Carrying A Gun-Shaped iPhone 'Makes It Much Less Likely You'll Catch Your Plane' (cnet.com)

HughPickens.com writes: A passenger at London Stansted Airport seemed to think it was a good idea to have a gun-shaped iPhone case in his back pocket as he prepared to board a plane... [T]he police speculated on Twitter that they could proceed with charges against him for either a public order offense or for possession of an imitation firearm in a public place tweeting with the hashtag #dontbedaft that "Bringing this to an airport makes it much less likely you'll catch your plane."

[In 2015] the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey offered this warning on Facebook to potential users: "Please folks -- this cell phone case is not a cool product or a good idea. A police officer's job is hard enough, without having to make a split second decision in the dark of night when someone decides without thinking to pull this out while stopped for a motor vehicle violation..." One Twitter user responded, "On what planet is this a smart thing to do?" But the New Jersey prosecutor has asked their followers on social media to share their own opinions.

Comments

He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot

[ihtoit]

That is all.

Re:He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot

[haruchai]

I'm sure there are flaming assholes in every country, profession, demographic but UK cops, compared to America's Finest, have shown phenomal restraint under some dangerous situations.

For example, when 2 Nigerian terrorist knocked down offduty soldier Lee Rigby with a car then beheaded him with a cleaver, the unarmed cops didn't shit themselves but set up a cordon and guided passerbys away until the armed unit showed up and took both assailants alive, only shooting to wound, despite being rushed by both assailants with weapons in hand, performing 1st aid on one and getting them medical aid.

By contrast , Officer Brelo of the Cleveland PD fired 49 shots ( his fellow cops fired a total of 90 more ) into the car, windshield and bodies of 2 African-Americans. His final 15 bullets were discharged WHILE HE WAS STANDING ON THE HOOD - but he claimed to be afraid for his life???

Re:He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot

[wonkey_monkey]

Not that it wasn't a tragedy, but you had to go more than a decade back to find that example.

Re:He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot

[PopeRatzo]

They wouldn't even have BEEN at the scene in Baton Rouge if the guy in question hadn't been waving a gun around and threatening.

They took the guy's gun out of his pocket after they shot and killed him.

I don't know if you've seen the videos, but the tazers had done their job. The guy had one arm laying useless and the other in a "Please don't shoot me!" gesture. He was nowhere near pulling a gun.

As I said (and as you can learn from my citation), the police are taught to shoot and kill before they see a threat.

Re:He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot

[geoskd]

The difference is, the above comment which was being responded to, "Police don't expect to get shot by members of the public during every shift they work", is idiotic, unless the poster thinks the cops can single out *specific shifts* where they might get shot at, in which case they could simply call in sick for those shifts and cops would never get shot at all. TLDR, police work is deadly and cops risk death by gunshot at all times even if they're not on the SWAT team. One of the 5 sniper victims on Friday was a transit cop.

Cops in this country are increasingly at risk of being shot specifically *because* of the shoot first ask questions later mentality. When one side of a conflict is perceived as being trigger happy, the other side has to up their game in self defense. The only solution is to DE-escalate, and the criminals are not the ones who are supposed to be the professionals. If you want to reduce the number of police involved shootings, disarm the police completely, and make killing and unarmed officer an automatic capitol offense, with mandatory death penalty. Then the police will actually be safer since shooting a cop will effectively mean a death sentence for the shooter. How often do British police get shot? How often do they shoot anyone, innocent or otherwise? British cops are a hell of a lot safer than US cops specifically *because* they are not armed. There have been more than a dozen cops shot in the line of duty in the US just this year so far. Thats is about the same number of PCs in Britain that have ever been shot in the last century. The number of people who have been shot by British cops is zero because they don't have anything to shoot people with. Compare that to the US where cops have killed an average of 500 people per year. Its high time we disarmed the front line police in this country: For their protection and ours.

Re:He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot

[publiclurker]

no, he is using the word in the normal sense that people who are not interested in justifying murder use.

Re:He is lucky he did not get shot on the spot

[Zontar The Mindless]

So, you're saying that The Police all kill people before they see any threats...

No, just the black ones.

What the FUCK?

[Opportunist]

Don't get me wrong. I'm the first to defend anyone from overreaching, overzealous and trigger-happy "must-fight-terrrrrrism" idiots shivering in their boots because they assume that everyone and their dog wants to blow them to kingdom come. But how STUPID do you have to be to bring something shaped like a GUN to an airport?

Re:why the fuck..

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone please stop the Americans above me from arguing about their two retards again... please.

Re:Whoah

[djinn6]

Even boarding a plane at all seems pretty stupid nowadays... they've got all these moron types in charge of security theater.