Philadelphia Police Charge Man in Open-Carry Handgun Incident

[jpak]

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/7629-phila-police-charge-man-in-open-carry-handgun-incident

A confrontation earlier this year between Philadelphia police and Mark Fiorino over the Pennsylvania man's open carrying of a firearm has led to charges of disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment against Fiorino, with a possible two years of imprisonment if he is convicted, Fox News reported.

Fiorino, identified in the story as a 25-year-old "suburban Philadelphia IT worker," was released after his arrest in February and says the charges were not filed until after he had placed an audio recording of the incident on the Internet. The posting has "gone viral," and police can be heard on the recording issuing profanity-laden verbal barrages at Fiorino, including a threat to "f----n' shoot ya" from an officer who apparently was pointing a gun at him and accusing him of giving the officer "lip." Fiorino's trial is scheduled for July.

"The police department and assistant district attorney are coming after me, in my opinion, to make an example of me because I stood up to them and exposed them for their lack of knowledge," said Fiorino, calling the trial "absolutely inappropriate and a waste of taxpayer money." The incident occurred as Fiorino, wearing a gun on his hip, was walking to an auto parts store in northeast Philadelphia. A policeman can be heard calling out to Fiorino, addressing him as "Junior."

"Junior!" Fiorino repeated in apparent indignation. Fiorino then can be heard nervously asking:

<more>

more open carry fail

yup

[sharesunited]

1. Police are suspicious of people with guns, as they damn well should be.

I certainly am.

[TPaine7]

5. They aren't officers of personal suspicion; they're officers of THE LAW.

Their personal views are no more important than anyone else's. Why support fascism?

[sharesunited]

8. I guess you think they should just get used to being shot at?

When cops holler GUN, it's for a reason.

[gejohnston]

11. Been watching too many cop shows

When I was a kid, the cops would see us carrying our rifles to school on days we had rifle club. Most likely still like that. In fact, some of my son's friends lettered in marksmanship.

[TPaine7]

12. Of course I don't support cops getting used to being shot at. What does that have to do with this?

[sharesunited]

13. They saw someone with a gun and sought to disarm him. An absolute good.

The jackass in question is no Rosa Parks.

[gejohnston]

14. Maybe not but the cops were Bull Conner. Does not change the fact they broke the law and violated

his fourth amendment rights. I am guessing that is one of the ones you think are real.

[TPaine7]

16. Who said anything about Rosa Parks? (Besides you.)

He was doing something he had a perfect right to do under the law. The police are supposed to keep people from BREAKING the law, not from exercising their rights.

Why support fascism?

[sharesunited]

17. I support domestic tranquility. People walking around with guns contravenes that value.

[spin]

19. Would you feel the same if the firearm had been legally concealed? (n/t)

[sharesunited]

21. Gun on person? Lose gun. Gun in vehicle? Lose gun. No need to deprive the goof of his liberty.

[spin]

33. How about gun in home? (n/t)

[PavePusher]

38. Right, just his property.

Only half of the Fourth Amendment. Bully.

[TPaine7]

20. Tranqility over freedom, rule of law and individual rights. I thought i smelled fascism. n/t

[sharesunited]

22. I don't view empowering you with the means to conveniently kill me as advancing my freedom.

[TheWraith]

24. Your freedom does not include the right to control other's lives.

What you fail to understand is that that desire is authoritarianism, no different from the people who think it's an "absolute good" to ban abortions.

[TPaine7]

28. Fortunately, I don't need you to empower me.

You have the right not to be killed. You do not have the right to disarm or disable others so that they are incapable of killing you.

[sharesunited]

29. Justice for my killing is available only symbolically, on my behalf, after I'm gone.

So I'd say that disarming you should be the sensible focus of at least some of my political effort while I'm still here.

[TPaine7]

31. I have no motive, or desire to kill you. In fact, killing you even accidentally would

cause me great distress.

Why disarm me, then (assuming for the sake of discussion that I am armed)?

[sharesunited]

32. I don't mean you specifically TPaine. It's nothing personal.

But your access to guns and ammo is the same as the general public's.

Including my killer.

[gejohnston]

36. "Including my killer" are you a ghost? Wow a seance here in the gungeon!

[one-eyed fat man]

42. So, what you are saying is

if the State deems it necessary, you may need killing; it's their call. All for domestic tranquility and all.

[Straw Man]

51. That's very ironic...

Justice for my killing is available only symbolically, on my behalf, after I'm gone.

...because the same thing could be said of murder victims who would be disarmed by your efforts.

So I'd say that disarming you should be the sensible focus of at least some of my political effort while I'm still here.

[Abq_Sarah]

53. I don't believe that phrase

Means what you think it does.

[krispos42]

35. Not an absolute good. Sorry.

If they cannot legally disarm him, then doing so is bad, wrong, and illegal.

[PavePusher]

37. Your vile anti-Constitutional Fascism has no place here.

You should leave.

[Big Gay Al]

52. having a gun in a holster is NOT brandishing.

Perhaps not, but the cops in question are sure acting like the bus driver did.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

15. Another...

...non_sequit@rd.

[-..__...]

18. And what if that "gun" happens to be a wallet or cell phone?

Should they respond/react in a similar manner until the perceived 'threat' can be verified?

[sharesunited]

23. All the more reason to reduce the chance that it is anything OTHER than a wallet or phone.

You seem to be promoting a society in which the risk of such confusion is heightened!

[one-eyed fat man]

43. ...and from a factory in Serbia.

At first sight, it looks like a regular cell phone — same size, same shape, same overall appearance. But beneath the digital face lies a .22-caliber pistol, a phone gun capable of firing four rounds in quick succession with a touch of the otherwise standard keypad.

These new covert guns were first discovered in October 2001 when Dutch police stumbled on a cache during a drug raid in Amsterdam. In another incident a Croatian gun dealer was caught attempting to smuggle a shipment through Slovenia into Western Europe. The Italian Police in Naples have recovered a cellphone gun in a recent raid on the Italian Mafia.

Police say both shipments are believed to have originated in Yugoslavia. Interpol sent out a warning to law enforcement agencies around the world. European border police and customs officers are at a heightened state of alert at all ports, airports and border crossings.

"If you didn’t know they were guns, you wouldn’t suspect anything," said Ari Zandbergen, spokesman for the Amsterdam police.

"Only when you have one in your hand do you realize that they are heavier," says Birgit Heib of the German Federal Criminal Investigation Agency.

The guns are loaded by twisting the phone in half. The .22-caliber rounds fit into the top of the phone under the screen. The lower half, under the keyboard, holds the firing pins. The bullets fire through the antenna by pressing the keypad from numbers five to eight.

Amsterdam police says they are very sophisticated machines constructed inside gutted cell phones which do not light up or operate as real phones. "These are very difficult to make. We believe experts are involved," says Zandbergen.

European law enforcement officials — stunned by the discovery of these deadly decoys — say phone guns are changing the rules of engagement in Europe. "We find it very, very alarming," says Wolfgang Dicke of the German Police union. "It means police will have to draw their weapons whenever a person being checked reaches for their mobile phone."

Though the novelty of cell-phone guns is interesting, the idea of concealing firearms in common devices is not new. Disguised weapons have been around forever. We've seen guns in the form of canes, pens, beepers. As technology progresses and becomes more prevalent, disguised weapons will change to mirror that.

These have been around for over ten years. Try and stay current.

[YllwFvr]

39. having a gun isnt a crime

its also not reasonable suspicion of a crime lacking other information that could be used as reasonable suspicion. So the response by the LEOs is incorrect

[rl6214]

49. You'd better stay at home in your mom's basement

hiding under your bed then.

[Remmah2]

50. A clear lie.

I shoot on the same firing line with local police officers, sheriffs, state troopers.

AND THEY HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH CIVILIANS OWNING FIREARMS.

Suspicion is just another word for paranoia.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gejohnston]

3. Wait, isn't this the one where the cops were acting like criminals?

Making up laws that do not exist? Sorry, the cops lied and abused their authority and have no business wearing a badge.

[PavePusher]

46. Hey now, if that uppity Citizen hadn't been obeying the law...

those righteous cops never would have needed to molest him.

[fascisthunter]

4. thanks for posting the other side of this issue

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gejohnston]

7. Other side of the issue is fine, celebrating cops violating the law they took an oath to uphold

or using the Constitution as toilet paper is what this is about.

[provis99]

9. these cops involved are ignorant, thuggish fascists.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

27. Nah...that's just Philly.

After all, until recently we had the only NFL stadium with it's own jail. :)

[Endangered Specie]

47. Being an Eagles fan is a crime worthy of prison time.

:P

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

48. Never said I was an Eagles fan.

;) I like the Phillies.

I was boarding a flight a few years back on a Monday morning and overheard two passengers discussing that a judge was present in the building due to the frequent "incidents". I kind of chuckled a bit which got their attention. One asked me if knew about this. With a smile I replied, "Yes and they have a jail in the building as well." I understand that the jail is now closed.

[-..__...]

10. Uhmmm....

didn't you already post something about this not that long ago?

Here... let me check...

Why, yes... yes you did post something about this not that long ago...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x419198

Why would you even bring this up unless you're (and your 'supporters'), a glutton for fail and humiliation?

[beevul]

40. Let him have his fun.

Gunwalker hearings are this week - the real deal.

We'll see what he has to say then.

And whether hes having fun or not.

[eqfan592]

25. More like more police fail.

They have tried similar things in Wisconsin with the cases being tossed out. You can't charge people who are conducting themselves legally with crimes just because you are embarrassed that members of your police department didn't understand their own laws.

It also shows exactly how low you are willing to stoop that you would support such actions. If you don't like open carry, then try and get the law changed. But this sort of crap on the part of the police and the DA is so against everything we stand for as progressives it's not even funny.

[ileus]

26. police state FAIL....how progressive eh?

[GreenStormCloud]

30. This incident has already been dicussed to death in several threads. N/T

[krispos42]

34. Law enforcement FAIL

It's not against the law, and "kettling" open-carry citizens until you can try to make some trumped-up charges stick is a disgusting abuse of police power.

[ileus]

41. There was no incident that the LEO's didn't cause. The OCer was minding his own business.

[RamboLiberal]

44. What part of PA law do Philly cops & some DU'ers not understand?

In Pennsylvania, persons 18 years of age and older whom are not prohibited by law from owning firearms may openly carry a handgun in plain sight with no license except in vehicles*, cities of the first class** (Philadelphia) and where prohibited specifically by statute.

Ref.: Title 18, ch.61, Subchapter A. Uniform Firearms Act & Commonwealth v. Ortiz

* Open carry in a vehicle requires a valid PA License to Carry Firearms (LTCF) or a carry license from ANY other state. Ref: Title 18 §6106

** Open carry in a city of the first class requires a valid PA LTCF or a carry license from a reciprocal state. Ref: Title 18 §6108, Title 18 §6106

http://paopencarry.org/

This guy had a PA LTCF & was legal. Philly cops started the incident!

Gun & some here throw out the entire Constitution & Bill of Rights!

[lawodevolution]

45. Jpak never fails to support facist cops who want to invent laws as they go

So I guess we dont need the house and senate, let the cops set the law and decide who gets to have rights.