Georgia cops hand out felonies to high schoolers for having a pocket knives locked in cars

policestateusa.com MARIETTA, GA — A high school senior is facing felony charges after police searched his car in the parking lot of his school and found a tackle box with some fishing knives in it.   The young man could now be sent to prison for 10 years if convicted. Cody Chitwood, age 17, was pulled out of class at Lassiter High School on September 17th, and told, “You’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” by police and school administrators. Outside the building, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department had been combing the parking lot with dogs looking for reasons to arrest students.  Performing random sniff-searches of the vehicles in the lot, one police K9 made a signal on Chitwood’s car. The dog had smelled a firecracker that had been left over from “Independence” Day, two months earlier.  Regardless that it is not criminal to have a firecracker laying under your seat, this sniff gave police the excuse they needed to perform an exhaustive search of his personal vehicle. As deputies rummaged through his property, they found some fishing gear and a tackle box.   In it they found — what else — basic tools for fishing, including a fillet knife and a few other utility knives that serve all sorts of useful purposes to a country boy in Georgia.  A total of 4 knives were taken from his car. Police now had the chance to make the arrest they so desperately sought.  As they walked around on school property, armed to the teeth and immune to the state’s asinine hoplophobic laws, they took the opportunity to ruin some kid’s life with a felony for keeping knives locked in his own personal vehicle. “It’s pretty ridiculous,” Chitwood told The Marietta Daily Journal. “I have an attorney and I’m hoping to get the felony dropped so I can still get in the Air Force.” Chitwood was charged with Carrying a Weapon in a School Safety Zone, a Georgia law that criminalizes possessing a whole variety of inanimate objects near a school, even if they are locked in your own car.  If the district attorney goes forward with the felony charges, Chitwood could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. to read more click here: policestateusa.com