re: Bama's Cam Robinson, Hootie Jones Arrested on Felony stolen handgun and drugs

They were not cooperative. The car was searched only because they pulled the race card on the police officer. Truth.

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4) Being awake at 2AM is not a crime, and is common practice for anyone their age. For folks that age, 2am is is their parents' generation 10pm. 

5) In the evidence that I have, the least trustable entities in this situation are the police officers. The 2 arrestees have demonstrated the ability to attend a good university for a period of years and attend class, keep grades good enough to stay in school, and play a sport. Both, to my knowledge, have never been in trouble before

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Fair enough.

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4) Being awake at 2AM is not a crime, and is common practice for anyone their age. For folks that age, 2am is is their parents' generation 10pm. 

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Being in a park that has signs stating it is closed at that time would be considered trespassing.

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2) Regarding the "facts" of the case as they now seem: From personal experience, just because a police report states something, does not mean it actually happened. Given the structure of the system, cops have a license to lie and frequently do. Personally, I highly doubt Jones had a gun on his lap when police walked up. Cops just trying to makes charges stick. 

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Cop went up to their car and told them to leave the park. They pulled the race card on the cop and said something to the effect of "you're only telling us to leave because we're black."
Cop then searches car because they are trespassing on city property.
Finds weed and gun
Cop is Alabama fan.

That is the info going around Monroe.

EDIT:
Hootie's mother's cancer is back at Stage 4.

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I disagree - throwing them off the team for just that would be pretty sh*tty. However, as a human being with a brain and experience (that isn't involved in their fate) I am 100% allowed to come to my own conclusion.

Based on the evidence at this point, it is pretty cut and dry. If it changes, then I will change my opinion. But until then, it's daunting.

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You definitely have no bias against law enforcement at all. Don't care about innocent until proven guilty. UA football is a public institution that needs to be aware of public relations nightmares and head them off before they escalate. We handled Taylor very poorly last year. I'd image we would not like to go through that again. Even if all they were doing was smoking weed in a car with guns in it, they should be gone.

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I'm all for giving people second and third chances, especially college kids that make stupid little mistakes. This isn't a little mistake. If the report is true they should be kicked off the team.

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Again - I'm not convicting them. I'm not kicking them off a team. I'm not kicking them out of school. I'm allowed to review a situation and make a judgment on it. And my judgment is that if everything plays out the way it looks, they should be gone. I feel pretty confident in my opinion on this.

Moral judgments? At the very LEAST they were sitting in a car at 2 AM smoking weed with guns in the car. I'm sorry, correct for me what is "good" about that situation? Let's say the gun wasn't stolen or Cam thought he bought it legally. Sitting in a car, at a park in public, smoking weed with a teammate while having 2 guns in the car. Those are facts - unless the cops literally made everything in the report up. Am I allowed to think that is dumb and even immoral? Is that ok?

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So you think there is a chance the cops planted the guns on them?

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Except this does not have anything to do with their actions. That is about whether their punishment is reduced.

There are only a couple of options here
(A) Hootie and Cam were smoking weed in a car at 2 AM with 2 guns in the car (noted to be illegal, but that could be changed in the future I guess)

(B) The police officer made up the entire story

Like, there is no middle ground for 90% of this story. They were caught red handed. Unless the officer is lying about the guns, lying about the weed or planted either thing then the majority of this story is set in stone. And it is not good.

Could it be that the gun isn't stolen? Sure - that would help their legal case. Either way, they made really bad decisions and my "moral judgments" stand. I want them to figure it out and bounce back, but I don't think that, short of this all being a massive police cover up, they should be doing it at Alabama.

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Look man, we get it, you recently binge-watched all of Making a Murderer and spent all night on Reddit reading the unreleased "evidence".

At the end of the day these two guys were in a car smoking weed (illegal, regardless of your opinion on the matter) with what appears to be illegal firearms. Not a good situation.

I agree that all information needs to come in before any consequences are doled out by the University or the athletic department, but this isn't a good situation.

Honest question, if these two guys weren't well known Alabama football players would you be doing the same intellectual gymnastics to find a situation in which their decisions were justifiable?

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EDIT: Hootie's mother's cancer is back at Stage 4.

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Dang, that sucks

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She works at a local non-profit that does great work in the community. My buddy's wife works there and supposedly she collapsed at her home yesterday. Sweetest woman in the world with a heart for the community. The whole area is really shocked about Hootie's involvement. The community is not shocked about Cam Robinson's though. Probably a few West Monroe coaches helping him get the guns and weed

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See, that is interesting. I'd always heard the standard company line that Hootie was on the fringes but Cam was a pretty good kid (which of course was dumb to believe in the first place). What is the backstory on the two of them growing up? Why was Cam not a surprise?

Sucks to hear about Hootie's mom. What a terrible time to add something like this to an already awful situation. Kid has to be sick.

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See, that is interesting. I'd always heard the standard company line that Hootie was on the fringes but Cam was a pretty good kid.

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From everyone I know at Neville and that area, Hootie was a great kid, good grades, well-spoken, etc.
Cam Rob was well-liked until the illegal transfer to WM. Since then, I've only heard the worst. I don't associate with many people in the WM program, so I'm definitely hearing a slanted story.

Honestly though, both have always been seen in a good light in the area.

Cam Sims is in Monroe right now as well. Glad he wasn't involved.

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So, they were actually in violation of the act. Technically.

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If you don't follow the law, then you're subject to the gun laws of that particular state. Looking past the fact they were smoking pot and just considering the guns, the question then would be what is Louisiana law about having a gun in the car. In Alabama, that requires a concealed carry permit so they'd be guilty of carrying a concealed weapon. I don't know about Louisiana.

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I do agree that federal charges are highly unlikely. The only way something like that comes down the pike is if there's evidence that Cam did know the gun was stolen when he purchased it.

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Really, not even then unless they discover some reason to suspect they were involved in the theft or were dealing. As I said in my reply to Vengance, the feds just don't often spend time on little cases like this one.

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Cop went up to their car and told them to leave the park. They pulled the race card on the cop and said something to the effect of "you're only telling us to leave because we're black."
Cop then searches car because they are trespassing on city property.
Finds weed and gun
Cop is Alabama fan.

That is the info going around Monroe.

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From their standpoint, it would be wonderful if that is true because unless they gave consent (which is possible since they were probably high) you just described an illegal search and every single charge is about to go bye-bye.

But that isn't going to be what happened. Pretty much guarantee it went down close to, if not exactly like, how it is described in the officer's report and press release. He saw a car sitting in the park at 2am (which is a good sign of someone up to no good), walked up, smelled the weed, and their fun night suddenly went up in smoke.