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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   23705 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026

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If 20% of the population can be reasonably described as juvenile, and another 20% is wearing at least one article of black clothing, that description describes 4% of the population, making it a Level 1 description.

What fraction are carrying a (at the time only presumed) gun in their waistband? And at that point, can the cops ditch the description altogether and detain them regardless of any connection with a reported crime?

Unless "An officer steps in front of KC, blocking his path, and asks him what's in his waistband." is hiding a substantial gap between those events, I'd call it a reasonable detention.

Ditching the gun was a serious crime. Carrying it may well not be.

I know. Things which "may well not be" crimes can A) match him to the description more exactly, or B) provide justification on their own, which is what I was pointing out.

I don't think throwing a gun away is a crime. In contrast, it definitely is illegal for a juvenile to carry a gun, and carrying without a license is another crime.

I don't think throwing a gun away is a crime.

Throwing a gun away is negligent handling of it. What if someone who's not allowed to have it (child, felon, mentally ill person) picks it up?

My cursory searching does not reveal any law saying that discarding a gun is illegal in Pennsylvania. I guess your suggestion that it might count as reckless endangerment of, or unlicensed transfer to, whoever eventually picks it up isn't totally unreasonable, but IMO it still is a pretty big stretch.

'Pulling it out of your waistband' almost certainly is a technical violation of the law around presentation or brandishing.

I fail to see how throwing a gun away counts as directly menacing or endangering anyone nearby, especially with modern safety mechanisms that prevent the gun from going off when it hits the ground. (It appears that Pennsylvania does not have a specific law against "brandishing".)

The problem is that the cop didn't notice the gun until after he initiated the detention. If the detention were initiated based on his seeing the gun, there would be reasonable suspicion to retain and there wouldn't be a problem. Hence why the state tried to argue that it wasn't a detention.

If the detention were initiated based on his seeing the gun,

That was my assumption. He didn't mention the gun until after he initiated the detention, but it reads like he noticed it after the contact but before the detention.

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