Couple Busted For Shining Laser At Helicopter

coondoggie sends us to another Network World piece, this one about a couple charged with shining a green laser into the cockpit of a police helicopter. The FBI and the US attorney's office charged the California couple under a federal statute. They could end up paying a $250,000 fine and doing 20 years of jail time. "The complaint states that on November 8, 2007, at about 10:55 p.m., a green laser beam illuminated the cockpit of a Kern County Sheriff's Department helicopter, which was flying at 500 feet during routine patrol in Bakersfield, California. When the light hit the cockpit, it disoriented the Kern County Sheriff's pilot, causing pain and discomfort in his eyes for a couple of hours, the FBI said in a statement."

Comments

Obligatory

[Billosaur]

"Don't lase me, bro!"

Re:Obligatory

[Liselle]

ThinkGeek Green Laser page: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/

Text at the bottom of the page:

Warning: Green lasers are very powerful. Pointing at aircraft may land you in jail. Without a Monopoly card to get you back out. Use it wisely.

Hilarious.

Re:Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

I have read that the administration and the federal justice system strongly encourages judges to apply the maximum whenever possible.

Under the Bush administration, anything is possible.

When a few wires were cut in a couple of B-boxes some years ago, during a telecom workers strike, the goddamned cops started yelling that, if they caught "the perp", they'd go for "the four-year terrorism enhancement" on his sentence. Cocksucking overchargers.

You can damned well bet that the guy who announced this lunatic decision to the press felt like such a stallion that he afterward went home, bent his old lady over a sawhorse and dicked her ass for a half hour.

Re:Need a bit more background here

[Albert Sandberg]

Was the laser attached to a missile launcher?

or a shark?

Good!

[Hatta]

I hate the police as much as anyone, but that's not cool. Unless the helicopter is spotting pot farms, in which case an anti-aircraft missile should be used instead.

Say hi to...

[moseman]

bubba for us all.

Re:Need a bit more background here

[Smidge204]

...or a shark launcher?

=Smidge=

Re:Need a bit more background here

[__aaclcg7560]

Only Duke Nukem knows for sure!

Not a surprise and not new

[beldon]

I was a laser and electro-optics major in 1982 and back then it was explained to us that pointing a laser at any aircraft was a felony. Of course, the lasers we had back then were considerably less portable (and we had to carry them uphill, both ways, to classes), but my point it that this law has been on the books for a long time.

Re:Redneck last words

[BrianRoach]

You obviously don't have even a pinch of redneck in you, or don't have any redneck friends.

The correct phrase is:
"Hey, Hold my beer and watch this." :D

- Roach

Re:And the charge was...

[sm62704]

There should be a price for stupid, rude, reckless behavior.

There is. Welcome to the internet!

A couple?

[qmaqdk]

A new Bonnie and Clyde? Now with lasers?

Re:Dumb. Asses.

[Applekid]

Chief: Do not be alarmed. Continue swimming naked.

Re:Filtering

[UbuntuDupe]

LOL!!!

Nah, I think credit card companies and phishers are responsible for that natural selection goal.

Is this Slashdot?

[crazybilly]

am I reading slashdot? or Rush Limbaugh's Discussion Board for the Advancement of Police States? If they were maliciously trying to tag the pilot w/ the laser, then sure, punish them. But if they're playing with a laser and it happened to flash across the pilot's face...I dunno--it seems extreme to me to freak out and invoke the FBI. Accidents happen--this wasn't nearly a big enough deal to be worth the fuss, let alone condemning the ruthless RadioShack Laser User Terrorists.

Action Shot?

[TheLostSamurai]

Who else is hoping someone got a picture of these two being arrested so that they can add it to the ThinkGeek product page as an action shot?

Re:Filtering

[Daniel_Staal]

Sure.

Of course, you can get lasers in at least three colors, probably more. And it's significantly hard to filter out just one wavelength, without filtering neghboring wavelengths as well. Which would mean in this case they would want to filter out green. The color of treetops, and grass, and overall a significant portion of the Earth's surface.

And of course, following that logic, you'd want to filter out the other main colors that lasers come in. Red are extremely common, and blue are just starting to get on the market. So we'll filter both of those out.

You know what would be a good filter at this point? Polished steel. It'd reflect that laser right away, and convently blocks all the colors mentioned.

Re:Need a bit more background here

[Codifex Maximus]

> Only Duke Nukem knows for sure!

And it will take him forever to tell us.

Re:Need a bit more background here

[killeena]

However, eventually we would get a nice video of a CGI shark.

Re:What kind of laser?

[Grishnakh]

My greenie cuts thin plastic, pops balloons, and ruins digital cameras. Fun stuff.

This sounds like a great toy for all these inflatable holiday balloons I see on people's yards now.

Re:I had a laser shined at me while driving

[Mish]

but had I been driving fast or in the middle of traffic, I probably could have easily killed my wife and my two kids.

Phft, I could easily kill my wife and kids at any time, you're not unique or special!