Family Business

Posted by: Blue

There's one family in my district who is no good.  Actually there's a number of them, but one of them in particular seems to grab my attention more than others.

On Friday, we arrested one of them that I had never dealt with before.  He had been out of jail 7 days before being re-arrested by us on new Assault charges (domestic) and Breach of Probation.

At ident, the tech looked at him and commented "That's not a very common last name.  There was another guy in here with that last name last night.  For Robbery I think"

"Really?  If he's from the city, I'm related to him." He said, laughing

After getting back into the car, he asked me to look up the report.

I told him which of his family members I was betting it was before pulling up the reports.  I told him my guess was that it wasn't a big old fancy robbery of a commercial business but rather that he tried to take some beer at knife point or some such offence.

"That's considered Robbery too?"

"Yup.  Robbery is Theft plus Assault.  The crime is complete if you have a weapon or imply a weapon or violence plus attempt to cause something to be converted to your use or possession.  A Theft at it's root definition doesn't necessarily mean that anything was actually stolen.  Just begun or even attempted to be stolen.  In the same way, an Assault doesn't necessarily mean that anyone was contacted by a fist or a weapon.  Pointing a firearm at someone for example, is an Assault with a Weapon (among numerous other firearms offences).  So is handing over a note which implies violence if one's demands aren't met, whether it is expressly written or if only the impression is given."

"Huh."

"Yeah."

I pulled the report.  It was a cousin.  The offence wasn't Robbery after all.  It was Possession of a Controlled Substance for the Purpose of Trafficking (drug dealing charges).

I don't like that family.