The Knife Fight in Baltimore

Stung by accusations from Baltimore States's Attorney Caroline Mosby that Baltimore Police detained and arrested Freddie Gray for possession of a knife that was legal, the attorney for one of the six officers accused in his death after injuries sustained in police custody asserted that the knife they found was indeed illegal in Baltimore (but not Maryland as a whole), and demanded that the prosecutors produce the knife for examination:

Marc L. Zayon, the attorney for Baltimore officer Edward Nero, asked a judge to make the Baltimore state's attorney's office and Baltimore police turn over the blue pocket knife Gray carried to determine whether it's legal in the city of Baltimore. The knife was found clipped to the inside of Gray's pants pockets after officers took him down.

Police say the officers chased and arrested Gray because he ran from them without being spoken to or provoked. A police task force continues to investigate whether any other reasons could have contributed to their decision to stop him.

Gray was charged with carrying an illegal knife, but Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby said Friday in announcing the charges that the knife Gray carried was not an illegal switchblade under Maryland law. Baltimore police have said the knife violates city code.

And about the standards for knives in Maryland, we have this from Reason:

. . . according to The Baltimore Sun, the police task force that investigated Gray's death "studied the knife and determined it was 'spring-assisted,' which does violate a Baltimore code." The relevant ordinance makes it illegal to possess "any knife with an automatic spring or other device for opening and/or closing the blade, commonly known as a switch-blade knife." Police described Gray's knife as "a spring-assisted, one-hand-operated knife," which does not fit the state's definition of switchblade but arguably fits the city's definition, depending on what "automatic spring" means.

Then again, Gray's knife is not "commonly known as a switch-blade knife," as Doug Ritter, chairman of the Knife Rights Foundation, notes:

While it might be possible in theory to interpret that unusual definition of "switch-blade" to include assisted-opening knives, such an interpretation would conflict with virtually all other switchblade definitions throughout the country. Additionally, the court documents show that the arresting officer clearly knew it was not a switchblade; the officer easily could have referred to it as a switchblade instead of accurately describing it as a "spring-assisted, one-hand-operated knife."

Apparently, it is perfectly possible, indeed likely, to possess a pocket knife legal in the state of Maryland, drive across the line into Baltimore and be in possession of a "dangerous weapon" (I thought that was the point) making you eligible for a $500 fine or up to a year in jail. Yet another good reason to avoid going to Baltimore.

If police and prosecutors cannot agree on whether Gray's knife was legal, of course, it is hardly fair to expect the average citizen to know, let alone subject him to criminal penalties (a fine up to $500 and up to a year in jail under Baltimore's ordinance) for guessing wrong. Furthermore, the fuzziness of this ban, like the fuzziness of offenses such as loitering and disorderly conduct, invites arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement. The Christian Science Monitor's Patrik Jonsson makes that point in a story that asks, "Should it really be illegal to carry a knife in the city?"

Describing the tool that supposedly justified Gray's arrest as "a short-bladed folding knife similar to ones worn everyday by millions of law-abiding Americans," Jonsson notes that knife control (like gun control) has racist roots and remains a pretext for hassling young black men. "Too often we see an officer who may or may not understand the law arrest somebody for having an illegal knife that isn't illegal," Ritter tells him. "We too often see that kind of either blatant ignorance of the law or willful ignorance of the law, in an effort to abuse citizens' rights to carry this tool."

None of which really deals with the question of what made the police chase down and search Freddie Gray in the first place. All we have is a statement that he looked wrong to the cops, and ran, an understandable, if not exactly noble act on his part considering what happened subsequently.