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August 13, 2014 10:27 AM
Judge Throws Book at Single Mom, Slaps RB Ray Rice on Wrist
By Greg Pollowitz
Remember Shaneen Allen, the single mom from Pennsylvania who is facing three and a half years in prison for carrying a concealed handgun in New Jersey? NRO’s editors wrote about her a few weeks ago:
On October of 2013, a Pennsylvania resident named Shaneen Allen drove into New Jersey’s Atlantic County and was pulled over by police for an “unsafe lane change.” When the detaining officer arrived at her car window, Allen informed him that she was carrying a concealed firearm, and presented her Pennsylvania carry license as proof of eligibility. Unbeknownst to her at the time, however, was that New Jersey is among the 20 states that do not recognize Pennsylvania’s permit. In consequence, she was arrested. If convicted of the charges that the state has elected to bring, she will be locked in prison for up to a decade.
A single mother of two young children, Allen works more than one job and as a result leaves her home at odd times of the day. After two robberies made her aware of her vulnerability, she became convinced that she should be prepared to defend herself and her family, and resolved to do something about it. Which is to say that Allen bought her firearm, and obtained her concealed-carry permit, not to commit crimes but to prevent them. This has failed to move the prosecutor, Jim McClain, an overzealous man who has routinely declined to use the considerable latitude with which he has been entrusted by the state.
It turns out that the judge in Allen’s case is the same judge that allowed NFL star Ray Rice to avoid jail time for punching his wife in the face.
Glenn Reynolds writes:
Carrying a gun way worse than beating your wife
When Ray Rice beat his wife unconscious in an elevator, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Michael Donio and New Jersey District Attorney Jim McClain agreed to put him in a diversion program for 1st-time offenders to keep him out of jail. But when Pennsylvania single mom Shaneen Allen was pulled over for a traffic violation and volunteered to a New Jersey police officer that she was carrying a legally-owned handgun with a Pennsylvania permit, the response of Donis and McClain was to deny her the same opportunity as Rice.
I hope somebody asks the judge to explain how a non-violent first-time offender who did something accidentally deserves more prison time than a NFL star who committed a violent act intentionally.
