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Stopped for fare jumping, arrested for the loaded gun in his front pocket
By adamg on Mon, 08/01/2011 - 9:53am
MBTA Transit Police report a man stopped for jumping through a broken fare gate at Andrew station yesterday afternoon tried to bolt from officers questioning him, possibly because of the gun with the safety turned off that he was packing.
According to a police report, officers spotted Hamilton Rodriguez of Chelsea jumping over a cone at a broken fare gate around 1:20 p.m., which would have gotten him a citation.
Instead, as officers were talking to him, he tried to run away:
Officer Payne was able to grab Rodriguez by the right side of his body and took hold of his shirt as Rodriguez was attempting to run away. I ran through the gate located immediately to the right of Rodriguez. Rodriguez began to turn away from Officer Payne and began reaching towards the right side of his body with his right arm. Officer Payne was able to grab a hold of Rodriguez' left hand and arm as I wrapped my arms around Rodriguez' body directing him to the ground. I had control of Rodriguez' right wrist and arm as it was in between the floor and his chest in the area of the right side of his front waistband.I believed that Rodriguez could have been reaching towards a weapon at which time I directed Rodriguez to give me his hand. Officer Payne stated to Rodriguez to "show me your hands, or else you will be sprayed." I was able to pull Rodriguez' right arm out from underneath his body and Officer Payne was able to pull his left arm. Rodriguez was then handcuffed.
The officers recovered "a Walther handgun (serial number 582037), possibly a .22 caliber or .25 caliber, Walther's Patent Mod. 9 with one round in the chamber (unknown at time of the report if there are additional rounds in the magazine) and its safety off," from Rodriguez's front right pocket, the report says.
Rodriguez, 20, was arraigned in South Boston District Court this morning on charges of illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition and unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm. His bail for this case was set at $20,000, but a judge then revoked his outstanding bail on a Chelsea drug charge.
In recent days, MBTA and Boston Police have stepped up patrols and surveillance in the area around Andrew station because of complaints from nearby residents and T users about possible drug dealing there.
Innocent, etc.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Officer Payne
Awesome.
And the broken window approach to policing apparently works...
Again.
My favorite line of the report: "...directing him to the ground..." Read - I dropped this fool to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
This actually sounds like a pretty dangerous situation, where the cops, a bystander or this imbecile himself could have easily caught a bullet. We're all better off for some good police work that took this guy off the street. Kudos to the T cops on a job well and safely done.
What about the broken
What about the broken turnstile approach?
If the T wants people to respect the fare collection system, they need to maintain it.
Hell, leave it that way for bait
It's actually not quite the broken windows theory -- it's various theories of antisocial behavior. Basically, you can think of antisocial behavior as being along a sharp curve; if you're someone who crosses that line that most people don't ever cross, it's pretty likely that you'll cross it again and again, because you have deficiencies in self-control and/or empathy.
This guy doesn't care about laws or what happens to him, as evidenced by his behavior. The cops have a perfectly legitimate reason to stop him, since they watched him break a law. It's highly likely that someone doing these sorts of things has warrants (or a freakin' loaded gun). So leave the broken turnstiles with cones there and station cops by them to snag jumpers. It would get a lot of people the help they need.
Good things get done when policing focuses on behavior that shows a lack of regard for society rather than making ticket quotas.
great work by the T-police
I know this might sound like a stupid question but is it legal to carry a firearm on the subway if you have a license. Is it illegal to carry knives on the T
knives and firearms
A little off-topic, but I wouldn't mind knowing this either. I have always wondered if the pocketknife I carry is legal, but for obvious reasons never wanted to ask.
Hard to get authoritative information
I heard Boston has some stupid ordinance that limits pocketknife blades to 2.5 inches, max.
Which, if true, would prohibit most multi-tools.
Authoritative Information
Boston City Ordinance regarding knives:
16-45.1 Carrying of Weapons Prohibited.
No person, except as provided by law, shall carry on his person, or carry under his control in a vehicle, any knife having any type of blade in excess of two and one-half (2½ ) inches, ice picks, dirks or similar weapons that are likely to penetrate through police officer's ballistic vests, or other object or tool so redesigned, fashioned, prepared or treated that the same may be used to inflict bodily harm or injury to another, except:
a. When actually engaged in hunting or fishing or any employment, trade or lawful recreational or culinary activity which customarily involves the carrying or use of any type of knife, or
b. In going directly to and/or returning directly from such activities, or
c. If the knife is being transported directly to or from a place of purchase, sharpening, or repair, and if packaged in such a manner as not to allow easy access to the knife while it is being transported.
If you get caught, it's a $300 fine (and they'll take your knife).
Weaselly law
It would be pretty damn easy to weasel your way out of this by saying you have cause on a regular basis during your work or hobbies to fix stuff using a knife. Don't most people?
I could successfully
I could successfully prosecute you for carrying a knife with a 3-inch blade in Boston, if you couldn't show that you were going directly to/from location where you use it for work or hobbies.
This law seems intended for selective enforcement, and most people who legitimately carry a knife are unaware of it or think (rightly) that the law won't be enforced against them.
Unless you find yourself in a misunderstanding with police, and then the selective enforcement will suddenly not be in your favor.
Have to remember not to go through Boston proper, in case I forgot a Victorinox RescueTool in my bag.
I wonder whether Somerville, Cambridge, and Arlington are more sane on this point. Plenty of restaurants and shops there where I can spent my money.
If by prosecute, you mean,
If by prosecute, you mean, get your knife taken away and a bill for $300, then yes.
In fact this ordinance is really only enforced against people who stab someone, wave a knife around at someone, or are already arrested for something else. No officer is going to stop you and search you because he sees the clip of a pocketknife on your belt. So whether your knife is 2 inches or 6, unless you are showing it off or stabbing someone with it, the police have no way of knowing.
I'm a by-the-book kinda guy
If the ordinance says "don't do this", I'm not gonna do that. I'm not going to make myself legally vulnerable to selective enforcement of dumbass rules, and I'm not going to risk being in a position in which I'd have to lie to avoid the penalty of selective enforcement. I know that the Boston philosophy is to ignore rules, but that doesn't work for me.
Not hard to do
"I could successfully prosecute you for carrying a knife with a 3-inch blade in Boston, if you couldn't show that you were going directly to/from location where you use it for work or hobbies."
Yes, I also assume that the law is intended for only going after people who are waving around a knife, but in that case, the law should be that you can't wave knives around and threaten people OH WAIT WE ALREADY HAVE LAWS ABOUT THAT.
Actually, most of the time, I am going to or from work or recreational activities. There aren't many other categories of things to do.
unless of course you don't
unless of course you don't have a job and just hang out
lawful recreational or culinary activity
.
As long as you're smart
As long as you're smart enough to claim that you are on your way to/from such an activity, and it seems reasonable that that type of knife is appropriate, then yes. There is also a state law that is a little more strict in some ways, and more slack in others. It probably has to be weaselly, since, like you said, lots of people have to carry knives for lots of good reasons.
To address your earlier comment, there's no such thing as a ticket quota.
Right
Yes, I know that most cities don't have an actual number of tickets an officer or a division must write, but they do have "performance goals" or whatever where you have to show that you're doing something while at work.
Regarding the knives, it would seem that as long as it's not an obvious stabbing-people knife, that it's easy to say that you carry it for just about any job. I don't always have a knife on me, but I've certainly used a pocket knife many times in my work and hobbies. I could be carrying it for hacking off ends of guitar strings, sharpening art materials that don't fit in a sharpener, cutting off lengths of rope for movement props, etc. I do all these things regularly, so it wouldn't be unusual to have it in my bag just in case.
Recreational Activities
Boston potholes cause a lot of flats on bikes. I carry a knife to cut old innertubes for patching or the classic "tourniquet" approach to turn a gash into a slow leak.
It is really smart to carry a knife while diving or kayaking, because it is too easy to get fouled in stray lines. Oh, I forgot to take it out of my bag - my bad.
What next - banning corkscrews?
Knives on the T
City ordinances are not enforceable on the MBTA so I guess you can carry machetes if you so desire
Yes
Yes, if you have a license to carry firearms, you can carry on the T.
Max Payne
Good policin', Max!
Glad to see there'll be one less thug roaming the Chelsea 'hood (which is also the 'hood of my wife and soon-to-be-born daughter). Hopefully he'll stay away as long as possible!
In defense of the suspect's intellect
Fare evasion is pretty commonplace, and a hundred BU students a day get away with it.
However, jumping a turnstile when you're carrying something you don't want police to find does not seem like a smart move.
Guy was already out on bail
Guy was already out on bail for a drug charge when this happened. Now he's being held without bail.