And you woulda just been shot too, if the police had their weapons drawn. If they ask you to do something while pointing a gun at you, you do it. "I got stopped and searched for carrying an umbrella!" is a much better story than "I got killed because police thought my umbrella was a weapon and I didn't listen when they told me to drop it and instead decided to point it at them to show them it's not a gun!"
So yeah, I'd just listen. Being inconvenienced for a few minutes while they check and make sure that it's not actually a weapon is better than getting dead because they were following their training.
At first wehn I read this, I immediately began getting ready to insult the police force. After thinking for a moment, the police just got the call. Whoever confused an umbrella as an assault rifle is the one who needs to be "darwinated".
I get about halfway through the OP thinking you were pulled over for having a katana, and then they get you for having an assault rifle? That blew my mind.
Most places don't allow people to walk around with a sword. If you were stupid enough to think that this would not happen then you deserve this. Seriously, why did you buy an umberella that looks as if it contains a sword if you didn't want people to think it was a sword?
Dumb much?
It's like carrying around a lunchbox shaped like an Uzi then complaining that someone called the cops because someone was walking around with a gun.
Seriously you and only you are at fault here. Man up.
Well most of the time it's in it's thing at my house for show, when I take it into public I generally have the handle in my sleeve and use it as a cane until it begins to rain
being that the walk home is about 2 miles and it was sunny out I didn't want to damage the tip or anything so I was carrying it, handle towards the ground, umbrella'ness rather obvious
plus last I checked I believe it would be legal if it WERE a sword because I wasn't brandishing it, and technically speaking I could just be taking it from one place to another without the help of a car
if they had asked/yelled to drop the blade I would have immediately dropped it held my hands up and tried to calmly explain the situation
but being yelled at to "DROP THE GUN!" it was hard to even tell they were talking to me
as for your Uzi comment about the lunchbox
no that's not what it would have been like
this is more along the lines of a fat guy in a sweatshirt being stopped because someone thought he was actually skinny and he had a bomb strapped to him
or someone stoping you for wearing a greenday shirt on the statement "He has a grenade!"
or to make it more realistic
you're carrying an airsoft gun and get stopped for carrying a sword!
EDIT: Dang, boffer wars must be a nightmare
hundreds of kids walking around with sword shaped PVC pipe coated in Duct Tape
There is/was a band called This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb. I copied the rest of this post from wikipedia.
"On March 2, 2006 at 5:30 am an Ohio University police officer spotted a bicycle attached to the Oasis restaurant bearing a promotional sticker for the band. The officer saw the words, "This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb" and became concerned. The area was cordoned off, and part of the campus was closed for several hours. The bicycle was subsequently destroyed by the Athens bomb squad despite assurances from the bike's owner that it was just a sticker. The owner, a graduate student, was initially charged with inducing panic, a misdemeanor. However, the charges were dropped a few days later. Later the student was awarded money for the damages to his bicycle.[1][2]
A similar incident occurred in 2001, when a police officer spotted and detained a woman at an Austin, Texas peace rally. Her bicycle was also labeled with the band's sticker. The woman was released after the band's existence was confirmed.[3]
On March 14, 2006 Bellarmine Hall at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA was evacuated because of another bicycle with the band's name painted on it. No charges were filed.[4]
On February 16, 2009, Terminal C at Memphis International Airport was evacuated because of a bicycle with the band's sticker on it. A pilot notified police when he saw the bike, with the band's sticker on it, parked outside of the terminal. Police evacuated the terminal and sent in K9 units; however, no explosive materials were found. Police arrested the owner of the bike but let the owner go a few hours later because he had not committed a crime.[5][6] After hearing about the incident, the band's lead singer urged fans to use caution when they applied the stickers."
In conclusion: cops are dumb.
I've been searched just because I had long hair. And I didn't even have a katana handle attached to my head.
No, the conclusion I drew from that is that people are dumb. It is the job of the police to protect the citizens from that, and anything that looks like a bomb threat should be taken as serious. What if one of those bikes really was a bomb, the police ignored it, and people were killed? That's a much worse story than "some kid's bike got destroyed because it had a sticker saying it was a bomb."
Those people should be smart enough not to put stickers that say "[object name here] is a bomb" on their stuff, band name or no.
lowkey_jotunn said:
Not sure if we've all heard of the 2nd Amendment, but it protects the rights to bear arms. I.E. It's legal to walk down the street with a rifle or pistol in your hand, as long as you're not pointing it at people, or shooting it, obviously.
I think we've all heard of the 2nd amendment, but it doesn't sound like you've heard of local and federal gun control laws. Or furthermore, what the second amendment actually allows (hint: it's not "you can walk around in public with a gun without a permit as much as you want as long as you don't point it at anyone.").
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Okay, if you ask me, the picture in the OP is also quite misleading. The TC has said that he has the Katana version and that he's used it as a cane a few times. That means he has the long one, not the short "tanto" version featured in the picture the OP gave us.
Notice it also has that strap on it, which some guns also have.
So yeah, now it seems more reasonable that it could be mistaken for even an assault rifle at a distance. At this point, I'm still sticking by the police not being stupid. I'm also inclined to say that maybe the people who called in the report aren't that stupid either. What seems stupid to me is walking around with an umbrella that is clearly designed to look as much like a real weapon as possible and then being surprised when someone mistakes it for one. Buy a damn normal umbrella for public use and keep that novelty umbrella indoors to say "hey check out this cool umbrella" to friends who visit you.
You are doing a fantastic job at missing the point. If there are criminals dumb enough to take pictures of themselves in the middle of robbing someone's house and then send those pictures to their victim via Facebook, then there are criminals out there dumb enough to put "I AM A BOMB" on a bomb. And again, it's always better for the police to respond to such threats as if they were serious to make sure no one is hurt rather than ignore it and risk people getting hurt. If you want to avoid such scenarios, use even the smallest bit of common sense and don't put "THIS IS A BOMB" on your shit.
What would you rather see on the news? "POLICE RESPOND TO BOMB THREAT, FIND NOTHING", or "POLICE IGNORE BOMB THREAT, HUNDREDS DEAD OR INJURED IN BLAST"? I'd take the former any day.
The following is a true (and about as stupid as the OP's) story.
Was driving to the base library one night not too long after I got to Ft. Hood. It was dusk...You know, not totally dark, but just dark enough that people start turning their lights on. I got pulled over. I had no idea why, wasn't speeding or anything.
Cop walks up, looks over my paperwork and such, then asks me if I knew why he stopped me. I said no. He says "What are you not wearing?"
I look myself up and down, and in a moment of sheer "WTF?" reply "Uh...socks?"
The cop gets an angry look on his face for a moment and then busts out laughing. I get even more confused.
"I'm sorry ma'am...Your seatbelt is the same color as your sweatshirt. I didn't think you were wearing it."
Cop hands me my papers back and lets me go about my merry little way.
That is fucking A good sir, wonderful news you have brought upon us. Sorry about that though...must have been an ass to waste your time on such a useless endeavorer.
I could believe someone that accidentally thought that was a katana (hey if I was walking around when I saw someone carrying an umbrella katana I'd feel pretty damn uneasy) but an assault rifle? Guess people should think before they call the cops.
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