Brickbat: Bringing Out the Big Guns

Police in Brooklyn, New York, touted a raid they made last December that seized 22 firearms, even posting a photo of themselves with their haul online. But the police department's own lab quickly figured out that 21 of the 22 guns were not real firearms but replicas, starter pistols, and air guns. And the one real firearm had been rendered inoperable by the removal of the trigger and some internal components. But the district attorney is refusing to drop weapons charges against the owner of the fake guns, Elizaveta Zlatkis, who leases the weapons to people shooting music videos. The NYPD and the Brooklyn DA's office refused to answer questions from a local newspaper about why Zlatkis is still facing charges.