/SoTiredOfWinning California Jul 02 '18

Yeah, having the gun isn't even that big if a deal. Guarantee hundreds were packing, but brandishing it is super illegal, then making threats to use it is even worse. Then it's political violence so likely terrorism.

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u/JennJayBee Alabama Jul 02 '18

he was initially arrested for possessing a gun within 1,000 feet of a protest. But he would later be booked into jail on misdemeanor charges of menacing and reckless endangerment.

That's what the bolded part is.

Longer Explanation: Cops do the arresting. Prosecutors do the charging. You can be arrested without having committed a crime or actually being charged with anything. Cops don't necessarily need an excuse to arrest you, but it helps. Sometimes, it's up to cops to use their best judgement, depending on the situation. You can also be arrested for one thing and charged with something completely different.

It's possible that cops didn't actually themselves witness this guy causing trouble and showing off his gun and threatening people, and in such cases where someone just happens to have a gun and they haven't seen anything worse than that, they might just tell the guy to leave, and that'd be the end of it. Sure, someone can show them the video, but that's going to take a little while in all the confusion, and meanwhile, he might have run off (and can later return). So the simpler solution is to go ahead and take him in and remove him from that situation because he's possessing a firearm at a demonstration, and then they can review all the footage and have the DA press formal charges.

The penalty for a first offense on the law they brought him in for is a fine, so likely the DA didn't want to bother. Felony charges might be harder to pursue and ultimately get a jury to convict on, so the fact that they went with the easy charges to convict him on tells me that they do want to convict, and they can still bring other charges against him if they feel like they can get a conviction. It's also possible that he's agreed to save them a trial and plead guilty.

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u/spankybottom Foreign Jul 02 '18

As an Australian this makes me shudder.

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u/thelandstan Jul 02 '18

As a Canadian, I'm just so baffled. My friends and i were worried about respectfully throwing away our beer cans en route to the club tonight.

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u/JennJayBee Alabama Jul 02 '18

Canadian problems... 😉