Wild Wild West
Port Authority police officers in New Jersey pulled over a car after noticing it didn't have a license plate. The driver, Donald Martin West II, 41, handed over his driver's license -- and his Tennessee gun permit.
Why the permit, the officer asked West. "I got a gun on me," West allegedly replied. "In the small of my back." New York doesn't honor gun permits from Tennessee -- or pretty much anywhere else. The officer asked West if he had anything else on him.
"Yes," he allegedly said. "There's a bag of weed and some pipes." West went on to say he also had a pair of handcuffs, some hollow-point bullets, and an extra magazine for his pistol, police report. With that, even the cops had to laugh.
They then asked West's passenger, Tory Davis, 23, if he had anything to add to the list.
"There's two [marijuana] blunts in the ashtray," he allegedly offered.
The "slack-jawed yokels" (as the New York Post dubbed them) were arrested, but the Post didn't bother to say what the charges were, or their bail. The officers had a slightly kinder label for the duo: "Good ol' country boys." The Post also didn't bother to say when this happened; their story was published March 20.
West's mug shot was not released, but Artemus -- er, Tory Davis's -- was:
We're guessing it's pretty darned easy to get a gun permit in Tennessee....
Source: New York Post
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Most Recent Comments
Posted by Cathy, Dallas, TX on March 26, 2010:
At least they were being cooperative and admitted what was in the car. If they hadn't and then the items had been found it would have been worse. Cops on TV shows are always telling criminals that "the judge will go easier on you if you cooperate and...."
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I'd like to think that is true. Not sure if we'll ever see the conclusion of this particular case, but it would be interesting to find out! -rc
Posted by Bob in Illinois on March 27, 2010:
Many states follow evidentiary procedure that limit the use of evidence collected if the police ask about it before they read you your rights and get permission to search without probable cause. In this case it would be called ‘spontaneous exclamation’ and can be used against them.
Posted by Don, Yonkers, NY on March 27, 2010:
I once asked a New York City cop about what would be considered a legal weapon to carry. Apparently there pretty much aren't any for most people. You can be in possession of a knife with a blade up to 4" long, but not to use as a weapon, and certainly not in any courthouse and most government offices. Teenagers aren't permitted to possess box cutters, and no one is permitted to use them as a weapon. Carry permits for concealed handguns can be obtained, but they're very difficult and expensive to get, and unless you either work in law enforcement, security or are a business owner, it's a near certainty that you aren't getting one. A "non-carry" gun permit is also a challenge to obtain, and you're required to be a member of a gun range - you can transport the gun to and from in a locked case, but can't take it out in-between for any reason. Even "non-lethal" weapons like stun guns, Tasers and pepper gas spray are illegal. After all that, you're pretty much left with only foul language - you might as well be firing blanks at most New Yorkers!
But the thing I'm curious about is the shoddy reporting from the NY Post. They have a reputation as being a sensationalist tabloid paper owned by Rupert Murdoch and written on a lowest-common denominator reading level, but still - that story is barely better than "some guy got arrested for doing something stupid over there..."