The Berlin Township woman got a restraining order against a former boyfriend, installed security cameras and an alarm system to her home and began the months-long process of obtaining a handgun, friends said.

But it wasn't enough.

Bowne, 39, was stabbed to death in the driveway of her Patton Avenue home on Wednesday night.

 

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/crime/2015/06/04/woman-fatally-stabbed-berlin-twp/28461361/

What a sad story, but a perfect opportunity for the family to sue the piss out of the system and hold the PD accountable for the 30 day law.

From the article:

 

 

"Berlin Township Police Chief Leonard Check said Bowne applied for a gun license on April 21, and that she had inquired Monday about her request.

The application process typically takes two months or more as police collect information on the applicant, including fingerprints and reference checks. "We did not get the fingerprint information yet," said Check."

 

 

Sounds like the NJ "FID system" collectively has blood on its hands...

Please nobody post "the article said "permit".

 

Just give it a rest we've been down this path before .

 

Who cares what the journalist wrote. Permit, FID, that's not the point.

 

Let's keep the topic the 30 day wait.

 

I'll call bullsjit on the fingerprint thing.

So wait a second, isn't this evidence that the crap the Dems are trying to pull in Trenton is BS, they need to take away knives from everyone as that was what was used, not a gun???

i saw this on farcebook, and in this mornings courier. i'll say the same thing i did on fb.

 

 

 now is the time for one of our lawyers to jump on this. time to go for the throat, and sue the state over her death. while the state didn't kill her, the state did everything in its power to enable her killer. the state is almost as responsible for her death as the guy that stabbed her.

Send emails to the reporter to follow up on the fingerprint issue.

 

Is she inquired on Monday for an update surely her prints and references were done.

Wow, just a terrible incident. Nothing says she would have been armed in the driveway...but clearly the system took far too long with this one.

Wow, just a terrible incident. Nothing says she would have been armed in the driveway...but clearly the system took far too long with this one.

correct....nothing says she would have been. but being as she was still waiting for her fpid, she had no chance.....because of the states system.

Send emails to the reporter to follow up on the fingerprint issue.

 

Is she inquired on Monday for an update surely her prints and references were done.

 

This assumes the department even processed her.  I know my town sits on apps for 60 days.

I informed the reporter that most prints are instant processed.

 

Someone else shoul ask the reporter to ask to see the file.

 

If they dragged their feet just fess up to it. Don't lie about prints.

How does one reach out to the family and proceed with court action without looking like an insensitive bafoon? I see the "Bowne Act" in the future.

This assumes the department even processed her.  I know my town sits on apps for 60 days.

which is highly illegal according to the statute that says you are to be given your permits within 30 days.

this is what i think i'm gonna send to the reporter.

 

Good afternoon sir,

I just wanted to reach out to you regarding this article, specifically the fingerprinting issue. In New Jersey, when you apply for your fPid, you are given a form by your police dept. that form contains the contanct information for MorphoTrac(i may have spelled that incorrectly.) You call them, and schedule an appointment for your fingerprints. These appointments generally are very quick. They fingerprint you digitally, and send the information to your police dept. Once the dept. has your prints, they start their investigation.

 There is a statute in New Jersey(i can't remember it exactly at this point) which states that an applicant "shall be issued their permit unless they meed a qualification to be disqualified from owning a firearm no more than 30 days from the date of the application".  However, most police depts sit on these applications, taking their time. Mine took over 8 months. My mothers took just over 9 months. There is no way that i know of to enforce this statute.

 If you haven't already, I would like to suggest that you press the dept on this issue, as there is no good or acceptable reason for the dept to have been taking over a month to take care of this victims application.

 Thank you for taking time to read this.

I don't think you can expect the reporter to care about why PDs aren't bound to the 30 day rule. Reporters just want to a scoop if an official is lying

 

Let's just get the reporter to find out the real reason why it wasn't done in 30 days.

 

Fingerprints? Doubt it

Refeemces? If she asked for a status update I'm sure her references were cleard.

"OUR CAPTAIN JUST SITS ON THEM FOR MONTHS BECAUSE HE IS ANTI GUN"?

 

Now there is a story. !

Has anyone ever been given an honest answer from someone of authority as to why some towns are able to get all this done in a week while others take half a year or more?

I don't think you can expect the reporter to care about why PDs aren't bound to the 30 day rule. Reporters just want to a scoop if an official is lying

 

Let's just get the reporter to find out the real reason why it wasn't done in 30 days.

 

Fingerprints? Doubt it

Refeemces? If she asked for a status update I'm sure her references were cleard.

"OUR CAPTAIN JUST SITS ON THEM FOR MONTHS BECAUSE HE IS ANTI GUN"?

 

Now there is a story. !

my thought process was to be sure that he was informed on how the system works........i also added to ask him to not use my name in anything.

Here's the e-mail that I sent to the author of the article...

 

Dear Mr. Walsh,

 

Reading your article on the tragic murder of Carol Bowne raises a number of issues in my mind. Issues that should be investigated more closely when it comes to assigning blame for her death.

 

A co-worker was quoted as saying, “She (Bowne) did everything right,” in referring to the steps taken to protect herself from her ex-boyfriend. She, indeed, may have done everything right, but the system failed her.

 

We all know that the effectiveness of a restraining order, security lighting and alarm systems are wholly dependent on police response time. The national average is 10 minutes. A lot can happen in those ten minutes when you are being pursued by someone with murderous intent. The only effective immediate defense is arming oneself.

 

Bowne attempted this course of action also, but was thwarted by the law enforcement bureaucracy. It was stated that she applied for a firearms purchase permit on April 21, 2015. A permit, that by statutory decree, is to be issued no later than 30 days after the application is received (2C:58-3f). However, there is case law that says in NJ, 30 days isn’t 30 days if the police department has not yet received the fingerprint report back from the FBI, and the NJ criminal background check back from the NJSP (Adler v. Livak).

 

In the Bowne case the Chief of Police used the excuse that they had not yet received the fingerprint report from the FBI as the reason for exceeding the statutory limit. I have two problems with that. First, the Adler v. Livak case, that established the basis for such an excuse, was adjudicated on February 11, 1998. That date is relevant because it predates the establishment of the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Without the automated search capability, it is reasonable to believe that a manual search may take considerably longer than 30 days. However, given that IAFIS has now been operating 24/7/365 for almost 26 years, and the system’s average response time to a submission of fingerprints for a search is 27 minutes, and also the fact that the system was recently upgraded (September 2014), I find the police chief’s statement implausible.

 

The problem is, that to the general public, there is no transparency to the process of obtaining the permit needed by Bowne. She turned in the application 4/21. The fingerprint process in NJ is now handled by a third party (Sagem Morpho aka Morpho Trak) and is also done electronically in both acquiring the prints and submitting them to the FBI, the NJSP and the department that requested them. So the question becomes, was it a convenient excuse, or did the PD really not get the report back? In light of the foregoing it would seem doubtful that the PD did not receive the fingerprint report back in a timely manner. It seems very likely that they received it and had yet to process the application by completing their investigation – an investigation that should have been ongoing from the point of application submission (4/21).

 

The applicant must rely wholly on the PD for the timely processing of their application, which, in this case, was critical. Police departments generally give the processing of firearms applications low priority, which is why there is such a variance among issuing agencies statewide. Some manage to do it well within the 30 day statute limitation, while others drag their feet and may take ten times the statutory limit, or more, and use the Adler v. Livak decision as a handy excuse. With no public transparency we have no way to disprove them.

 

While there is no guarantee that, had she been granted the permit in a timely fashion, she would have had a weapon at hand with which to defend herself, the point is that she was denied the opportunity because her God-given right to self-defense was abridged by the very people that were supposed to protect her. Somebody needs to be asking the hard questions in this case, and to my way of thinking that would be the press’ role.

 

In light of the advancements in digital processing that have occurred since 1998, and the subsequent establishment of various law enforcement databases, it’s time to revisit the Adler v. Livak decision and to also require accountability from law enforcement. In this case, it may have made all the difference in the world.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Those are my feelings.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

Here's the e-mail that I sent to the author of the article...

 

Dear Mr. Walsh,

 

Reading your article on the tragic murder of Carol Bowne raises a number of issues in my mind. Issues that should be investigated more closely when it comes to assigning blame for her death.

 

A co-worker was quoted as saying, “She (Bowne) did everything right,” in referring to the steps taken to protect herself from her ex-boyfriend. She, indeed, may have done everything right, but the system failed her.

 

We all know that the effectiveness of a restraining order, security lighting and alarm systems are wholly dependent on police response time. The national average is 10 minutes. A lot can happen in those ten minutes when you are being pursued by someone with murderous intent. The only effective immediate defense is arming oneself.

 

Bowne attempted this course of action also, but was thwarted by the law enforcement bureaucracy. It was stated that she applied for a firearms purchase permit on April 21, 2015. A permit, that by statutory decree, is to be issued no later than 30 days after the application is received (2C:58-3f). However, there is case law that says in NJ, 30 days isn’t 30 days if the police department has not yet received the fingerprint report back from the FBI, and the NJ criminal background check back from the NJSP (Adler v. Livak).

 

In the Bowne case the Chief of Police used the excuse that they had not yet received the fingerprint report from the FBI as the reason for exceeding the statutory limit. I have two problems with that. First, the Adler v. Livak case, that established the basis for such an excuse, was adjudicated on February 11, 1998. That date is relevant because it predates the establishment of the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Without the automated search capability, it is reasonable to believe that a manual search may take considerably longer than 30 days. However, given that IAFIS has now been operating 24/7/365 for almost 26 years, and the system’s average response time to a submission of fingerprints for a search is 27 minutes, and also the fact that the system was recently upgraded (September 2014), I find the police chief’s statement implausible.

 

The problem is, that to the general public, there is no transparency to the process of obtaining the permit needed by Bowne. She turned in the application 4/21. The fingerprint process in NJ is now handled by a third party (Sagem Morpho aka Morpho Trak) and is also done electronically in both acquiring the prints and submitting them to the FBI, the NJSP and the department that requested them. So the question becomes, was it a convenient excuse, or did the PD really not get the report back? In light of the foregoing it would seem doubtful that the PD did not receive the fingerprint report back in a timely manner. It seems very likely that they received it and had yet to process the application by completing their investigation – an investigation that should have been ongoing from the point of application submission (4/21).

 

The applicant must rely wholly on the PD for the timely processing of their application, which, in this case, was critical. Police departments generally give the processing of firearms applications low priority, which is why there is such a variance among issuing agencies statewide. Some manage to do it well within the 30 day statute limitation, while others drag their feet and may take ten times the statutory limit, or more, and use the Adler v. Livak decision as a handy excuse. With no public transparency we have no way to disprove them.

 

While there is no guarantee that, had she been granted the permit in a timely fashion, she would have had a weapon at hand with which to defend herself, the point is that she was denied the opportunity because her God-given right to self-defense was abridged by the very people that were supposed to protect her. Somebody needs to be asking the hard questions in this case, and to my way of thinking that would be the press’ role.

 

In light of the advancements in digital processing that have occurred since 1998, and the subsequent establishment of various law enforcement databases, it’s time to revisit the Adler v. Livak decision and to also require accountability from law enforcement. In this case, it may have made all the difference in the world.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Those are my feelings.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

sheer awesomeness sir.

Well done sir!

We can only hope this (or any) reporter picks up the gauntlet and exposes the oppressive app system so the oblivious general public sees what real life aquisition of firearms is like. So sad.

We can only hope this (or any) reporter picks up the gauntlet and exposes the oppressive app system so the oblivious general public sees what real life aquisition of firearms is like. So sad.

 

Emily Miller?

Emily Miller?

Need to get it onto Fox News.

 

I also wrote letters to my legislative representatives as well as to the Governor.  Flood their email/faxes.

Disgusting. No doubt Berlin PD has her blood on their hands.

 

Well written letter Bob. Interesting to see if the reporter does any follow up.

 

Edit to correct: the Berlin PD and the politicians that oppress citizen's rights all have blood on their hands.

And another thing. Ya know what? Don't even give the fuckers the courtesy of a "perhaps a handgun wouldn't have protected her anyway"

 

She was stabbed in her driveway where it would have been legal to posses the gun!

 

Until the Berlin PD proves It s not their delay I feel her death is on their hands. My blood is boiling over this. Ms Browne your death will not got to waste. Something will change.

National Review published an article on this.  I can't figure out how to cut and past a link, though.

Wait. Is this the Township or the Boro? When you say Berlin PD, that refers to the Boro.

Wait. Is this the Township or the Boro? When you say Berlin PD, that refers to the Boro.

i think it said berlin township.

 

Need to get it onto Fox News.

 

I also wrote letters to my legislative representatives as well as to the Governor.  Flood their email/faxes.

someone should get this to dan roberts. betcha he's got someone there he may know since the interview with his daughter.

Definitely Berlin Twp given:

The Patton Ave address

The name of Chief Check ([email protected])

 

Someone(s) must be made to pay for this.