Like you and me, only better
With a hint of unpossible
Actor Dennis Farina was caught at an airport in Los Angeles with a gun in his bag. This would be illegal in LA, of course. He was also, presumably, on his way home to Chicago, where having the gun would also be illegal.
Laws are for little people.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Seeing as Mr. Farina tends to play Mobster tough guys, maybe he convinced them he was method acting, preparing for his next big role. Airport police should play along and convince him that real jail time would be an excellent method acting experience and an invaluable chance to rub shoulders with real criminals, maybe even real (albeit low level) organized crime foot soldiers.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Heh, I saw that on Yahoo news the other day…he should have said it was a prop from Law and Order…but I like JJR’s idea.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:53 am
Ah, yes, the venerable Pete Townshend Defense.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
It doesn’t matter, because the LA DA’s office couldn’t convict him – airport cameras notwithstanding.
I am sure that authorities would be as forgiving if, say for example, Red (of Red’s Trading Post) was caught trying to bring a gun onto a plane.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Bah. I beat both of you to it: http://www.wallsofthecity.net/2008/05/like_you_and_me_only_better.html . Stupid writing-on-a-weekend problem…
June 4th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Failure to appropriately check the gun is a federal issue. LA and Chicago are not. You can lawfully check a firearm at either airport in transit to the other. Even if we were to assume Farina has no permit to carry in CA (unlikely, as celebs generally do), carrying without a permit in CA is a misdemeanor on the first offense, not a felony.
Move along people, nothing to see here.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
That’s not necessarily true. It can be a wobbler if certain conditions are met: Any person who commits the crime of carrying a concealed handgun and ammunition for that handgun on his/her person or in his/her vehicle may be subject to a felony enhancement if the handgun is not on file (registered) in the Department of Justice’s Automated Firearms System.
(Penal Code § 12025.)
The LA Times reported it was a loaded handgun.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-farina12-2008may12,0,4031188.story
June 5th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Not saying he couldn’t be charged for a felony, only that it’s not odd that he wasn’t. Wobblers yield misdemeanor charges all the time; that’s why they’re called wobblers rather than simply felonies. The article doesn’t say where Farina lives. If he doesn’t live in CA, upping the charge to a felony on the basis of the gun not being registered (when it wasn’t supposed to be registered in the first place) would border on the Kafgaesque.
This is one of Uncle’s many posts that say “Like you and me, only better,” but t he real beef is “Like you and me, but dammit, I want this guy to get something worse!”
June 5th, 2008 at 8:19 am
I don’t think so. If it were me or you, we’d be getting charged as felons. I’d bet $100 on it.
June 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
And you base that bet on … what, exactly?
June 7th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
odds
June 7th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Right, but odds have to be based on something empirical in order to mean anything. Got any stats to show a patttern of innocent violators getting the book thrown at them for similar offenses?