James Harden hasn’t played for Houston in years, but one would hope when he retires, and reaches the Hall of Fame (which he really should do), he’ll hang the jersey as a Rocket. I don’t think anyone really associates him with any other team, and he does seem to like being in Space City.
This is pretty much a non story, but it’ll be everywhere, so we might as well explain it. That’s the kind of quality analysis you can rely upon from TDS.
The story is that James Harden and three friends, or other people,
were pulled over at around 4 am on June 13th when an officer claims to have spotted a gun in the cup holder of James Harden’s car.
Allow me to put on a lawyerly hat for a moment. This sounds like pure, ah, bullshit. It’s dark outside, it’s likely dark in Harden’s car, and the police car. Somehow this paragon of policing officer sees a pistol inside that dark car, in a cup holder? The skeptical, the cynics, among us might suspect the officer saw an expensive car, with Black people inside it at 4am, and stopped them for Driving While Black.
Oh, look, there’s a pistol. Well, there’s probable cause now, if we say we spotted the pistol beforehand. Was it seen beforehand? I’m one of those skeptics, again. It might be easy enough to establish doubt about this in court, but it’s a reason for the stop, and the arrest, now, even if it was post stop.
What’s more (thanks to Bobby) the law in Texas about guns in vehicles (including watercraft, but not bicycles) is somewhat odd. It’s legal to have a concealed handgun in the car. It’s legal to have a handgun openly in the car if it’s in a holster and the owner of the gun also owns or controls the car. What’s not legal is a handgun in the open and not in a holster. That’s the charge against James Harden.
He was booked and released on bail in about an hour. This is a low level misdemeanor, and often in these cases the officer will simply point out that the handgun needs to be holstered in the future. (Also if the person is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, no exceptions to prohibition are allowed. This was not alleged as far as I can tell.).
Anyhow, this is simply no big deal. You may not like Texas gun laws, but it’s worth knowing what they are, as I imagine this story might be spun into a much bigger deal than it actually is in Texas.
I think the eventual outcome will be a fine, but with no charge going on Harden’s record, as I’d expect Harden to retain a good attorney who will be able to cast sufficient doubt on the stop, unless there’s camera evidence that might reinforce the City of Houston’s case.
Harden haters will get a booking photo to enjoy for years to come. That should make them very happy indeed.
