Reporter Jailed for Having Gun at School

[devilgrrl]

Source: Associated Press

Reporter Jailed for Having Gun at School
From Associated Press
October 24, 2007 2:40 PM EDT

MIAMI - A television reporter investigating a story on school violence was arrested after carrying a loaded gun onto school property, authorities said.

Jeffrey Weinsier of WPLG-TV, an ABC network affiliate, 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.

Read more: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20071024/471ec340_3ca6_1552620071024-189331575

---

:popcorn:

[tammywammy]

1. Well, if he walked on to the school property with a gun

Then he should have been arrested. In Texas there are signs on school property saying you cannot carry a gun onto the premises.

I understand if he had death threats why he'd want to carry concealed, but you cannot do that on school property. He should have left the gun in his vehicle while he was at the school.

[melm00se]

14. in my concealed permit class

they hammered into your head that you are prohibited from taking a concealed weapon into an area that is marked "no concealed weapons allowed" - public or private building makes no difference.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Death threats because of an expose of restaurants that get a

'B' instead of an 'A'?

Why do I think this guy is nuts?

[downindixie]

3. Did he really go on school property

Jeffrey Weinsier of WPLG-TV, an ABC network affiliate, 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.


It doesn't say that he was on real school property,just that when he said he was not going accross the street he was immediately arrested!

[virginia mountainman]

4. You should know by now...

The Bill of Rights, don't apply, within 1,000 feet from a School house, after all, it is to protect the defenceless children. And we KNOW, that mass murders never happen in a "Gun Free Zone" if they do, it is because the shooters simply can't read the "no gun" signs.

FACT of the matter is, it is ILLIGAL in most states to even drive by a school with a gun in the car, much less walk by one on the sidewalk. As a CCW holder who carries a side arm nearly everywhere I go, and as a law abiding citizen, I must be careful of school zones.

Also, be aware, that the government has no duty to protect an individual citizen, this has been re affirmed in several court cases, so in effect, what you have is fifedoms, where they require everyone to be 100% disarmed under threat of persecution, but they don't provide adequate security to protect the disarmed. Heck we even expel 7 year olds when they DRAW a picture of a gun, in the name of safety

And after some "wolf" gets done mauling our children, in a "gun free zone" the soccer moms line up and scream for more laws, and more "GUN FREE ZONES"...

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

I for one, am ready to try something completely different..

[Paladin]

5. Feel Free To Try Something Completely Different

Just stay the fuck out of my neighborhood.....

[virginia mountainman]

6. Why???

My record is completely spotless, and I have absolutely no bad intentions.

Why are you worried about me for?

[Paladin]

9. Could Have Something To Do.....

...with reading your comments in DU over the years. Yeah, that might have a lot to do with it....

[virginia mountainman]

10. Please be spacific...

I am no threat to anyone, unless you intend to harm me or my family.

DO YOU INTEND TO HARM ME OR MY FAMILY?????

[Paladin]

16. No, Of Course I Don't Intend To Harm You Or Your Family

I do plan on coming by this evening and taking all your guns away. Does 7:30 work for you?


(Sarcasm alert, since gun militants are usually in need of one....)

[LanternWaste]

13. I'm with you. Someone getting chesty and advertising

I'm with you. Someone getting chesty and advertising that they want to take a gun to a school... well, it gives me more than just pause.

As an aside-- his cute Einstein quote also describes about doing the same thing over and over again-- I guess Practice and Insanity are the same things...


Edited: wordo

[MichiganVote]

8. Oh yeah, guns in all parts of our society is a completely different concept.....

[Tab]

11. Oh yes

Guns have made this country SOOOO much safer.

Thank goodness I don't live in Norway or the UK or some other place where my life would be at greater risk.

Sheesh.

[MadHound]

18. Oh, poor widdle thing, you don't get to trample all over the rights of others

Just so you can exercise your right to carry a gun:eyes: Look, as the saying goes, your rights end at my nose. If any organization, public or private, doesn't want a gun on their property, you have no standing to violate their right to determine what happens on their property. You don't like it, tough shit, I'm tired of gun nutters wanting to strip everybody of their basic right to determine what happens on their own property, all in the name of carrying their precious security blanket.

[virginia mountainman]

19. Gee, I would like to see you folks ....

Apply that same logic to the 1st Amendment... And for the record, my gun is NOT in your nose, I am not arguing for the right to carry on PRIVATE property, but if you ask me to pay for it with my taxes, your damn RIGHT I DEMAND IT.

Folks, your missing to point...I have NO criminal record, nor does my wife, all we ask is to be left alone, We realize that the police is RE-Active, they do not come until after a crime is committed. All we want is to be able keep ourselves and out children alive until they get to us.

I don't understand the visceral response I get in here, for that very fact.

Why do you define a person that wants to protect themselves as a "gun nutter"? Seems like a very sane idea to MOST of us. A "nutter" would not want to simply protect themselves, matter of fact, I would consider someone a nutter, if they DIDN"T.

[DumpDavisHogg]

7. The Miami school system has a pro-bullying policy

The Miami school system may well be the only public school system anywhere that actually has a written policy that explicitly supports bullying. So I don't believe anything the school system says, and I doubt the reporter even took the gun onto school property. I could be wrong about that, but probably not.

[benEzra]

12. That's terrible. Do you have a link?

The Miami school system may well be the only public school system anywhere that actually has a written policy that explicitly supports bullying.

That's terrible. Do you have a link?

[Xithras]

15. Incorrect headline. This reporter is going to have a hell of a lawsuit against them.

The whole thing is on videotape, and can be found on most of the major video sites. There is nothing debatable about any of this.

First off, the cop didn't arrest him for a gun violation. The cop ordered him to leave a public sidewalk when he began interviewing people about crime on campus. Read that again...he was on a public sidewalk and NEVER set foot onto the campus itself. That sidewalk was open to the public and they were not trying to eject anyone else from it. Only him, and only because he was a reporter. That's a blatant civil rights violation, and the police department is going to lose their ass if this goes to court.

Second, the reporter had a CCW for the firarm, which permits him to carry within the 1000 foot no-firearms radius. He was simply prohibited from carrying a gun ONTO the campus, as per federal law. Going back to point #1, he was on the public sidewalk, and never set foot onto the campus itself. He did not violate any laws by having the gun.

Third, if you watch the video, you'll see that it's the same old story that most of us have been hearing a lot of over the past few years. The cop gave him an unlawful order, and when the person tried to stand up for his rights, the cop became enraged that the "lowly citizen" had the audacity to defy him and arrested him for ignoring his orders. This was a cop on a power trip, pissed off because the reporter knew more about the first amendment than the cop did. The cop screwed up, in this case, because he arrested a high profile reporter while a professional TV cameraman was rolling the entire scene to tape.

And for those of you who are curious, this reporter apparently runs a regular series about small businesses that put people at risk, and his life has been threatened many times. He does have a valid reason to carry.

[951-Riverside]

17. Misleading headline/story. He was not placed under arrest for carrying a gun

Raw video http://a526.v129188.c12918.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/526/12918/v0001/vod.ibsys.com/2007/1024/14413746.200k.wmv

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 Weinsier 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.

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

My thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=64981&mesg_id=64981