stepson got arrested yesterday for having brass knuckles in his car...if it had been a loaded firearm they wouldn't of arrested him because that would be legal but the knuckles are not.

The cops don't make the laws. Your state legislature does. Until they repeal it, your stepson is breaking the law, is he not?

Not to be a smart a$$, but what was he doing in the first place that gave the cops a reason to look in his car? My guess is that's what got him arrested. The brass knuckles were just a convenient reason to put on the forms.

" My guess .......... "

I could run through a lot of "guesses" before I got to THAT one.

My first "guess" would be a prick with a badge.

I would expect nothing less.

Should have bought aluminium. They work exactly the same.

i'm saying the law is BS

burned out tail light

How would they even know what he had in the car? What was he driving?

durango, they asked to search and he consented like a dumb ass

Figured it was a Dodge............grin

Saw THAT coming!

Well he knows better now. that sucks

Brass Knuckles, does he think he is a bad ass or something ?

How serious is that charge?

Play stupid games...

Maybe so but you can't blame the cops for that. There are plenty of legal weapons to carry. Why did he pick an illegal one?

Class A misdemeanor. Looking at one year in the county lockup, and more importantly life long consequences such as barring him from certain professional licenses, a CHL, and automatic disqualification for employment with many companies.

STX,

It is a serious offense, treat it as such. Hire a lawyer asap. If it is his first offense, a lawyer probably can help him and work something out for him.

Pound into his skull - no alcohol, no drugs, and no hanging around his buddies that do. If he is picked up again while this is pending, things will become substantially worse for him in a hurry.

Hopefully, it is a one time learning experience and will set him on a good path for future success.

If it's a misdemeanor, pay the fine and solider on. Then dump the hardware and get CCW.

Bad advice. The terminology varies by state, but in Texas a Class A misdemeanor has serious consequences including up to one year of jail time. This is the same category of crime as illegally carrying a gun, or pimping. As mentioned, it can disqualify him from certain professional licenses, a CHL, and employment with many companies and employers.

Hire a lawyer and let him or her sort out the options.

Get a good lawyer and fight it.





Travis

Absolutely. Fight this as hard as y'all can. No reason a bs law should ruin a kids life.

They are snakes, and evil, and vile....

But lawyers have saved my bacon more than once...

As others said, Lawyer up!
Hoping the kid is a juvenile, but afraid he's not.

From what , other lawyers ?

That's like an arsonist setting your house afire , then he comes riding up on the firetruck to put it out. Is the arsonist some kinda hero because he helped put the fire out ?


Mike

Pesky traffic issues among other things..

lesson learned I guess? Be civil and polite,let them write a warning/citation for burned out light, but when asked if you mind if they look in the vehicle, politely decline.

This.

At least he knows now. Bet he won't do that again.

17 is an adult in Texas as far as the criminal justice system is concerned.

lawyers write the laws in language only they can understand. Snakes? Yes, but necessary ones. They know their way around the law and the system. Without one, you can make a very expensive mistake.

Nicely rigged game, ain't it?

Stupid law indeed.

Hell, I remember when they were a novelty item you bought at the drug store.
Everyone had a set hanging from their rear view and I don't remember once seeing em used in a fight.

Just more PC bull shizzle.

Brass Knuckles are a felony in this state. 12020 Penal Code

No matter what "Brass Knuckles" are made from, aluminum, steel, etc. they're just as illegal. Brass Knuckles is a generic term.

not blaming the cops, hell i know two of them. i drove up the scene to pick up my 18yr old who was riding with mike, this happened in alice tx. he was going to work for me on a tile job. dps we're the ones who pulled him over then called the city cops, i know most of them and the deputy's, went to school with them. i'm not bitching about them doing their job.

GOOD lawyer and good luck to him. I'd like to believe it will not go far but you never know.

yeah , i'm going to talk to his dad about the lawyer.

If the office er had your sons I'd or paperwork or the bliue lights were on when he gave permission you can get the search thrown out.
No one may give permission for a search under duress and if he was not free to go at the time then he was under custodial arrest.

Man I've seen brass knucks really tear people up. Badly broken jaws, smashed noses, orbital bones broken, teeth scattered and mangled and nasty gashes in the scalp. You can really screw some chit up with them.

The 2nd clearly states "the right of the people to keep and bear ARMS shall not be infringed". Like it or not, brass knuckles would fall under the definition of "ARMS". Any cop can use his own discretion when enforcing the laws. If they enforce laws that are clearly unconstitutional, they are as guilty of violating the BOR as the scumbag government trash that passed those laws in the first place. Both are enemies of the people and the US constitution.

Sorry to hear it Roger.

I wish him luck.

my how times have changed.

I lost a good set of aluminum knuckles and a pretty decent switchblade to TX cops when I first showed up there.

traffic stop

consent to search my azz, out on the pavement under gunpoint spread eagled while they searched us.


pretty sure my stuff just went into his pocket, thus the no charges, what he was horned up to find was dope.

He didn't but told us if he found a grain we were headed to the big house.

Your brass knucks should be in an oversize leather glove, and not in the open.
Never consent.

Good to see Texas is really just like every other state when the free as birds PR campaign gets wiped away.

Ok I have a question
what happens when you dont consent? Do they say Oh OK and let you carry on? My gut tells me no

I really ask what is the answer?

Hank

Wouldn't expect any different.

Figured that comin from a state like Kaliforni.

Well you know, I have a couple of old blackjacks that are pretty handy..don't carry them though, they are illegal.

It depends on the state's laws and/or whether or not the cop has probable cause to get a search warrant issued.

Unfortunately there is nothing prevent cops from intimidating er ah encouraging you from allowing them to perform a search without a warrant.

We've gone a long ways away from the constitution and police protecting and serving. Know your rights, be courteous, shut up and if needed lawyer up.

Cops going to have to lie to esta lish PC.
IF there was PC for a warrant, then he wouldn't ask for permission.
As soon as he asks for permission you should ask if you free to leave.

Where in that statute does it define possession of brass-knuckles as a felony? Illegal, yes, as it is in many states, but I believe possession of, is a misdemeanor, same as Alabama.

Police are no different than they were decades ago. It is a shame we have cell phone videos making people think that is the case.

Everything is a felony in Ca , except tofu & the rainbow flag



Mike

I think sarcasm is a felony in California....

Well this is all good news, likely those city Cops did not make the connection between you and your stepson when they picked him up, and surely they would have had to follow through with the charges anyway since the guy was handed to 'em by DPS.

Hopefully small town politics still counts for something and the charges will be dismissed or bargained.

Mike

Not unusual to find 'em possession among the gang element at my school, at least off-campus. I would expect in most cases they just stash 'em right off of campus somewhere on their way in.

OTOH they are the sort of thing that can turn an ordinary stop by Cops into an arrest for 'em so I dunno for sure why they carry them except for image. Off-campus gang-related fights after school are frequent but you don't hear of knucks being used much, at least not to the extent of the above.

Birdwatcher

Switchblades are now legal in Texas as a couple of years ago.
So come on down and visit.

Roger, sorry about the step son.

That sucks.

It's a bullchit law and sounds like a bullchit stop. Cops were dikbags for enforcing it.

I'd definitely talk to a lawyer.

The thing about this that stinks to me is the fact they wanted to search the vehicle on a tail light stop....

Seems they had searching in mind and the tail light was an excuse....

Two 18 year old males in a pickup truck? Why, whatever would they be searching for.... (alcohol, drugs, weapons...)

Lawyer up; shut up.

One mid 40's white surveyor driving MLK will get a stop for turn signal use or other such nonsense.

Kid learned the hard way, but be polite and deny searches under all circumstances...

I say this from both sides of the issue, because we used PC stops a lot to get some righteous arrests, but had a lot of people deny searches that we thanked and told them to have a nice day. (didn't have to shoot em or beat them up or anything. Pretty sure none of those made youtube)


by the way, I wouldn't consider two teens of any color with knuckles a righteous arrest. The weapon would have been confiscated and scrapped, and the kids sent along their way.

Have you ever noticed that whenever a subject on COPS begins his statement with "I'm going to be honest with you..." he ends up going to jail?

That's the 'flave hint of the day.




Travis

Those days are all but ancient history dude.




Dave

That would be a form of the dreaded 'profiling' would it not?

But profiling is OK so long as the subjects aren't black.......



I know how it works on the street Sean, and Im just grasping at straws cause the bottom line is what the OP said...its BS


Brass knuckles?....please.....

Yep. With everything on video now, discretion is out the window for the officers involved. Anything found has to result in an arrest.

was just about to say that.


FYI, Down here, they make knuckles out of lead.

Fairly popular until the EPA had folks putting that "cancer causing or birth defects" warning label across the bridge.

one of the cops told me because it had paper tags. mike just bought it about 3 weeks ago, and mike my stepson is 27.

or Muslim

So, NEW knucks were his issue? That schit stinks worse than the stop and arrest.

My interpretation was paper "tags" on the vehicle......

That's what I gathered as well.

Ah.

And? The stop was supposedly for a burned out tail-light, and now the temp tags come in? On a used car?

JFC.

I can't/won't speak for the great State of Texas, but.......

The burned out tail-light, obviously, is a defective equipment issue. Easily AS for a MV stop. In NH, if the temp. (paper) registration was obtained by the individual, there's wording that the registering party signs off on with the DMV that the vehicle meets all inspection requirements as well. I'm sure that's a liability issue in regards to distributing 20 day tags.

As far as searching for a tail-light.......you'd have to ask the DPS guys in regards to what caught their attention.

They came into the conversation as an assumption by the cop that didn't make the stop.




Travis

Even if a department doesn't have it on video. If kid-A testifies that two years ago the officer in question "cut him a break" and kid-B did not receive the same break on a similar offense, well... You know what happens.




Clark

Prohibited Weapons

North Carolina law prohibits:

teflon-coated bullets
ballistic knives
sawed-off rifles or shotguns
automatic weapons
machine guns
silencers
bombs and grenades
rockets, missiles, and mines, and
nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.
(N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 14-34.3, 14-269.6, 14-288.8, 14-288.21, 14-409.)[color:#3366FF][/color]


Can someone tell me what a ballistic knife is ?

A "knife" that has a blade as a projectile, usually spring loaded...


Can someone tell me if what happens after taco night is considered a chemical or biological weapon?

A ballistic knife is a knife with a detachable blade that can be ejected to a distance of several meters by pressing a trigger or operating a lever or switch on the handle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_knife

I'm guessing that includes throwing stars, chakras, and the like.

Nope.

Thanks for the replies I have never seen such an animal

curntdog4570: I think YOU have your "pricks" mixed up!
What kind of a "prick" needs to carry around a set of brass knuckles with them?
The arrestee has a hand in making the laws in his jurisdiction and HE violated them NOW its the POHLICE's fault - you sound like a typical chip on your shoulder urban welfare negro.
Worthless.
Sad.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Because they are illegal, duh...

3rd grade response from a moron duly noted

Who rattled the cage of this idiot?

Wow, you're cunny must be extra touchy this morning to not understand a joke. I don't blame you for typing what your mother said to you every day of your life though. You can't help it.

So what is your excuse all the time? Oh I know

I always wonder if he really is the complete idiot he portrays online or if he is playing the part of an idiot?

On further thought, he is just an idiot.

Well, just be glad he wasn't arrested/charged here in Williamson County. As others have said, get a lawyer and don't skimp.

shouldn't have been carry daddy paper weight around in the glove box. This would be my defense in court , judge they were just a paper weight from the office and i was taking them home to clean .

Roger.....tell him to go talk to the cop. If he doesn't like the end result of the conversation, hire a lawyer.

I can see this one being dealt with quickly, without a misd conviction resulting.

Of course, that may only work here in Yankeeland.......

I think it is a misdemeanor, same as most other states...but carry on.

This should be the end of it unless there is more to the story. If he has been in a bunch of trouble of one sort or another then that's probably a deal breaker. Otherwise, fix it and move on from there.

Let me tell you why you are wrong. The police of yesteryear could pull over a drunk driver and instead of busting him, he had more options. I know cops of yesteryear who would park the car for the guy, then give the drunk a ride home instead of busting him, and making his life miserable.

Today if a cop does the same thing he opens himself up to dismissal, or future lawsuit. When that same driver gets drunk and kills somebody in a car accident, today lawyers will blame said cop becasue if he only would have busted him two years ago, his client would have got help...or the victim of the accident will sue him becasue he did not get said alcoholic off the roads.

So don't give me that shiiit Sherp, their are no difference between cops of today and cops of yesteryear, but most of those differences are society induced.

As far as the kid with brass knuckles go, his father should have only one reply, "son did you know brass knuckles were illegal? Then WTF were you doing driving around with a pair in your car"? But instead of seizing the learning moment, Dad has turned into a Little League father who is going to blame the cops and the methods they used, for finding his son's illegal knuckles. Instead of focusing on his son driving around with something illegal, he is going to turn it into a "my son was done wrong" moment. I see that as indicative of the society we have become.

My apologies stxhunter, I mean nothing personal here, I just think you are looking at this wrong. I think by you fighting this bust...well look, if the cops would have done everything they did, but came up empty, I would be more in support of your beef, but your son got caught, so teach him why he was wrong in this instance instead of focusing on the guys who caught him with something illegal in his car..

Please, DFTFT and don't quote that SOB - whether it posts as sherp, or SanSouci, or Raisuli, or Laguna (all the same person, and those likely aren't all their multiple trolling log-ins).

Telling a troll (if he is a troll) why he is wrong is not feeding him. Reacting emotionally by blocking him or shouting names at him, feeds the troll and gives him fuel. Getting mad and reacting..well, you let the troll win.

I'm neither mad, nor dealing with him otherwise. Informing those that play with the little felonious (as in, previously convicted) POS as to who/what it is was the intent. Carry on.

I agree the cop was probably being a jerk to pick him up for that but legally that isn't going to get you anywhere as whether we agree with the law or not its still a law that the court will enforce if a cop files the complaint.

Paying the fine and moving on by getting a CHL is just about the worst thing that your step son could do as it would be pretty much impossible. How it is going to work out in reality is pay a $1500 fine, do 60-80 hours of community service, do one to two years of probation and then be barred from getting a CHL for 5 years from the date his probation ends.

This can be a very serious thing or it could be a slap on the wrist depending on what kind of an attitude your step son displays to the court and how good of a lawyer he has. If he shows up acting like he thinks its a BS charge then the court isn't going to cut him any slack. If he shows up acting like a good kid that made a mistake and has a good lawyer he can probably get a slap on the wrist via a pre-trial diversion program or pleading it down to something much less. At least here the pre-trial diversion will be something where they reschedule the court date for 60 days and the kid shows up with proof that he's done x amount of community service in the meantime and kept his grades up in exchange for the case being dismissed or they could let him plead it to a class C which is fine only and won't go on his permanent record or interfere with a CHL application. But if he shows up with an attitude or acts like its no big deal he's pretty much screwed.

Leave him be, Sean. It took me a lot of years here to come by my own pet imbecile. He trails me everywhere.

A good lawyer won't let it get to court.

And he's 27. Not 14.



Travis

Convicted of what? DFT doesn't tell me much.

What the hell is wrong with you, Barkoff? Yesterday you jumped my ass with a post that had nothing to do with my post you were responding to.

Now, you post as if you haven't read a word that Roger has typed on this thread.

You weren't always this way. What happened?

AND, he also had a burned out brake light (which neccessated the stop) and 'that' is a violation of a rule too.

What the hell is wrong with you, what don't you understand. My father would not have fretted a thing, his answer to me would have been, "well, you were dumb enough to drive around with something you knew was illegal, now take your punishment like a man".

When I used to come home and tell the old man that a teacher was picking on me, his response to me was something like, "out of a class of 30 kids in it, why do you suppose the teacher singled you out to pick on". His belief was that the most important lesson for me to learn was to live with the situation that I helped in creating.

There is only one question here and I don't believe has been answered (unless I missed it), did the kid know that brass knuckles were illegal to be driving around with?

I was referring to the ballistic knife that dimwit said he'd never seen.

Don't ruin it.

Surprised people have never seen one since they are so prevalent among society today, and so many crimes are committed with them.

That dude in 'The Punisher' DID kill his adversary with one...!

This.

Roger, in the future, you might suggest to the stepson, just in conversation of course, that an 18" section of chain with a stout padlock on one end is an excellent item to have in a truck. A similar lock with a bandana knotted to the hasp also will work, but not as well.

Both can be used very effectively, and these improvised maces are also perfectly legal. As with any weapon, user beware: they are game-ending devices that *will* kill a man.

And get that burned our brake light fixed...!

Where can I buy a ballistic knife?




Dave

one other thing , are we talking about a actual kid or a grown man ? What is his age?

Good luck. The Feds, in a "bipartisan anti-crime bill" forbid their import or interstate sale in the 1980s. If you can find one in MT, then you can buy one. Outside of that, you're basically out of luck.

Oh, and if you do find one, you'd need to make sure that it's a spring-operated version and not one that uses compressed gas or any charge; those are ATF classified as an AOW, necessitating a Class 3 stamp for possession.

Roger says he is 27.

I don't have to sell, but I do have a stiletto that was thrown at me at a high rate of speed.

Knuckles are a 5 year felony here.

A roll of quarters is still only $10.

I actually have a pair of brass knuckles, but I can't get my fingers through them...I guess they came in different sizes. I keep them just for the novelty, but they never leave the house.

Once the Politburo gets wind of your post, they'll be leaving the house in an evidence bag....

I keep 15 bucks in quarters in a tied up wool sock...for the carwash.
Yeah.
That's the ticket.

I treat everyone like they are my friend. I have lots of friends, no enemies and no need for self protection. More people should do the same...

Never been to LA or Chicago huh? But I get what you're saying. Thing is, some criminals have no connectedness to humans so will victimize you so fast your head will spin for a week.