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Cops stacking gun charges for life sentences


Cops stacking gun charges for life sentences   

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There's been a practice happening lately and in the past, where arresting officers and DA prosecutors would catch someone with a handful of guns, and then charge each firearm as a separate felony charge; one gives 5 criminal points and you can do the math for how much points you'd get for 3-4-5 firearms (plus the points from the ammunition charge).

 

This leads to characters ending up with more criminal points and jail time for gun charges than they would get for a murder charge or drug trafficking. If you have 0 criminal points and get caught with a handful of guns and ammunition, you easily get over 30+ criminal points and a life sentence. It sets a bad precedent where a gang RPer can get raided, have a couple guns, and end up with a life sentence just because of that.

 

This seems very unbalanced, not well thought out, and like an oversight of how our penal code should be applied. It'd be like instead of getting charged for drug trafficking, you get a separate charge for every ounce of dope.

 

I'm making this thread in an effort for admins to hopefully notice how broken this is and help rectify it.

Edited by AB Cordless
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A wise man quoted this: 

Quote

Following the judicial precedent set out within the American case law of The United States v Bloch, it is stated here "that the convictions are therefore multiplicitous and must be merged." Furthermore, we can look to the cases of The United States v Moses, where it was ruled by a Supreme court that “the unit of prosecution is the act of possession, and not the number of firearms possessed”, the case of The United States v Buchmeier where it was ruled "we have thus determined that when a defendant’s possession of multiple firearms is simultaneous and undifferentiated, the government may only charge that defendant with one violation regardless of the actual quantity of firearms involved" and finally but most importantly the case of The United States v. Richardson, where all the above decisions were joined and the issues were addressed to hold that Congress intended the "allowable unit of prosecution’ to be an incident of possession regardless of whether a defendant satisfied more than one classification, possessed more than one firearm, or possessed a firearm and ammunition".

Charge stacking is not a thing, even the DA's office where I'm from will not take several charges and have quoted "we don't stack charges here."

 

Some of the LEO RPers and Judicial RPers need to be caught up to speed, and quick. 

Edited by Bandit.
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Example of a court case where a dude got 44 criminal points:

  • FC 712. Unlawful Possession of Ammunition

  • FC 123. Money Laundering - No Bail

  • FC 711. Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon

  • FC 711. Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon

  • FC 711. Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon

  • FC 711. Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon

  • FC 711. Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon

  • FC 711. Possession of a Firearm by Convicted Felon

Meanwhile if he just killed someone, he'd probably not even get close to 30.

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Yeah I'm not a fan at all of stacking charges. If I'm a gang leader and get caught with several guns, that's all well and good. I'll do my time for that, but it completely ruins players motivations if they get a life sentence for that. Meanwhile someone convicted of murder will only get 15 points.

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Players incapable of recognizing how their dumb interpretations of the rules are unfair and spoil people's experiences should not be allowed in cop factions.

And why has it taken some random skinhead roleplayer to highlight this? Why haven't people involved with the judiciary scene put a stop to it?

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Kipps brings up a good point. It seems many detectives and people involved in the judicary are more concerned about an OOC punishment of the criminal rather than a reasonable IC conclusion. The situation definately stinks of P2W behavior. 

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While it definitely is a thing that happens in plenty of municipalities around the US IRL, this is a game and should not be done. There is no reason why someone should get 30+ criminal points for having a couple of guns in their house and doing the same form of prison sentence in-game as someone who has committed murder. As someone outlined earlier, the focus should be on roleplay and a reasonable jail time, not trying to punish the other player oocly (with extensive jail times). Another issue with the DAO is having people wait so long for their cases to be put on the forums while they are sitting in jail indefinitely for a mandatory court case.

Edited by jromjeksin
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