In Re Robert L.
People v. Robert L.
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Roth, J.
As the result of two petitions filed respectively April 17 and May 4, 1979, appellant was found to be a person described by Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 in that he had violated Penal Code sections 12020 1 (carrying concealed dirk or dagger), 211 (rob *404 bery) and 487, subdivision 3 (grand theft auto). He was ordered committed to the California Youth Authority on concurrent terms associated with the described violations of one, two and three years. The appeal is from the judgment (order of commitment).
Most simply stated, appellant on January 29, 1979, was found to be carrying a concealed ice pick of ordinary commercial manufacture when he, among others, was subjected to a precautionary pat down search by officers who, after observing a traffic violation, had stopped the car in which the detainees were riding. Discovery of the ice pick occasioned the first of the petitions enumerated.
The second resulted from a photographic identification of appellant by the victim, as the person who, with numerous others, had participated in relieving one Julian Valdez of the money from his person and in thereafter stealing his car at about 5:30 a.m. on April 28,…
Concurrence in Part
Compton, J.
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment on the basis that the minor committed a robbery and theft of a vehicle. I must respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that an ordinary unaltered ice pick, an *409 item which can be purchased at any hardware or household section of a supermarket, is a “dirk or dagger” within the purview of Penal Code section 12020.
It may not be popular or even prudent at a point in our history where criminal violence has reached alarming proportions, to suggest that a person cannot be punished for carrying concealed on his person an instrument capable of inflicting severe injury or death.
On the other hand, if I am to be consistent in-my belief that the courts should not legislate in a field where the Legislature has elected not to do so, I am compelled to conclude that, however appealing, the result reached by the majority cannot be squared with the Legislature’s terminology or intent.
Penal Code section 12020 prohibits the carrying of a “dirk or dagger” concealed on the person. The crime thus has two elements, (1) a “dirk or dagger,” and (2) carrying it concealed on the person. It is bootstrapping to say that…
Opinion
As the result of two petitions filed respectively April 17 and May 4, 1979, appellant was found to be a person described by Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 in that he had violated Penal Code sections 12020 [1] (carrying concealed dirk or dagger), 211 (robbery) and 487, subdivision 3 (grand theft auto). He was ordered committed to the California Youth Authority on concurrent terms associated with the described violations of one, two and three years. The appeal is from the judgment (order of commitment).
Most simply stated, appellant on January 29, 1979, was found to be carrying a concealed ice pick of ordinary commercial manufacture when he, among others, was subjected to a precautionary pat down search by officers who, after observing a traffic violation, had stopped the car in which the detainees were riding. Discovery of the ice pick occasioned the first of the petitions enumerated.
The second resulted from a photographic identification of appellant by the victim, as the person who, with numerous others, had participated in relieving one Julian Valdez of the money from his person and in thereafter stealing his car at about 5:30 a.m. on April 28,…