HolyCoast: Light Saber Proves Effective Against Tasers
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Friday, December 16, 2011

Light Saber Proves Effective Against Tasers

Use the force, dude:
Police arrested a man who allegedly assaulted three people with a blue light saber at a Hayden Island Toys R Us Wednesday night.

A 9-1-1 caller reported the incident about 9:50 p.m. and said the man was inside the store, 1800 Jantzen Beach Center, swinging the "Star Wars" weapon of choice at customers, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau. While the caller was on the phone, the man then left the store — light saber in hand — and walked out to the parking lot.

Officers tried to arrest the man, but he kept swinging the light saber at them, Simpson said. One tried to use his Taser on the suspect but the device didn't work.

Another officer used his Taser and made contact, but the man knocked one of the wires away with the light saber.

The officers finally arrested the man after grabbing him and pinning him to the ground. The suspect, identified only as a 33-year-old Hillsboro man, was treated by medics at the scene and taken to an area hospital for a mental evaluation. He faces "several criminal charges" after he is evaluated, Simpson said.

None of the victims of the light saber assault needed medical attention, Simpson said.
I wonder if he was making those cool light saber sounds as he was swinging it around?

1 comment:

Larry said...

The police need to review their force continuum policies, as the Taser was almost always sold to the general public as a step between physical and deadly force. It now appears that officers view it as a step between verbal commands and physical force -like using your TV remote control. If the officers in the light saber incident knew they could resolve the situation with physical force, why did they jump to using the Taser -twice?

The bottom line though is that if a toy lighted plastic wand is THAT intimidating to someone, they have no business applying to be a police officer.