Snowball Fight Leads to Arrest for Criminal Possession of a Weapon

Snowball fights are a welcome sign of winter.  The sight of kids (and adults) throwing balls of freshly fallen snow at each other is always featured in new stories that winter has finally arrived.   A popular commercial for the Vancouver Olympic Games even featured a multi-country snowball fight.  Unfortunately, playtime can turn to jail time if you start throwing snowballs at police officers.  

Four friends from the Bronx are discovering that the local police are not taking snowballs lightly.  The friends claim that an errant snowball hit an off duty cop in the leg when they were throwing snowballs at each other after a late February storm.  The cop remembers the incident a little different, claiming that he was barraged with snowballs and taunts in a threatening manner.  Pretty soon, the cop had pulled out a gun and calling for backup.

The charge:  criminal possession of a weapon.  And yes, the weapon is the now melted snowballs.

A recent LegalMatch study revealed the major concerns surrounding a charge of possession of a weapon.  Although LegalMatch has never had a case or question surrounding snowballs, convictions of criminal possession of a weapon are often charged as a felony.  Unfortunately, in the case of the Bronx snowball defendants, three of the four individuals charged have previous convictions on their records, which allows the prosecutors in the case to seek a longer punishment.

When I first read this story I had a really hard time equating a snowball to the more commonly charged weapons such as guns and knives.  If a snowball can be classified and charged as a weapon, what else is next?

By: Violet Petran

Comments

[Lawadvicenow]

That is funny kind of. That stinks for the one charged though. I think that the cop should have taken it in strides really. It is a snowball that is going to heal.