Atlanta rapper Erica Banks of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta fame was caught with a handgun going through a TSA security checkpoint at the Atlanta airport on Wednesday night.
Banks was going through the North checkpoint on August 6 when her Louis Vuitton bag was flagged. Screeners found a black-and-gray Smith & Wesson. She claimed ignorance (the Shaggy Defense, actually) saying she didn’t know the weapon was there and then claimed ‘wasn’t me’ and that the gun belonged to her “security” but wouldn’t give any names.
Credit: HOTSPOTATL on YouTube via Wikimedia Commons
Police ran the serial number on the gun and learned that it had been stolen in Greensville, South Carolina in 2018. Banks was arrested and booked into Clayton County Jail but released hours later.
- Her claim that the gun wasn’t hers and that she didn’t know she was carrying it will be used as a defense against knowingly carrying a stolen weapon.
- Charges center on “theft by receiving stolen property,” rather than weapons possession as such.
(HT: Enilria)
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Ladies and gentlement, @Matt has still got it! Keep Climbing! 100 more years!
Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up.
Sigh. Arrested and booked? It’s as though we as a society have learned nothing from the past 100 years of systemic inequality in our criminal justice system.
What risk to physical safety did this woman pose that would have justified even putting her in handcuffs, let alone booking her into a jail? Absolutely zero risk.
Do the statistics show clearly that Black people, among other nonwhite populations, face unduly harsh treatment by law enforcement and incarceration at considerably unfairly higher rates? Yes. This perpetuates racism and discrimination.
I won’t stand for any of this in society. ABOLISH police. ABOLISH jails and prisons.
TSA catches a gun? The civil and proper response is “Sir/Ma’am, we regret not to be able to allow this past the checkpoint.”
ABOLISH police. ABOLISH jails and prisons.
BTW – the argument in favor of prison abolition is not predicated solely on racial discrimination.
Locking people up is just completely inhuman. We don’t even lock up chickens in cages anymore. We buy pasture-raised eggs where each hen is granted at least 108 square foot of outdoor space.
There are plenty of humane options to reduce the spread and risk of physical danger to society that do not involve putting members of our fellow species behind bars.
Not to mention so much of the extant US prison population is 100% nonviolent.
@Matt has made an appearance and is better than ever!
Love it – what a shock as she perfectly fits the anticipated person. Playing the victim card (wasn’t me – someone planted it). Can’t wait until she pulls out the race card which is all she has left in her deck.
Skin color means nothing. Trash it trash.
Throw it out.
Looks like AC has already used the race card.
She was carrying about a pound and a half of gun. Women tend to notice this type of extra weight in a handbag. Just saying.
Erect – If those that you defend did not continually break the law they would not be arrested, judged guilty and put into jail, which is where they belong. Instead of abolishing police and prisons, hire MORE police, build MORE prisons and take these criminals off of the streets. After decades of America and Americans having to accept excuses and allowances for them, American is fed up. These people never learn and continue to rape, murder, rob and commit crimes.
She should face lesser consequences for the airport security violation than repeat offender, Tr*mpublican Congressman Derrick Van Orden who has repeatedly been caught at TSA passenger screening checkpoints with a prohibited handgun.
@Erect — Where you been?! Were you using alter egos, or just away on vacation. Missed you, bud. Taiwan still free, independent country. Woot woot!
Not only a gun but one that was loaded. Probably not going to take any crap from anyone on the airplane.
@jns & @AC — Yup, see: The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons. Turns out the 2nd Amendment depends on race… /s
Ronald Reagan was and the NRA are very left wing in support of gun control.
@Erect
A rando white guy who tries to bring a gun through airport security would still be in jail. If anything she’s getting preferential treatment because of her money, not being discriminated against because of race. You’re really this dumb? Bottom line, she is dangerously stupid, like you, and should be separated from the rest of society.