A crackdown on guns is meeting some resistance in the District.
Police are asking residents to submit to voluntary searches in exchange for amnesty under the District's gun ban. They passed out fliers requesting cooperation on Monday.
The program will begin in a couple of weeks in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of southeast Washington and will later expand to other neighborhoods. Officers will go door to door asking residents for permission to search their homes.
Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the "safe homes initiative" is aimed at residents who want to cooperate with police. She gave the example of parents or grandparents who know or suspect their children have guns in the home.
What? You mean that US citizens don't like to be searched by the police? Said it aint' so! I am a perfectly law abiding citizen, but you can bet your ass that if the police show up at my door, they'd better have a warrant to search my place. Otherwise, they can take a hike.
Police officers need to follow the rules like everyone else, and I don't want a rogue cop coming into my home and trying to make things up to arrest me for.
Besides, won't someone PLEASE think of the children!
If weapons are recovered, they will be tested and destroyed if they are not found to be linked to any other crimes.
A police spokeswoman said that if evidence of other crimes is found during voluntary searches, amnesty will be granted for that crime as well.
"Chief Lanier has been clear," Traci Hughes said. "Amnesty means amnesty."
Wow, that's an incredibly dumb idea. So, what happens if someone is found to have committed a major crime, like rape, robbery, or murder? Does "amnesty mean amnesty" then? If that's the case, what's to prevent someone from killing someone else, putting a gun in their home, and inviting the cops in? Do they get to stay out of jail? Certainly that's what's implied here. Otherwise it's just the DC cops lying to people.
Sure, it sounds far fetched, but it is entirely within the realm of possibility.
Asking people to submit to a volunteer search is a dangerous, slippery slope and the DC cops who suggested this should be ashamed of themselves.
Travis
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