ABC Reporter arrested after having CCW onto school premise

[AirPower]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071024/ap_on_re_us/reporter_arrested

MIAMI - A television reporter investigating a story on school violence was arrested after carrying a loaded gun onto school property, authorities said.
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Jeffrey Weinsier of WPLG-TV, an ABC network, was taken into custody Tuesday at Miami Central High School after ignoring several warnings not to walk on school property, Miami-Dade schools police said.

"Kindly go across the street now," an officer is shown telling Weinsier during the videotaped encounter.

"I'm not," Weinsier replied. The officer then handcuffed him.

Weinsier, 40, was charged with possession of a firearm on school grounds, trespassing on school property with a weapon and resisting officers without violence.

The photographer working with Weinsier, Frank Debesa, said afterward: "Jeff did have a gun on him."

Weinsier began carrying a gun after he received death threats stemming from a series he did about unsanitary conditions at restaurants, according to the station.

"At this point, Channel 10 is still reviewing the circumstances surrounding today's arrest," said Dave Boylan, the station's vice president and general manager.

Weinsier has a concealed weapons permit, but state law prohibits anyone from being armed at schools, police Detective Ed Torrens said.

Weinsier was released from jail on $11,000 bond.

"I've been advised not to say anything," he told Channel 10 afterward. "The videotape speaks for itself. ... I was not trespassing."

A telephone message left on his work voice mail by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.

 

[tamaneko]

after ignoring several warnings

Yeah, he got what was coming.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Warnings? He received better treatment than any of us would have.

 

[qajaq59]

There's no cure for "stupid".

 

[righteousbarbarian]

if this was civil disobedience -- a calculated effort against illegal/unconstitutional handgun restrictions, then much respect to him. otherwise this was not smart.

 

[Fly320s]

if this was civil disobedience -- a calculated effort against illegal/unconstitutional handgun restrictions, then much respect to him. otherwise this was not smart.

That's my bet.

Hopefully, the sheeple will have their eyes opened some day, before the wolf gets to them.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Sounds like he may be claiming he wasn't actually on school property when it happened.

Claiming the videotape "speaks for itself" that he was not trespassing is a bold move if in fact it shows he really did go on school grounds.

If he was arrested "preemptively" then he's gonna have a good case.

Also, how did the police know he was carrying concealed? What probably cause did they have to find out?
Did they use the concealed carry records inappropriately to target a member of the press? He might be trying to make that argument as well.

There's lots more here I think, will be interesting to watch.

This does not sound at all like a dumb mistake. Sounds very calculated.

I'm surprised some of you are ready to throw him under the bus for this. I'm beginning to wonder how deeply the anti's have infiltrated THR.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

if this was civil disobedience -- a calculated effort against illegal/unconstitutional handgun restrictions, then much respect to him. otherwise this was not smart.

So he is a dummy if this was by accident, but if he was doing it to protest a particular view, you have respect for him? Interesting.

I watched the video. http://www.local10.com/video/14407909/index.html
He did not appear to be making any sort of gun statement, so maybe he was a dummy, or would you still have respect for him if he was standing up to possible trespass laws as a form of civil disobedience and simply did so while armed (which seems pretty stupid in my book). Looking at the video, I am inclined to believe that it was a spontaneous conflict, meaning he wanted to shoot the story on the public sidewalk outside of the school when the cops asked him to move. He thought he could legally be there and so refused. Then it was a grudge battle resulting in his arrest.

While the thread here and several of the reported news stories online state he was arrested for or after carrying onto school property, his CCW and the arrest have nothing to do with one another. It is important to get the facts in the correct order. He was taken into custody for disobeying an officer's order to move (regardless of whether it was a lawful order, that is what landed him in cuffs) and because he didn't follow that order, he was also trespassing (?). It was only AFTER being taken into custody that the gun was discovered.

So there is no conspiracy here or anything like that in regard to the police knowing that he was carrying at the time of the incident.

It is sort of like when they say somebody was arrested for drug possession when come to find out, they were taken into custody for a domestic disturbance and the drugs were found on their person during the customary search.

The video is a bit short, but if Florida law is like Texas law, it would not be trespassing to be on a public sidewalk around a school, legally armed or not. I think the bigger question is whether the cops had the right to order him across the street.

 

[JWarren]

I am not LEO-bashing, but this needs to be said....

"Kindly go across the street now," an officer is shown telling Weinsier during the videotaped encounter.

I am just IMAGINING an parallel universe where ANY OF US would be told this if we were CC on a school campus.

I suppose I will have to start traveling with a camera crew...


-- John

 

[40SW]

I am still not clear about something?
Where was the probable cause? Was is the trespass?
How was it determined that he was carrying?
Granted the story content speaks for itself.
Was he frisked? if so, what prompted the frisk?

 

[Standing Wolf]

I guess people's lives aren't worth defending on "school property," which we, the people actually own.

 

[Rumble]

I am still not clear about something?
Where was the probable cause? Was is the tresspass?
How was it determined that he was carrying?
Granted the story content speaks for itself.
Was he frisked? if so, what prompted the frisk?

I'm not positive, but it seems that the arrest and the concealed weapon might have been unrelated at the time - it sounds like the cops asked him to leave the premises for some reason, and he refused, at which point he was cuffed and frisked, and the gun was discovered.

Of course, since he was doing a story on school violence, this may have been entirely intentional. It's hard to say, since the article doesn't say why he was warned to stay off the property.

EDIT: DoubleNaughtSpy beat me to it.

 

[Henry Bowman]

It seems that the critical question to be determined is whether the public sidewalk in front of the school is "school premises." Motives and consequences will sort themselves out. I simply hope that analysis of the real question is not tainted by the later-discovered ( and irrelevant) fact that he was legally armed. It is also not relevant whether he was acting as a "journalist" at the time. No free pass because of fear that someone will exert their First Amendment rights; no prejudice because of hatred of our Second Amendment rights.

 

[Ithaca37]

Yeah, he got what was coming.

Watch the video before you go making statements like that. He was on the sidewalk, NOT on school property. The gestapo came over and harassed him after the school complained about his being on the sidewalk outside of the school while he was doing a story on violence at the high school. When he refused to be removed from a public place without reason they arrested him.

Got what he deserved? Hardly unless you support a police state.

 

[jlpskydive]

Watch the video before you go making statements like that. He was on the sidewalk, NOT on school property. The gestapo came over and harassed him after the school complained about his being on the sidewalk outside of the school while he was doing a story on violence at the high school. When he refused to be removed from a public place without reason they arrested him

.

Man do I love THR

 

[hcddog]

I'm beginning to wonder how deeply the anti's have infiltrated THR.

I've honestly wondered the same thing myself, given some of the responses I've seen here in the past...

 

[Dain Bramage]

I'd repeat Ithaca37's statement, but jlpskydive beat me to it. I know a lot of THR members have issues with the media (mostly with good reason), but this guy is still a legally-armed citizen who got harrassed by the police at the behest of a government entity (school official). I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since so many elements of the reported story still need to come out. His case can be one more chink to be explored in the insanity of school gun laws.

I'm also surprised at all those who think he got preferential treatment for being a reporter. Do the police go around cracking skulls for standing on sidewalks in your town (Chicagoans need not reply)? If so, I'm glad I don't live there.

 

[fjolnirsson]

Quote:
I'm beginning to wonder how deeply the anti's have infiltrated THR.
I've honestly wondered the same thing myself, given some of the responses I've seen here in the past...

It's why I don't spend much time here anymore...
I have to fight the antis everywhere else, why come here to fight them...

 

[Picknlittle]

From what I saw in the video, he asked for a reason, and the answer was basically "because I said so". I saw no trespass and no claim was made by police that the sidewalk was school property.

He was even courteous in his inquiry and refusal and aside from doing his job, did not appear to impose any threat to police or school. In this case I believe the LEO should be jacked up.

 

[obxned]

The video appears to show that the guy was on a public sidewalk. The officer told him to get off that sidewalk because the school officials did not want him there. The only reason they did not want him there was because he was doing a story on violence in that school.

I guess the 1st and 2nd Amendment mean nothing there.

 

[texas bulldog]

The video is a bit short, but if Florida law is like Texas law, it would not be trespassing to be on a public sidewalk around a school, legally armed or not. I think the bigger question is whether the cops had the right to order him across the street.

this was my thought exactly. having had many occasions in my work life to kick people off the property, i know that in texas the sidewalk is fair game. you cannot make them leave the sidewalk [unfortunately, in some cases]. if this is the case in florida, he'll likely get these charges dropped. and that officer is probably due a reprimand and a lecture on where his authority ends...at a minimum.

 

[Nio]

Here is something that gives another detail:

http://www.local10.com/news/14411684/detail.html

MIAMI -- A Local 10 reporter was arrested at Miami Central Senior High School while he was on assignment covering a story about school violence.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade Schools Police told WPLG-TV's Jeff Weinsier he was trespassing and that he needed to leave.

He was not inside the school or inside the fenced-in area that surrounds the school. School board police told him to leave and go across the street from the school, but Weisnier said he was on a public sidewalk.

Police said they were giving him a lawful order to get off the property and that he was within 500 feet of a school.

Weinsier on videotape tries to convince officers that he had the right to be on the sidewalk and pointed out that other people were on the sidewalk, but after repeated attempts, police handcuffed him.

When police searched Weinsier they found a loaded .38 revolver. He does have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Local 10 reported that Weinsier has received death threats as a result of Dirty Dining television reports that feature restaurants that fail health inspection reports.

Local 10 attorney Isaac Mitrani said that a concealed weapons permit allows a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, but not inside a school and that Weinsier never went into the school.

"If they are in a place that other people are -- public or anything -- and you focus only on a reporter and you tell them they need to leave, that would violate the constitution," said Mitrani.

Weinsier has been charged with resisting an officer without violence, trespassing and carrying a concealed weapon on school grounds. He bonded out of jail Tuesday.

I have never heard of 'School Board Police' before...

Nio

 

[El Tejon]

Anyone have a link to the Florida statute that defines "school property"? Does the legislature down there define it?

 

[Zundfolge]

Seems to me he was doing a story that embarrassed the king's schoolmasters so they got the police to run him off.

Based on the video he wasn't on school grounds.

I'm beginning to wonder how deeply the anti's have infiltrated THR.
I've honestly wondered the same thing myself, given some of the responses I've seen here in the past...

It's why I don't spend much time here anymore...
I have to fight the antis everywhere else, why come here to fight them...

Yep ... combination of the antis that sneak in here to monkywrench and the Fuds and police state supporters here have caused me to cut back on my posting here of late ... high road indeed.

 

[Dain Bramage]

The more of this story that gets out, the more I think we should support this guy.

Does anyone have contact info on the school board? How about the TV station; we should tell them that we support their boy. Being caught with a (legal) firearm might bring his job into jeopardy in the swooning, PC environs of the news media.