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Police effort to get people to obey a Dorchester stop sign yields gun arrest
By adamg on Fri, 04/27/2018 - 9:47pm
Boston Police report arresting a New York City man on gun and pot charges Thursday afternoon after he allegedly ran a stop sign on a shortcut from Blue Hill Avenue to Columbia Road.
Police say officers were stationed at a stop sign on Old Road, because of "several community complaints" about people blowing right past the sign. Drivers heading north on Blue Hill Avenue who want to get onto Columbia Road use Old Road to avoid the lights at Blue Hill and Columbia.
Around 1 p.m., police say, the officers watched a car not stop, then turned on their blues and siren and made the driver pull over:
When officers asked the driver to produce his license and registration, the suspect started to touch his pants in several different places while also reaching under the seat. Upon seeing the operator reaching under the seat, officers, put in fear by the operator’s quick, shifty movements, immediately ordered him to stop. When the suspect again appeared to be reaching for an object in his waist area, officers restrained the suspect’s hand and proceeded to pat frisk him for weapons. As a result of the pat frisk, officers were able to locate and confiscate a firearm found inside the suspect’s waist area.
Police say the officers also found "two bags of a leafy green substance," $1,400 in cash, four phones and a digital scale.
Edward Clarke, 25, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He also got a traffic ticket for failing to stop for a stop sign, police say.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
"Popular shortcut"?
All these years, I thought this was how I was SUPPOSED to get from Blue Hill to Columbia. Or is there a right turn lane somewhere behind the rows of cars parked illegally outside that pizza place?
OK, theoretically ...
You could turn right from BHA right onto Columbia, like, say, if you were unaware of Old Road, not that I'm speaking from personal experience or anything :-).
But you agree that no one stops?
I mean, I stop, but I also have started only to notice a car coming, because, you know, everyone used Old Road. That's got to be one of my earliest memories of being in a car- left on BHA, right on Glenway with a quick left on Old Road, then right on Columbia Road.
Sometimes you read the stories of a traffic stop and you think that it was a pretext because they had reason to believe the occupants had something in the car, but I am glad they are actually doing a traffic patrol.
Cats
Same here.
Do you remember the ceramic cats on the side of the house on Old Road?
Yes! Wow, man I haven't
Yes! Wow, man I haven't thought about that house in years but I remember driving by it all the time.
Yeah, if there's something
Yeah, if there's something immoral about going this way, someone needs to tell the 16 bus.
Not surprising
When an equal-opportunity infraction committed by people from all walks of life like running stop signs is actually enforced for once, it's no surprise that the police stumble upon stuff like this.
Perhaps this is a major reason why stop signs etc. aren't enforced more -- surprising someone who has a warrant or contraband is probably one of the more dangerous situations that police face, and nobody in the northeast urban US really expects to get nabbed on stop signs.
I'm not a fan of these moving
I'm not a fan of these moving violations that turn into gun/drug arrests. They really push the bounds of what's a lawful search. The worst was the one where (at night) a cop "noticed" a gun under the seat as the suspect was getting out of a car.
On the other hand, if you're carrying an illegal gun and can't manage to stash it properly in the time it takes between getting pulled over and greeting the cop, then it's hard to sympathize.
Would you rather just have
Would you rather just have people run the stop sign? The cops got an illegal gun off the street and your first thought is the police should let people run stop signs? It’s all groovy until someone runs a stop sign and plows into you right?
Pro Tip
Obey the road laws if you are up to no good.
How do you think safe crackers of yore lasted so long on the run? They were smart enough to keep a low profile by not asking for trouble.
Oh, one more time: OBEY THE ROAD RULES and it won't be a problem. Grow up.
The utter stupidity of humanity
Summed up beautifully in one small town (which is what Boston is at heart) news item.
My favorite is the "intent to distribute." There's no bigger crock of (expletive) in laws and justice than "intent to distribute" except for "right to a speedy trial." I'm not afraid of his weed, and I'm not afraid of his gun, which he has because he carries cash that I'm not trying to take away from him.
Clearly, he's the one who's afraid, although he's also stupid for not stopping for a stop sign while carrying weed and a gun.
Also, I'd like to see a study on the efficacy of that light, and how many cars sit idling with nobody going in the crossing direction. I recall that intersection from my rideshare stint, and how it feels like a prime candidate for a roundabout.
Three stupid strikes in one story. In the words of Dave O'Brien: Good morning, good afternoon, and good night.
We also only have the cop's
We also only have the cop's word on the "quick, shifty movements". It's getting harder and harder for me to take reports like this seriously, the more stories come out about corrupt cops.
Like, yeah, there are definitely people dumb enough to act this way during a stop, but it's also easy to just make up a story about that out of thin air.
Guy's lucky he wasn't shot
How many times do we read about officers "put in fear" (in this case, for good reason) who don't shoot the suspect? One more example of the excellent training Boston police receive.
2 things
When is the last time a cop came to a full stop at that stop sign? Probably never.
And echoing some other comments, I don't think anyone regards that as a shortcut. It's the way everyone goes.
This makes my morning ...
.... to hear a cop stopped a red light runner. Sometimes I wonder how it is I’m still alive having nearly been mowed down countless times by psychopathic Massholes.
Latest national survey of states with most aggressive drivers
MA didn't even make the top 10. CT, NJ, and Delaware I believe were the only northeast states in the top 10.
MA also has the lowest traffic fatality rate in the country.
"lowest traffic fatality rate in the country"
This used to comfort me, but now I regularly ride by at least five Ghost Bicycles, each commemorating a cyclist who died at the hands of a careless motorist: Inman Square, Porter Square, Cambridge St @ Spice Street in Charlestown, Mass Ave @ Beacon St in Boston, and another somewhere on Putnam Avenue in Cambridge.