Say what you will about Bob Barr

[CatWoman]

It appears that he is on the road to recovery, and day by day, is slowly joining the rest of the human race. By the way, Cobb County is largely Newt Country:

Swiss Army Knife In Cobb School Parking Lot Should Not Be Prosecuted
County's 'Zero Tolerance' Program Ensnares Another Student

Atlanta, GA (September 5, 2007) – Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr today blasted school officials in Cobb County, Georgia, a northwest suburb of Atlanta, for seeking to bring felony charges against a 12th grade student, Wilford Ray Chandler, Jr., for simply having a small Swiss Army knife in his car in a school parking lot at Wheeler High School.

"The student posed no threat to anyone, and he was not using the knife in any threatening manner," Barr noted, "in fact, he was not using the knife at all - it was simply in his car." "Trying to ruin a student's career before it even begins, by treating such an innocuous activity as having a Swiss Army pocketknife in a car, is nothing short of an unthinking, stupid, and vindictive exercise of government power," Barr, a former federal prosecutor, said.

Barr said he hoped the county's prosecutors, including District Attorney Pat Head and Solicitor Barry Morgan, would quickly drop any charges against the student, and thereby "exercise the common sense and understanding that county school officials and police apparently lack, as evidenced by the unyielding and ridiculous 'zero tolerance' program and the unreasonable application of the policy to a student with no criminal record or intent and who exhibited nothing that could be remotely viewed by reasonable people as criminal behavior."

http://www.theweekly.com/news/2007/September/05/Wilford_Chandler.html

More about this monumental miscarriage of justice:

Knife In Car Equals Felony Charge For Teen

COBB COUNTY, Ga. -- Will Chandler said he knows he should not have left campus when he and two friends left Wheeler High School for lunch a week ago.

“I was like, ‘Alright, I’m going to get in trouble.’ I didn’t even know the knife was in there. I completely forgot about it and then they pulled it out,” said Chandler.

A school officer found a Swiss Army knife in Chandler’s car’s console. Under the school’s zero tolerance policy it was an automatic suspension for Chandler.

The next day, the Chandlers found out Will had also been charged with a felony.

“We found out that my son, there’s a felony warrant out for him. It just seems like a nightmare. We’re still in shock,” said Sharon Chandler.

Will Chandler was booked into the Cobb County Jail and his mother started a quest to find answers.

“When the principal said to me, ‘This could kill someone,’ I said to him, ‘So could a pencil.’ My son did not have this on his physical body, did not have it on him, it was not in his backpack, it was not in his locker. It was in the console of the car,” said Sharon.

The Chandlers said Will has a clean record and never would have taken the utility knife into the school, much less hurt anybody.

The Chandlers said they understood Will’s suspension for 10 days, but they believe a felony charge against the high school senior is over the top.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/14043836/detail.html

[Warpy]

1. Barr has been an ACLU member and champion of

our first amendment rights for quite a few years. He's still a conservative, but he knows how to read and he knows when our rights are being threatened by an imperial government.

This particular case is every bit as stupid as the ones where girls are found with DEADLY MIDOL in their purses.

Zero tolerance laws were written by martinets with zero brains and are administered by idiots with absolutely no common sense or decency.

Barr's been on the right side of a lot of issues. He's on the right side of this one.

End zero tolerance laws! Restore COMMON SENSE!

[nuxvomica]

2. Good on him. Barr's been a civil libertarian for a long time.

Yeah, he's a conservative but not an idiot and he has worked with the ACLU in the past, something a lot of RWers would faint at the even the thought of doing... except when they get in trouble with the law, of course.

[jody]

3. Does ACLU support Barr's statement? Given ACLU's opposition to RKBA, I assume ACLU does not support

Barr on this incident.

ACLU POLICY ON GUN CONTROL

"The ACLU agrees with the Supreme Court's long-standing interpretation of the Second Amendment that the individual's right to bear arms applies only to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia. Except for lawful police and military purposes, the possession of weapons by individuals is not constitutionally protected. Therefore, there is no constitutional impediment to the regulation of firearms." — Policy #47

Note District of Columbia v. Heller has been appealed to SCOTUS, the lower court ruled that D.C.'s prohibition against residents keeping handguns in their homes is unconstitutional.

ACLU should rethink its policy on gun control and Barr is in a perfect position to support law-abiding citizens who know that our Constitution protects their natural, inherent, inalienable right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.