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Stormtrooper Arrested
Kexel writes: Nope, not an April Fools joke. A forty-year-old man in Massachusetts bought a Stormtrooper outfit, and then walked through a neighborhood near a school to show his friends. The principal saw his fake blaster and called 911. The man was then arrested and charged with disturbing a school and loitering. A police spokesman said the man "used bad judgment." I guess this shows you what not to do when geeking out on Star Wars.
Stormtroopers don't come out the way they went in.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Maybe schools should require some kind of basic course to familiarize kids with real guns, so they don't grow up into these principals who can't tell the difference.
The force is not strong with this one.
The funny thing about this is that if the guy had been carrying a real gun he probably would have fallen within the ambit of the second amendment. The NRA would have been outside the school picketing; Fox News would have done a feature and the Republican 2016 candidates would have been falling over themselves to defend this guy's 'rights'. Instead, because he was carrying a toy gun, he comes across as a geeky moron.
This is why TK-421 isn't at his damn post.
O_o
And the police used what? Not to mention the principal! About the only sane person in the middle of all this seems to be the poor guy that got arrested!
Idiot Principal Wets Himself, Calls Cops on Guy in Stormtrooper Outfit with a Fake Gun
Hoplophobia is just a natural extension of zero tolerance (a.k.a. zero common sense) that has infested the school system.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Those charges make no sense. Perhaps there is missing information here, but how exactly is walking by a school loitering, and it sounds like the principle did more to disturb the school than the storm trooper. After all, we all know that walking by a school with a plastic laser rifle is totally equivalent to shooting up a school.
I guess this is what we get in a society where everything must be punished.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Well, if he had been an actual Nazi stormtrooper, that's kind of frightening. Except that he would have to be pretty old by now.
A guy in a costume from a 1977 movie, though....
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
The stormtrooper was easily and clearly observed brandishing a blaster (obviously a danger to people.) This of course is totally different than the numerous calls from parents and students about the recent appearance of the moon during all hours of the afternoon. The moon visible near the school is clearly a celestial body, and poses no harm to the students. This morning we've even observed its brilliant glimmer from th$T22$@@%%^[CARRIER LOST]
Good people go to bed earlier.
I can see why the police would come and check it out... if they don't and something bad happens because of mr. TK-421, anything at all, it's their ass for not taking that call seriously. And I suppose that in some messed up version of reality there was also cause to take the guy in for some questioning... But why the hell charge the guy? Loitering and "disturbing a school"? Sounds like charges that they can bring anyone in on. And that's probably the point.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
It's easy to criticize the police over this, but what if this had turned out to be an authentic Stormtrooper? That blaster would have packed serious firepower that would outclass our current military capabilities. Even if the Stormtrooper had no bad intentions, I'm sure that Federal authorities would want to dissect that weapon to find out how it works and keep it out of the hands of the terrorists and/or unfriendly countries.
Possibly the stupidest thing I've heard this year .. and considering the year so far ... that's saying a lot.
Did he have "Free Candy" written on the side of his TIE Fighter?
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
And more fear.
But yeah walking around with a toy gun by a school is bad judgement these days.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Batman getting pulled over in Lamborghini.
http://jalopnik.com/5895956/im-batman-getting-pulled-over-in-a-lamborghini/
The stormtrooper could have posed a threat to the younglings and Padawans at the school.
[Insert pithy quote here]
This person's Nth amendments rights were infringed. Isn't every american's right to wear silly costumes in public guaranteed somewhere in the constitution. I mean, I have never read it, and probably wouldn't understand it if I did, but it has to be somewhere in there.
Those charges make no sense.
Yet the individual arrested now has a record, misses work, possibly loses their job, and if prosecuted by the DA, has the expense of defending himself against the charges. All without recourse.
Imagine you are on school grounds and you can see this guy on the street, distance of maybe 200 feet. Would you be able to be sure the black gun shaped thing was a toy from that distance? One might reasonably infer that it was a toy from the blatantly obvious stormtrooper outfit, but if you make that assumption, a malicious person could wear a stormtrooper outfit to catch people off guard. If it were such a person and did open fire because the principal did nothing, the principal would be crucified by the media.
Basically, this was the option open to the principal, knock it over to the police.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I wonder if it would have helped if he'd had a friend. The 501st has a rule "never troop alone", which they came up with after observing that under identical circumstances many people will think one stormtrooper is a little scary but two (or more) stormtroopers are awesome.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
There is ZERO difference between the actions of this 'principal', and ISIS enforcers operating in lands targeted by Saudi Arabia, the USA and Israel. It is always about sheeple COMPLIANCE, and making it clear to the sheeple that reasonable and harmless 'deviation' from expected 'norms' will NOT be tolerated.
That gay kid denied the right to give his speech at his graduation- same thing. And before the usually neo-liberal trolls on this site suggest this is a 'right-wing' phenomenon, such suppression is actually far better organised by the neo-liberals/SJWs.
A a kid, I once saw a older man curiously dressed in Victorian formal garb. My fellow schoolmates fell over themselves to express OUTRAGE at his appearance. These young sheeple had been successfully conditioned to look out for 'black' sheep, and demand they be 'torn to pieces'. You may see mob outrages on video from Africa or South America and think "that could never happen here"- but it does, all the time. Maybe the level of overt violence is 'less', but that really isn't the point.
Even if it WAS a real gun, it's not like a Stormtropper can actually hit anything!
Also, I went to that elementary school until mid-year 2nd grade
Walking from point A to point B - is not loitering.
Carrying an obviously fake laser pistol isn't a crime.
False arrest, sue the City and School district both for everything in their budgets.
If the guy had been dressed as a redshirt with a phaser, nothing would have happened.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
But probably not the guy obviously dressed as a storm trooper with a fake blaster. What was he doing to do in that costume? Shoot someone and run away. Because it's so easy to be inconspicuous running in a storm trooper outfit....
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
On the other hand, what if he had been wearing a turban, instead of a stormtrooper costume?
The entire school would have been closed down for a week, Congress would be scrambling for new laws to "protect our children from turra!!!" and Fox News would still, even now, be on site with 24/7 coverage.
Schools, both public and private, want make everyone to Toe the Line. They coerce parents and students to this goal. The administrative staff at every school lives and breathes this life style, and are quick to apply the same methods to anyone within their territory. Every day of school was a battle of wills for me, the staff trying to break me to comply, me trying to survive with my dignity intact.
I recommend that all of you tell your children that when they go out in the real world to get a job, recognize that their experience in school should be considered the low bar and hold their employers and peers to a higher standard. Don't take shit from anyone for longer than you have to.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I don't know about the rest of the country, but Mass has really become a police state. They have amassed complete power, and are able to basically arrest anyone at any time if they feel like doing so. The laws are made such that almost everyone is breaking the law on any given day. This gives the police the power to circumvent the law, human rights, innocent until proven guilty, etc - they can racially profile, or whatever they want. For example, Mass is the only state (FL has a similar law, but is only about a tenth the duration) where someone can go to the police station and say "I think my husband has a drinking problem". an hour later, they will walk right into your house and take you out in cuffs, bring you to the courthouse where upwards of 95% of the time they determine that you need help - with no proof whatsoever - and ship you off to Bridgewater prison for up to 90 days. Bridgewater is a cesspool of germs and filth, which makes even hardened criminals cringe - where you're treated worse than a rabid mutt in a kennel - completely devoid of human rights or care of any kind. I couldn't even describe it in a way that would convey the actual horror of the whole thing.
It's big business for the state - this is how we create jobs in MA. It's a vicious machine that chews often innocent people and shits them out with a shade of PTSD. Worse, people are catching on, and using this "section 35" to get rid of their husband as a precursor to stripping them of their money, family, children, career and anything else that you might have worked your whole life to create. Why choose between your cake and eating it too when you can have both - sponsored and encouraged by the state.
"the way things are in today's society" is braindead.
to familiarize kids with real guns
Why? Why the fuck should kids be familiar with real guns? I think you grew up in the wrong neighborhood.
I hope some day the only familiarity kids will have with guns will be in visits to a museum, where they will also see steam engines and whalebone corsets.
When you can't even walk outside looking like a stormtrooper.
It's messed up that they arrested some poor working Joe who was just trying to do his job. He was just looking for droids.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
The Vandals had the lyric "If you think you're free, try walking into a deli and pissing on the cheese" in Anarchy Burger. It was featured in xXx.
I think it could safely be changed to "If you think you're free, try doing cosplay (strike)in a school-zone(/strike)," now. (If only the -strike- tag actually worked here)
I'm just waiting for the media headline: "How Would the Police React if the Stormtrooper Was Black?"
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Fuck the first amendment says principal Skinner.
Large groups of people dressed and carrying the same as this guy should start walking by schools all over the nation.
This being anything more than a phone call and the cops talking to the guy for a minute to make sure he's not a threat is the absolute most that should have happened.
"Excuse me, sir. We heard reports of someone carrying a gun near the school over there. Oh, it's a fake blaster to go along with your very well known costume? We'll let the school know. Have a great day. Also, great costume."
Is this really surprisisng?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
And is intended to get the "obummer took our guns" crows all riled up. CAW CAW CAW
It's a good thing he wasn't a 12 year old black kid or the cops would have shot him...
Lucas can solve this by simply turning the blasters into walkie talkies in the next special edition.
let me guess, you don't like anything that lead to you not being able to carry your real penis replacement into a school.
"The principal used poor judgement so we've warned the principal."
It would be nice if this were the quote, but it would be less of a story.
A police spokesman tells the Salem News the way things are in today's society, "you can't have that" and said Cross "used bad judgment."
I don't normally say this, but in this case I will:
Fuck the police.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
The stormtrooper would take the and miss. However the haywire shot would take out an important girder, which would then cause the ceiling to collapse killing both trooper and redshirts.
The man was then arrested and charged with disturbing a school and loitering. A civilian spokesman said the police "used bad judgment."
I checked in with Slashdot just after leaving an exhibit at the Missouri History Museum about Nazi propaganda. Not the stormtrooper I expected ...
"I guess this shows you what not to do when geeking out on Star Wars."
No, this shows you what hysterical ninnies the principal and the police were.
The real reason he was arrested? A friend of his left a few Android devices for him to pick up. He found someone else's Android devices and took them instead
Those weren't the droids he was looking for.
*ducks the rotten tomatoes thrown at me*
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
If he had noticably dark skin then he might have been shot dead instead of simply being arrested.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
It would have been alrighty had he driven a car, but since he walked on a public street in Americah it's all-out arresto-fest.
the principal and arresting officer should go to prison for a few years and the stormtrooper should get a million in damages.
It seems like bad judgment to go around arresting people who are in a costume. Perhaps we should arrest the police chief. And if I see anyone in a police uniform with a weapon, I can assume they are a burglar in disguise and kill them before they try to hurt me, right? I mean, it can only be considered bad judgment to be in a uniform that criminals would wear when doing crime.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
sue the school and the principal
the school for hiring the principal
the principal for endangering the life of the storm trooper with an unnecessary police interaction
They fear the impression of a gun more than an actual gun.
I could put a gun in a pineapple... and this guy wouldn't even know.
If I were a bad guy... a mass shooter... why would I make it easy for any moron to look at me and tell what I'm doing? I could put the gun in anything. A box of f'ing cheerios.
Every person that wants to make society safe by taking away the guns needs to watch this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Ta Da!
I can blow your house up with a water heater. You can make a bomb that can take down a big office building out of fertilizer.
You're policing the wrong thing. Instead of policing weapons, police INTENT... police CRAZY... police INCOMPETENCE.
You could give me a thermonuclear weapon. Put the button to detonate that thing right in my hot little hand.
Know what would happen? Nothing. I've no intent to mass murder people. I am no crazy. And I'm not so stupid that I'm going to accidentally press the button.
In Switzerland they give their own people machine guns and a bag of bullets. Everyone in Switzerland has a machine gun and a bag of bullets. How many mass shootings are there are Switzerland despite the fact that everyone has a machine gun and a bag of bullets?
Do you see? I'm sure some of you don't... But that's on you... because this is really fucking simple.
Who is the one that shoots a school up? Just some guy with a gun? Any guy with a gun? No. It is a crazy person with a gun. Or a radical terrorist of some stripe.
Well what is the lowest common demoninator?
Think about it. No motherfucker... don't react like a fucking animal. Use your brain. Actually work it out.
The lowest common demoninator in violent uses of weapons:
Criminals
Crazy people
Terrorists
The vast majority of gun owners are none of these and don't do anything against anyone with them.
Here you might say "but we're not mind readers, how do we police for things that are ideas or mental states?"
Easily.
1. The police know where the criminals are and they know where the gangs operate. They are very predictable and tend to have established territories. Finding a gang member with an illegal weapon is about as easy as finding a cop with an official firearm. It is really really easy. So if you want to disarm the gangs... make any effort to do it. Current policy in the US is to let the gangs do whatever they want so long as they only kill each other. Literally that. We have these big death tolls in the cities because when push comes to shove... no one cares if the gang members kill each other.
2. Crazy people out themselves almost always especially early on when they ask for help. A lot of the people that later went on to do shootings were involved in some kind of mental health program that didn't work out very well. Sending these people to asylums is the way to go. Seriously... big building... nice gardens... lots of jello... lots of great drugs... lots of jigsaw puzzles and water colors.
3. The domestic terrorists all have a "message" they want to "show the world" or show the country they're in or show some ethnic group or something. And that tends to start with a lot of violent preaching LONG before any violence happens. Go to the Mosques that terrorists frequented and you'll find a lot of violence and intolerance preached in the Mosque. The moderate Muslims LEAVE these mosques and join more moderate ones. And that just leaves a cluster of increasingly radicalized people in the existing mosque. And for the other sorts of terrorists you get the same thing. They write manifestos and send them to the news and write crazy violent statements online... and a fair number of these people are ALSO crazy... and so you have TWO opportunities to catch them.
Now will taking our guns away reduce violence? Depends. If the gangs want to kill each other and the police still don't care... then what does that change?
As to crazy people... they
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Hard at work.. At least they didn't bust the Meth lab across the street from the school.. Else where would the principal have to hook up
Fuck the police.
Seriously. Even Sting's solo work isn't all that great.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Must have been one of the new black stormtroopers.
"A police spokesman tells the Salem News the way things are in today's society, "you can't have that" and said Cross "used bad judgment."
The police telling us what we can and can't have as far as otherwise legal behavior, bad judgment or no.
So, the stormtrooper was whom? From TFA doesn't seem to be the person in the plastic suit.
If exercising bad judgment were a crime, all of Congress would be in jail!
You added the "and serve no other purpose" onto the original statement:
Everything you listed DOES serve another purpose.
BUT none of them affect the operation of the weapon. I spent 7 years in the Army and I can shoot a weapon with a carrying handle as effectively as one without a carrying handle.
A plastic toy does not meet any of the criteria required for it to be illegal! A Plastic toy is not a firearm, and can NOT be discharged.
Provisions
18 U.S.C. 922(q)(2)(A) states:
It shall be unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm that has moved in or that otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.
18 U.S.C. 922(q)(3)(A) states:
Except as provided in subparagraph (B), it shall be unlawful for any person, knowingly or with reckless disregard for the safety of another, to discharge or attempt to discharge a firearm that has moved in or that otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce at a place that the person knows is a school zone.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
In a school system whose policies literally cannot differentiate between an actual loaded and cocked gun and a half-eaten pop-tart, do we really expect these people to be smart enough to tell when a BLASTER is fake? I mean, ASIDE from the fact that ALL blasters are fake? Come ON, really!
http://gawker.com/5988299/scho...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex...
To even BEGIN doing this we would first have to teach the "authorities" the difference between "fact" and "fiction" which we already KNOW is beyond their poor mental capabilities!
"The principal saw his fake blaster and called 911."
When I was growing up, people thought the school principal and teachers were the smartest people around. They don't anymore.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
I guess this shows you what not to do when geeking out on Star Wars.
No, it shows how hyper-paranoid we've become, to the point where we're too afraid to even ask people questions, just jump to conclusions. >_
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
This has happened several times already. A 9 year old sporting a very realistic looking CO2 pellet gun was killed a couple of years ago, and a bank robber dressed a sawed off shotgun up as a super soaker. The key is don't wave anything around that can be misinterpreted as weapon, people have no common sense and the cops will arrest anyone for anything and then let the DA decide whether to press charges.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
You know stormtroopers can't hit shit with their blasters anyway. The blast goggles interfere with their depth perception.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The front of that school is on a very busy "main" street.
I don't know what this guy might also have been doing / or what he might have said to the cops / or refused to "move along" (no star wars pun intended), but its a busy public street. If the principal's gonna call the police on the thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of cars that pass by every morning, they are going to be really really busy.
I dunno. I can't see how wearing a costum gets you arrested, I have to assume he gave the police a hard time.
Who is more to be pitied -- someone who feels a need to carry a 'manhood enhancement', or someone who feels they're justified in taking away everyone else's 'manhood enhancement'?
Judge and Jury nullification is a sure bet on this one.
...that the principal was actually a Star Trek fan.
Can't we all just get along?
Personally, I am surprised that Mass, and the City of Boston specifically, haven't leveled a ban on the sale of pressure cookers and devices which resemble a pressure cooker. So, rice cookers, hot air popcorn makers, slow cookers... You know.
Thought I'd just "run it past you" and see if it made an impact.
Those blasters are all clumsy and random. I prefer an elegant weapon from a more civilized age.
NO! It was a reactor leak. VERY dangerous!
Sorry, that wasn't TK-421. All those stormtroopers look alike, ya know...
that they can't comprehend words like well regulated?
He WAS NOT resisting arrest. He was trying to Move Along!
Wait till he has to fie his report with Vader.
I'm no lawyer but it's probably not a crime to carry plastic space weapons in the USA.
How about teaching "educators" such as that simple principal to recognize basic Constitutional rights, eg. freedom to bear arms? Or did they repeal that in Massachewiesetts? And if you can't carry guns'n'shit WHY would anybody want to live there?
$
As is so common today, it is the police who displayed bad judgement. What do you expect in a proto-police state where there are so many laws that everyone is a law breaker if some little man in a uniform is in a bad mood. Jefferson said, "liberty is when the government is afraid of the people. Tyranny is when the people are afraid of the government.". But I guess we get what our national character deserves. A nation that does not desire liberty does not deserve it.
Rifles do not make you ineffective at hand to hand combat. In fact, the US Army and Marines teach you how to make a rifle lethal in hand to hand combat.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
One less weirdo nerdo.
Areas around schools (not on the school property itself) are being turning into constitutional free zones. They have taken the "think of the children" argument to the extreme. In Massachusetts, you can't walk to a friend's house in a Storm Trooper costume because you are carrying something that looks like a gun near school grounds. In Alabama, they are creating a law to ban abortion clinics within 2000 feet of school property so that they can take advantage of all the school property located around towns to close the last remaining clinics.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
It's not just moral decay anymore. Now we're into complete reasoning. Duh, he's a threat. Just look at what they did in the movies.
Beam me up Scotty, no intelligent life left down here. It's fine to demolish this planet for our hyper space freeway.
Showed bad judgement. Fuck off and die.
Stormtroopers was a type of slang for a type of militant mentality before the Star Wars movies came out. I think in today's world they are "ninjas"
As long as he didn't say "Chewie, we're home" then he wasn't being a pervert.
... arrest the 5-year-old with glasses in a superman costume. Everybody knows that Superman's glasses are a lethal weapon.
The shoot first, ask questions later attitude in the US is making me afraid. And the willingness of the police to come up with "charges" when they find nothing out of the ordinary.
The idea of a free country is that you can go about your business without getting arrested and thrown in jail for nothing. That "business" should include say hobbies that not everybody shares. Some people like to dress up. Some girls "fancy", some guys "as girls" and some nerds "as TV characters".
If on the report of a "gun sighted" the police rush out: Great. If they then arrest him, take him to the police station and then tell him: You had us scared for a moment, please don't do this again, that's "so so". But if they then CHARGE him with things just to make their trip seem useful then that's bad.
If they tell the man who reported this: Hey, that was just a guy in a costume from a TV show, please look better before you call us over. Then that's good. If they tell him: "great! we arrested the guy", then that's bad.
A storm trooper is unlikely to be a US citizen, and should be treated as a hostile combatant/invader at the very least.
The empire must be stopped at all costs....
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?