In a brief (not to mention rare) moment of lucidity, New Jersey prosecutors have dropped the moronic charges against armed security guard Roosevelt Twyne. The law-abiding gentleman was arrested for carrying a firearm while having a license to carry, and for possession of hollowpoint ammuntion that isn’t hollowpoint ammunition.
From Newsweek:
One violation of the state’s firearm transport ban and another pertaining to hollow-point bullets. The latter charge was dropped after Union County prosecutors decided the ammunition Twyne was carrying was not illegal. Until Friday, prosecutors were seeking an additional charge on the transport ban.
That seemed pretty clear — or should have been — from the start, since the New Jersey State Police say the Hornady ammunition Twyne had is lawful.
From the Union County prosecutor’s magnanimous announcement:
“This Office has elected to exercise its prosecutorial discretion and has administratively dismissed all charges pending against Mr. Twyne,” the office said in a statement to Newsweek. “It is not in the interests of justice to continue his prosecution.”
Maybe they considered just how stupid they’d look when Twyne’s attorney, Evan Nappen, introduced this bit of evidence in court.
Well done, Mr. Nappen.
All’s well that ends well for Mr. Twyne, but New Jersey still has the arcane, convoluted, confusing, and downright stupid collection of violence-enabling victim disarmament laws that even their alleged professionals can’t figure them out. All the better to entrap you.
He should start a gofundme page to pay his legal fees.
There was a link in the past posting.
Cool…BREAKING NEWS: as per Illinois CC the city of Champaign,ILLinois by a 9-0 vote has granted da mayor broad power’s to declare MARTIAL LAW. Including banning guns & ammo sales. And confiscation! For no particular reason…new at 11. I wonder WHUT Donnie will do?!?
If Martial Law is declared it has to be defied at all costs… travel in large armed groups…my two cents
Although what the City has done is bad enough. It hasn’t declared martial law.
The city listed a series of powers it believes it has including the confiscation of land, closing business, closing streets, forbidding the sale of gas in cans (hard on landscapers and generator owners) Closing bars and forbidding the sale of weapons and ammo.
The definition of emergency was … lacking.
Its already done. its at gogetfunding.com
But I think he’s set. Its up to $60k so far. Ha.
https://gogetfunding.com/roosevelt-twyne-legal-defense-fund/
I sure hope his lawyer isn’t gonna charge him 60 thousand for his services to date…
I think they will attempt to sue for systemic racism.
The cops tried to enforce their racist gun control on a non wealthy black man because they have been doing it for decades. They didn’t plan for a bunch of white men to get pissed that three white men tried to persecute a black gun owner. They’re used to the NRA members backing the blue just because.
Black guns and black gun owners matter. SJWs and old white women in red shirts don’t think so, which is why they demand gun control now and “hands up, don’t shoot” as their slogan for self defense.
Convicted felons will eventually get their rights back after generation X dies off or is too old to continue to hold the line on that human rights violation. We can’t allow that racism to continue if America wants to retain the 2nd Amendment.
@ Chief sensor
Yes. Died in the wool gun controllers, in the small unscientific sample of the ones I’ve interacted with, seem to think gun owners/2nd amendment activists are all racist white guys.
The NJ prosecutors were probably genuinely surprised that we raised a stink about a black man getting railroaded.
lawsuits are expensive though
The State Police should be sued for those fees. Let the taxpayers who voted for the legislators that created this untenable legal environment pay the consequences of violating Mr. Twyne’s rights.
Yes, he’ll need representation for that lawsuit, and needs funding for that, and there’s a risk he won’t recover those or any other fees, so the GoFundMe is still necessary.
then the state of new jersey will just sue twyne’s gofundme account on the basis that it was created to pay the legal fees. As new jersey is now paying them, they’ll feel it is their money now.
Dont ya love states where freedom is more a suggestion than a right?
He doesn’t need funding, just let his lawyer file a S1983 civil rights suit. Let the state fund his retirement.
Uh, lawyers don’t do things out of the goodness of their heart. And they’ll probably want to be paid up front for this, because you’d be surprised how little gets paid out when the police arrest someone illegally unless said person is injured, killed, etc.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys handle most cases on a contingent fee basis, idiot.
He should sue NJ for legal fees, pain and suffering, loss of wages, etc…etc…
I would like to think a little more is done than just a drop the charges. In a different report I read that because of the arrest and loss of his gun permit, he had lost his job. Even if they reinstated everything, what about the loss of employment and loss of wages.
What about remedial training for the police to ensure they know what type pf ammo is legal?
I don’t think there was any legitimate legal basis for the stop. They said it was for dark tint, but they charged him for a bunch of other things. It appears they had nothing on him, thus they had to make it up. It’s a common thing.
When a cop breaks the law he has to find an excuse for his actions. You see this behavior when people are charged for resisting arrest and no other crime. Or for disorderly conduct, interfering with an investigation, disturbing the peace, trespassing on public property and the like.
They tried to charge him with a lot so he would plead guilty to lesser charges and to stop a lawsuit against the government. They lost this one when people donated enough money to him to defend his rights and innocence against the cops. Right now they think he will just go away if they drop all charges.
Exactly! Sue NJ! And the moron cops who dont know the laws they are paid to know.
If you don’t live there, stay the hell out. Drive around it if you have to, and don’t even think about flying in or out of NJ with a firearm.
^^^^^ Best advice yet, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, will never feel my shadow, so far as I am concerned, they are not America!
the genius in the prosecutors office needs to do 100hours of constitution studies and 100hours of firearms identification. or loose his job, he sounds like he is way in over his head now.
No, just the cops. The prosecutor was smart enough to drop the charges, even if he did so in a fashion suggesting (without saying it) that one or more was “appropriate.”
I disagree…the prosecutor was going forth with everything. If it wasn’t for this man’s attorney taking it to the media this guy would have been hung out to dry.
I hope that Roosevelt gets his job back without loss of seniority and his arrest record expunged.
Fuck New Jersey, I wouldnt stop in that state to take a shit.
Tough talk from a unconstitutional Kum guzzler. Don’t worry, nobody wants to visit your shithole.
We? You speak only for yourself, I have plenty of friends from Jersey, non of them like the unconstitutional, draconian laws that you seem to love so much. The garden state is hell, but I’ll go where I please, you can go fuk yourself though 😊
Drove thru NJ a couple of times. Country side was beautiful. Newark, not so much. It’s NJ politics that gives people on this site such a bad taste. It is well deserved.
New Jersey > concertina wire capital of the world! It got outlawed, some took it down, they got robbed, and then they put it all back up. God bless them and that sparkling wire in the sun! It’s the glint of freedom.
NJ is a “no go zone”. They are hostile to law abiding citizens and will seek out/manufacture things to charge people with. Criminals in NJ are less dangerous than the city and state authorities.
Keep Out !
My experience in Missouri was great. A cousin lived in Columbia for a few years while his wife did her graduate work there. Waterfowl in the morning. Whitetail in the afternoon. People were first class. Rue the day she took a teaching/research position at Auburn University.
You are the NJ guy. Do you get off on this nonsense?
Gluteus, that’s laughable. My family settled in North Carolina pre revolution. Scotts Irish. We migrated south. My great grandfather fought in the battle of Natural Bridge. He was sixteen. Tallahassee was the only southern state capital not captured by the Union. I’ve traveled north of the Mason-Dixon Line several times. Did I neglect to mention the clothes pin I kept on my nose while there? Damn Yankees have an odd smell.
Those sorry sons of bitches !!!! I donated, people do not need to be treated like that and he should sue their asses for every dime!!
I have been avoiding New Jersey for years. I spend a lot of money traveling and New Jersey gets none of it. I know many other people that feel the same way. Can you people in the New Jersey Division of Travel & Tourism hear that. Nah… they don’t even know this site exists. And they’ve no clue as to the money they loose.
I hope that NJ does the right thing and fully restores all of his gun rights, his license and returns all of his property. If not then I hope he keeps the pressure on NJ because what they did was wrong.
I’m going to continue to stay in Alaska forever. We can use tundra moss for toilet paper…
Lawsuit time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
take your loses Mr. Twyne, times that by 100. Then charge each hour in jail for 10,000$ per and add your time in court to that. Then lastly 1,000,000 for mental anguish
Mr. Twyne has enough evidence in that one web site grab to bury the state!
It is not New Jersey, or New York, or California that suck. It is the idiots that live and work in the major cities that suck. I bet the Piney woods and the Ozarks and the Sierras all have wonderful people inhabiting them. Y’all’s arguments are like saying I hate Mexico because I went to Juarez, or I hate Canada because I wintered in Montreal once. Lumping everyone under one label is the mess we are trying to dig out of, try to engage brain before activating keyboards, please.
Steve, you are so right. SF, LA, and Sandiego as well as all the other coastal areas south of SF, control the state. Those in the other areas are completely outnumbered. Doesn’t help having an idiot for a governor and his lackey for the Atty Gen. Two years to retirement and I’m outta here. Best thing coming out of Calif…I-80E. Most beautiful sight here….”Welcome to California” sign in the rear view mirror.
Gun/Ammo Control? Its roots are in racism and genocide. Laws were concocted by democrats to deny freed slaves their right to possess firearms. Later laws were concocted by the democrat party during Jim Crow to deny Black Americans their right to possess firearms. Frankly, a Black American belonging to the democrat party makes as much sense as a Jew belonging to the socialist nazi party.
Before there was gun control against black Americans there was gun control against Americans/natives/Indians. The Europeans didn’t want their colonies helping the natives fix their guns nor sell them any new ones because the Europeans planned to genocide the natives, take all the resources and establish a new government for themselves.
After they murdered almost all of the tribes they marched the survivors into prisoner camps [reservations]. The Europeans — now self identifying as Americans — denied the natives their human rights by proclaiming rights are for citizens only and Indians can’t be citizens. They became wards of the state under the control of the federal government, which some tribes remain as such today. Eventually in the 1930s Indians were allowed to become citizens… Now as citizens they are labeled Native-American. The government still has control over some tribes’ money and still decide what to do with it on behalf of the “no good” Native-Americans. Every native on a reservation now has to follow the laws of the reservation, the federal government and the state government.
So, when black Americans complain they’re the biggest victim in the United States they’re exaggerating. Heck, the United States government gave black people deals to earn their freedom. One of the deals to earn their freedom was for them to help murder the natives to win the west. They rode along side the whites to murder natives while wearing the government’s uniform and using the government’s guns.
Now black Americans are about 12% of the population and native Americans are less than 1%. And now some black Americans are starting to claim their ancestors found the Americas first and they are the real native Americans.
#BlackLivesMatter.
That’s just legal maneuvering. They do that to avoid liability for malicious prosecution and other costs associated with the arrest and charges. He should be pursuing remedies though.
“This Office has elected to exercise its prosecutorial discretion and has administratively dismissed all charges pending against Mr. Twyne,”
Notice a total lack of admission that they fucked up. No, we didn’t make a mistake, we just decided it’s not worth prosecuting at this time.
Go die in a fire assholes.
Wonder if the ACLU, BLM etc. gave a statement on this and pushed for the restoration of his rights, properties, apologies and penalties to be paid. They should probably host marches or something. Just throwing it out there.
I don’t actually think it’s racist but rather a banal case of overstep in NJ. That said I hope they get clubbed as racists like a baby seal. Maybe that will teach them a lesson about doing this garbage. The feds really need to push NJ into a consent decree around violating peoples’ rights in terms of 2A as well with the way they prosecute like this.
Prosecutor’s discretion? Really? I would have loved to have seen this go to trial. The first thing I would have done is submitted the state police’s web site into evidence and claimed entrapment. He should sue them for entrapment right now even.
It sounds like this has had consequences beyond the menace of this prosecutor.
Actually, Roosevelt committed several felonies, including (i) driving while black in New Jersey, (ii) licensed carrying while black in New Jersey, (iii) having ammunition that are not hollowpoints in New Jersey, and (iv) not worshiping cops in New Jersey.
The usual penalty for any one of those felonies is immediate, on the spot execution by the cops. It’s called (v) shot with their hands up while black in New Jersey.
He sounds like a smart man. I will assume he bought body armor to protect himself against those racist New Jersey politicians and cops.
They picked the wrong guy. Their egos were too big. They couldn’t resist locking up the black man with a gun even though he followed the law as written. They don’t go doing that to the Asian man because he has the money to sue their ass.
NJ blows just as much as NY, MA and CA…
Hornady must be the best selling ammo in NJ.
The police are this easily confused by their own laws, but ignorance is never a valid defense for us. It’s even more confusing traveling among different states.
It is!
(and y’all thought I couldn’t post anything shorter than 300 words, LOL)
This case exposed just how little some not all law enforcement officers knowledge on New Jerseys gun laws.Apparently Hornaday critical defense ammunition is legal there.Something I didn’t even know.This man’s reputation not to mention his job was almost lost due to the D.A’S attempt to convict him.I hope I see the day the U.S Supreme Court finally makes a decision to affirm our right to self defense in ALL states.This case is typical of New Jersey justice for law abiding citizens with guns.
New Jersey is the only state where the seagulls fly upside down! There’s nothing worth crapping on!
Back in the ’90s I had a black friend who was an electrical engineer working for IBM in Vermont who’s family lived in a state south of NJ. He drove a nice Mercedes-Benz. He told me that almost always he would get stopped by NJSP who would search the car, everything in it, and his person. Check all his papers, etc.
I saw several times 2 or 3 black drivers who had been pulled over having their car pulled apart (seats in the grass, trunk emptied etc) .
I think it truly sucks to be a black person in the US.
NewJersey is lost in a sea of stupid thanks to their liberal politicians….yet, who keeps re-electing them?
And, any bets on how much time and aggravation he will endure before his weapon, ammo and permit are returned?
Make no mistake, this is happening because he’s black. Were he a pale face, the prosecution would still be trying to nail him to a wall.
Has anyone realized that NJ also requires a license to purchase pistol ammo in the state. Even LEOs need to apply if they want to buy ammunition for their non duty weapon.
https://lawcenter.giffords.org/ammunition-regulation-in-new-jersey/