Los Angeles: "Police Sting Targets Ice Cream Vendors Selling Toy Guns"

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From KNBC
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/5237110/detail.html

Police Sting Targets Ice Cream Vendors Selling Toy Guns
Guns Can Be Mistaken For Real Weapons

POSTED: 5:43 pm PST November 2, 2005
UPDATED: 6:03 pm PST November 2, 2005

OXNARD, Calif. -- Police launched a sting operation to prevent the sale of toy guns from ice cream trucks in Oxnard.

Authorities opened the investigation after receiving complaints from parents. Police said the toy guns can easily be mistaken for real guns.

"Can you tell, in a split second, which gun is real and which gun is not?" said Commander Tom Chronister. "Imagine a police officer being confronted with a weapon like this."

Oxnard police said the guns were being sold to minors from the trucks for about $5.

"They had no regard for what they were putting in the hands of children," said Chief Tom Crombach. "Don’t come to Oxnard and do this. Get this stuff off your trucks because no other jurisdiction is going to tolerate it."

Authorities documented three shootings since 2000 in which a person brandished a fake gun that police mistook for a real gun. The shootings occurred in Huntington Beach, Orange and Los Angeles.

Oxnard police said such a shooting has not occurred in their community.
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I bet they were selling evil airsoft Uzis and AK-47s of death.
 
MY DEAR G_D..... What were these children doing outside ???? Where they in their fully protective Foam Suits ??? Did they have their Helmets, Knee and Elbow pads on ?? What SPF level was their sunblock ??? I hope that none were riding bicycles or even, heaven help us, riding skateboards. How did they get close enough to the street to see an ice cream truck ???

WHERE WERE THEIR PARENTS OR GOV'T NANNY STATE PROVIDED MINDERS ????


OH, THE HORROR!!!!!!!....... THE HORROR !!!!!!!


[/sarcasm]
 
Stupid, but what I want to know is what this has to do with Los Angeles. Oxnard is at least an hours drive north. That's not Los Angeles.
 
"They had no regard for what they were putting in the hands of children," said Chief Tom Crombach. "Don’t come to Oxnard and do this. Get this stuff off your trucks because no other jurisdiction is going to tolerate it."
Click to expand...

Maybe he's in training to be a jack-booted thug.
 
scout26 said:
I hope that none were riding bicycles or even, heaven help us, riding skateboards.
Click to expand...
You might get more skinned knees with a skateboard, but you're going to get hurt a lot more if you fall off a bike (if you ride it like a bat out of hell like you should :p ).
 
I don't want to say 'I told you so', but if you worship the ground police walk on too long, they start to think it's required.

If this paticular case doesn't get shut down fast, then it's just going to encourage other police agencies to invent even crazier laws, without consulting the populace, or the legislative or judicial branches.

The fact that they could even consider doing so speaks volumes, but if they are allowed to get away with it, it screams.
 
There is something kinda important missing from the article. Nowhere does it mention if what the venders are doing is actually ILLEGAL. Are we to assume that the chief of police has gained some sort of legislative authority?
 
Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Ever wonder why folks quote statistics that don't seem to help their argument? Presumably, they think the mystical presence of numerals will magically strengthen their argument:

Authorities documented three shootings since 2000 in which a person brandished a fake gun that police mistook for a real gun. The shootings occurred in Huntington Beach, Orange and Los Angeles.

Oxnard police said such a shooting has not occurred in their community.
Click to expand...

--The population of the L.A. metro area is around 17 million or so.

--In the last four+ years, 3 people out approx. 17 million have been shot while brandishing a fake gun.

--The shooting presumably include everyone, not just kids, not justs guys playing in the park, but up to and including people committing crimes who just happened to have a fake gun rather than a real one.

My department (Middle Eastern Studies) doesn't require me to take Statistics for my degree, but I'm pretty sure those numbers indicate that this problem is far exceeded by the scourge of tripping on crap your kids left on the stairs and breaking your neck. If there are any Stat majors in the house, your insight is appreciated. Take care all, -MV
 
wow...just...wow....

unbelievable.... and I had even THOUGHT about heading out to the west coast for some beach time next summer.... fuggedaboutdit.
 
Yeager, Fascist, EXACTLY!

"said Chief Tom Crombach. "Don’t come to Oxnard and do this. Get this stuff off your trucks"


Police as persons, they're people. But police as an institution, the founding fathers feared it terribly. They were extremely worried about government accruing unjust powers. The executive branches are the muscle of the government.

Now you have police (the agency, the government presence) that have slowly accrued powers, and now some agencies feel strong enough to try and operate completely independently.

That's argument #1,


Ben Franklin even told us all that is we were willing to trade liberty for security we deserve neither.

That's argument #2.

Plus you end up with neither.

Argument #3 would be the slap in the face to entrpreneurism everywhere. Just contrary to the entire American experience. You have small businessmen who are out there busting their butts, and they recognize a demand and they supply it.



Want to hear the sad part, I believe that if all the ice-cream men got together and contributed $1000 each to the Mayor's campaign fund, their police problems would end tomorrow.
 
There is something kinda important missing from the article. Nowhere does it mention if what the venders are doing is actually ILLEGAL. Are we to assume that the chief of police has gained some sort of legislative authority?
Click to expand...
CA law does regulate the importation, sale, distribution of 'imitation' guns. If the 'imitation' gun does not have the bright orange muzzle, or is not brightly colored overall so as to not resemble a real firearm, it can't be sold. There are some exceptions to this law, but selling to kids isn't one of them.

Pilgrim
 
...Its the police chief, I think he'd describe them as imitation or replica or life-like if that's what they were. Seeing as he does seem to be trying to villianize the items, I don't think it's assuming a lot to think he used every measn he has against them.

edit:

oh my god those are the funniest (tragic) reasons I've ever seen. A kid robbing an undercover officer, lol, a grown man pointing a gun at an officer who pulled him over, and 2 off duty officers who opened fire on two men playing amongst themselves.
Lol, that's their evidence that the toys are dangerous.

"For instance:

# In June 2003, police in Richmond shot and killed a 16-year-old boy who was using a toy gun while trying to rob an undercover officer.

# In May 2000, California Highway Patrol officers shot and killed a 37-year-old man who allegedly pointed a pistol at them. It was a toy.

# In May 1993, two men were playing with cap guns in the parking lot of the St. Charles Saloon in Columbia. Two narcotics officers, passing by and taking the guns for real, opened fire. Their hail of bullets shattered windows on the men's car, wounded a man who didn't have even a toy gun, and barely missed a woman in a restroom."


"He said some BB and pellet guns can fire projectiles at 157 to 190 feet per second. Ownbey then held a piece of paper at arm's length and fired one plastic pellet from the smaller handgun. The soft BB penetrated the paper at high velocity, leaving a small hole in the paper."
OMG!!! OMG!!! What about airplanes!!!! OMG!!!

lololol seriously lol.... ol

And the children 'spontaneously protesting' toys. This stuff is awesome, you couldn't dream this stuff up.
 
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