Maryland Blogger alliance
The Maryland Blogger Alliance
Double standards still prevail
WTOP News reports that weapons possession charges have been dropped in the case of Kojo Snowden, a convicted felon, and son of Carl Snowden, the civil rights director for the Maryland attorney general's office. The 22-year-old had been arrested last month, and was charged with possession of a handgun in a motor vehicle and gun possession after a felony conviction.
A spokeswoman for the county prosecutor says the charge was dropped because Snowden had no knowledge of a presence of a firearm in the vehicle.
Snowden had plead guilty in December to possession and intent to distribute marijuana and is awaiting sentencing on those charges. Nonetheless, he is a convicted felon, making it a crime under both state and federal laws for him to be in possession of a firearm. His defense was that the gun belonged to the other guy who was riding in the car, and he did not know it was there. Now, if ever there was an issue that cried out to be heard by a judge and jury, this would be one. Young Snowden should have been placed under oath and grilled along the now-classic lines of what did he know and when did he know it. For the matter to have simply been dropped by administrative decision smacks of favoritism and unequal treatment under the law. It would be interesting if someone in the MSM took the time to look up statistics and outcomes on past arrests of this kind, because it immediately raised several questions in my mind:
Question #1: Suppose this had been some convicted felon other than the son of someone politically well-connected?
Suffice it to say that Lovell "Artie" Wheeler was not treated so generously a few years ago in Baltimore, and the crime he was accused of was a mere misdemeanor. It just happened that Wheeler is an impolitic old whiteguy, and Kojo Snowden is the son of a "prominent civil rights activist." I have no patience with white supremacists like Wheeler, but I think professional racists on both sides of the issue deserve equal treatment.
You might remember that another "prominenent civil rights" type, Carl T. Rowan, drew a "walk" some years ago when he shot an teenager found swimming in the pool in his Washington DC backyard. That incident occurred in 1988, long after the District had enacted (in 1975) the gun control law that almost completely banned firearms possession. (N.B. this is the law that is being challeneged in the Heller case.)
Question #2: Did Kojo get a "walk" due to some intervention from O'Malley? Those of you who know of Frank Weathersbee, the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney, know that he is a pretty hard-nosed prosecutor, especially compared to some of his cohorts in other Maryland counties. It seems pretty unlikely to me that Weathersbee would have backed away from this case without coercion.
Question #3: [Irrelevant, but interesting nonetheless] What sort of person would name a child "Kojo," which sounds more like the name you would hang on a zoo animal or household pet? Unless perhaps the name is intended to have been a blend of "Kojak" and "Tojo." That's possible, but unlikely...