Just discovered that at least 3 of my folders would be illegal in NYC: 1) Spyderco Amalgam, 2) Spyderco Hanan and 3) ZT850CF. All will open with just a flick of the wrist. There are probably others.
The fact that you cannot "Wrist Flick" open other knives you possess has NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on whether a particular office might arrest you on an illegal knife charge and take you to jail. It does not matter at all that you, or your friends, or even another officer cannot open the knife with a Wrist Flick, if some office is able to do so, even if it takes multiple attempts and gross body movements.
The problem, and the core of our lawsuit, is that there is no way for anyone to know if their knife is legal.
ADA Dan Rather, Jr., made a telling admission on the stand. He was asked the single most important question in the entire lawsuit. He was asked how a person standing in a store wishing to purchase a folding knife could determine if the knife was legal in order to avoid arrest and prosecution. Rather indicated that the person should apply the Wrist Flick Test and attempt to open the blade to the locked position.
Rather testified that if the knife does not open on the first try he should try again and that if the person cannot flick the knife open on the second try then the knife is not a gravity knife. (He testified during deposition that there is no limit to the number of tries that can be attempted by n officer and prosecutor and in one instance testified that multiple prosecutors each tried 10 times before determining that a knife was not an illegal gravity knife)
However, when asked what if that same person stepped out the door of the store and encountered a police officer who then took that knife and flicked it open, Rather answered that the knife would then be a gravity knife and the person would be subject to prosecution.
This very candid testimony illustrates precisely the issue in the case. There is no means by which a person can conclude that a given knife is not a gravity knife, even if he applies the Wrist Flick Test and cannot open the knife, because as long as someone else can open it with the Wrist Flick Test, the person is subject to arrest and prosecution, and there is no way for a person to make that determination in advance.
Pure speculation on my part but something tells me there is more to the story when someone gets arrested for carrying a folder.
Your speculation is incorrect in this instance. Tens of thousands have been arrested for simply carrying a Common Folding Knife on the streets of New York with no other pretext involved. Others have been arrested at their homes and collections confiscated, again with no other pretext.
)