Acquitted
Via Spoons, we learn that Roderick Pritchett was acquitted. Spoons sums it up nice:
Pritchett said the gun was unloaded. Two cops said it was. An acquittal by a judge under those circumstances is unheard of. Bottom line, the judge thought the cops were lying.
May 18th, 2004 at 2:30 pm
That “common sense” quote is, wonder of wonders, not from Spoons, but from Eric Zorn, the ChiTrib columnist who wrote the account.
Credit where credit is due.
Zorn clearly has at least a glimmering of the truth: it’s not the law-abiding gun owners who are the threat. Tiny infractions of complex regulations do no harm to the community at large.
Zorn mentions that after the trial, Pritchert’s supporters (most wearing blue shirts in echo of the support cops give other cops on trial) say they “won ugly.” He calls it a beautiful win for commonsense, which it certainly is. However, he fails to understand that for gun owners, a beautiful win would have had something to say about the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
Still, it’s a big step for a paper like the Trib to acknowledge that at the very least, simply owning a gun out not to put a citizen totally at the mercy of a capricious regulation.
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May 18th, 2004 at 2:40 pm
THe trib says:
Spoons added the bit about lying. Or so I thought.
Still, it is welcome change from the ChicTrib.