Here is a wee spot the difference competition (no prizes) for you to test your observational skills on.
Can you tell me the difference between the two objects in the picture above, and what each is used for?
Yes, that's right, the one on the left is a white stick used by the visually impaired, the one on the right is a Samurai sword used for killing people.
Now that wasn't too difficult was it?
Sadly some in the Lancashire police might have had some problems with it.
The Telegraph reports that Colin Farmer (a 61 year old visually impaired gentlemen) found himself tasered and handcuffed whilst on his way to meet friends for a drink in his local pub in Chorley.
For why?
Police had earlier been dispatched after reports of a man roaming around Chorley town centre in Lancs armed with a sword, and a patrolman spotted Mr Farmer walking down the street using his white stick to get around and mistook it for a samurai sword.
Mr Farmer said:
"The whole thing was like being trapped in a nightmare.
I didn't even know the police were there. I heard this man shouting. I thought they were shouting at some people.
I certainly didn't know they were police - and I certainly didn't know they were shouting at me.Chief Supt Stuart Williams, of Chorley Police said:
I thought I was going to be attacked by some hooligans. The next thing they fired a Taser at me, though I didn't know it was a taser at the time.
I just felt this thump in my back. As soon as the taser hit me I hit the ground.
I hit my head on the floor, then this policeman came around. I said 'I'm blind, I'm blind. I'm blind'.
This policeman knelt on me and dragged my arms round my back and handcuffed me so tight I've had bruises since.
I said 'you're hurting me, I'm blind' - and there's no way he could not have seen my stick on the floor.
I walk at a snail's pace. They could have walked past me, driven past me in the van, or said drop your weapon.
It's a sad excuse. They wouldn't even stop when I said I'm blind. I was absolutely terrified. I thought any second I'm going to have another stroke and this one will kill me."
"We have launched an urgent investigation to understand what lessons can be learned and the matter has also been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission."
Mistakes of course do happen, but this seems to be one hell of a snafu!
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What I find really worrying about this incident is that were allegedly several reports to the police of "someone carrying a Samurai sword", and based on that Mr Plod decided to taser the wrong person.
ReplyDeletePresumably at some stage the police call centre must have asked what the suspect looked like? After all, Mr Farmer looks quite distinctive in pictures that I've seen in the 'papers. And presumably the description was circulated to officers able to respond? If not, the quality of the "service" is worse than I thought.
It's beyond belief!
When the police first changed their traditional truncheons for the new ‘night sticks’ the public were told that the new weapon was purely for their protection, but their night sticks are exact replicas of ‘tonfas’, a martial arts weapon used to inflict maximum pain and damage.
ReplyDeleteI trained for the best part of 20 years in karate and knew how to use a tonfa for both attack and defence.
The police can carry these weapons and ‘defend’ themselves by shoving ‘dangerous’ newspaper sellers to the ground with them and accidently murdering them, whilst if I was to carry one, even if it was concealed, I would be a candidate for a tasering too.
It seems that every time the police are called on to use real guns that they end up shooting the wrong people, and I should imagine that firing a taser at innocent people is commonplace.
They should not be given any weapons at all until they prove themselves intelligent enough to use them correctly.
If you give any weapon to a testosterone fueled thug, whether in a uniform or not, they will use it.
ReplyDeleteI thought a tazer was a weapon of last resort or, to put it another way, only to be used when the officer or a member of the public are in real, immediate danger. It appears that the officer shot the old man in the back; hardly meaning anyone was in danger at that time.
I hear Nanny's standard response was used yet again: "Lessons will be learned."
Back in the 1960s, a friend of mine was turned down by the local police force because the senior officer that did a home visit interview, concluded rightly in my opinion, that the applicant wanted to join for the power and uniform. It is a shame that similar tests are no longer carried out because, all too often it appears the very things that excluded my pal from joining the police are now a requirement to get the uniform and the Bob the Builder's belt of tools.
I watched the end of a police reality show last night whilst I waited for the show I wanted to see come on. I was shocked by the attitude of the Welsh Police....They barked orders, pushed people to the ground and one idiot discharged his pepper spray in the hall of a small miner's cottage causing his colleagues to choke on the gas. Why it would take a dozen officers to charge into a small cottage to arrest one man I don't know: I worked in a local Forensic Psychiatric hospital as a nurse, and we never used more than four nurses to restrain a patient and we had some of the worst and most dangerous people in the country, in our care.
We are becoming a police state and I am worried at the over use of the public order act section five, by the police to basically drag people off the street, take their dna and finger prints, and then release them without charge.
Police now want two shot tasers so that they can get the guide dog as well as the blind man.
ReplyDelete