St. Petersburg - "gun bounty" program

[ThomasJ]

Looks like I'm going to be busy on the phone today.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr...news-breaking/

scratch that, i've got time to hit city hall for the announcement. hopefully there will be a Q&A.

[jerkin]

Don't you guys have a 4th amendment in Fla?

[JoeWilliams]

The program also will offer $1,000 for tips involving any other firearm. Funding for the effort comes from donations to Crime Stoppers and the police department's forfeiture fund.

Stasi.
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[GuyMontag]

Fun! And now the next step will be to make common practices illegal for reason to arrest and search.

[dc dalton]

What I find interesting in that article is the fact they NEVER mention the word 'illegal' when referring to an assault weapon. It makes it sound like I can call in a tip on a neighbor that owns a LEGAL weapon.

Sounds to me like this whole thing is going to turn into one giant legal clusterf*ck

[adymond]

I wonder if you could call in a tip on yourself, collect the $1000, go replace the firearm that is illegally siezed and then sue the shit out of the local LEO.

[ThomasJ]

What a worthless event. Appears the sole purpose was for a member of the city council to ingratiate himself to a particular community in order to curry favor for his mayoral candidacy. I came armed with statistics regarding crime and single parent homes (juvy murderers, rapists, prison population, substance abuse, etc.) to counter the "common element is guns", that I knew someone would make. The whole goal is to get "illegally owned and used" guns off the streets, seizure of cash, etc. This will all be done through crime stoppers. Apparently, regular crime stoppers didn't end the "no snitching" culture, but introducing this "gun bounty" will. The chief of police said he'd take questions, I immediately raised my hand. Some woman made a quick statement about being the mother of a murdered teen. Chief: "Well, that's going to do it. We'll break up now."

To their credit, I never heard anyone say "assault weapon". They did, however, say "assault rifle". Of course, they had a table full of them (and most looked like they were from Al Capone days). I asked the chief to give me the assault rifle crime and murder stats. He couldn't. He just said the bounty program it isn't limited to assault rifles.

I also pointed out to the chief that many of the organizations in attendance were very silent when a cop shot and killed a teen last year who had pointed a gun at the cop. Very silent...except for the protests, of course. No one in that particular community was against "no snitching" then.

[-JD-]

What I find interesting in that article is the fact they NEVER mention the word 'illegal' when referring to an assault weapon. It makes it sound like I can call in a tip on a neighbor that owns a LEGAL weapon.

Sounds to me like this whole thing is going to turn into one giant legal clusterf*ck

I wonder if you could call in a tip on yourself, collect the $1000, go replace the firearm that is illegally siezed and then sue the shit out of the local LEO.

...With the bounty program, police will pay a $1,500 reward for every confidential tip made to Crime Stoppers of Pinellas County that leads to an arrest, a recovery of an assault weapon and a weapons charge in St. Petersburg.
The program also will offer $1,000 for tips involving any other firearm. Funding for the effort comes from donations to Crime Stoppers and the police department's forfeiture fund.
...

Bold mine

DC, I think that the fact that the payout is based on an arrest for a weapons charge pretty much implies that the weapon is somehow illegally possessed.

Adymond, the $1000 would probably be better phrased: "The program also will offer a $1,000 reward for every confidential tip made to Crime Stoppers of Pinellas County that leads to an arrest, a recovery of any other firearm and a weapons charge ..." So given that you need to be arrested and charged, tattling on your self would probably be a loser.

[ThomasJ]

Bold mine

DC, I think that the fact that the payout is based on an arrest for a weapons charge pretty much implies that the weapon is somehow illegally possessed.

Adymond, the $1000 would probably be better phrased: "The program also will offer a $1,000 reward for every confidential tip made to Crime Stoppers of Pinellas County that leads to an arrest, a recovery of any other firearm and a weapons charge ..." So given that you need to be arrested and charged, tattling on your self would probably be a loser.

I also asked the chief if all three conditions must be met, and he said yes. Basically, it seems to be just a feel good, "hey, we're doing something to capitalize on a recent tragedy to show we care" type of thing.

[adymond]

I bet if they come to your home looking for a firearm there will be charges brought in relation to SOMETHING.