Posted on 02/18/2013 4:09:03 AM PST by IbJensen
Anti-weapon hysteria — for instance, suspending children from school for using their fingers as guns, talking about shooting a bubble gun, or even throwing an imaginary grenade — is not confined to the United States, nor is it confined to children. A British man was recently visited by armed police for the offense of posting a picture of an action figure with a weapon on Facebook.
According to the Daily Mail, on December 7, 43-year-old Ian Driscoll of Gloucestershire posted a photograph of an Action Man figure, the British equivalent of G.I. Joe, along with a toy Alsatian dog, on Facebook.
“The Action Man looked a bit like me so I decided to put it as my Facebook picture,” Driscoll told the paper. He added the dog, he explained, because he also owns an Alsatian.
Unnoticed by Driscoll, in the background of the picture was one of Action Man’s weapons: a mortar. Real-life mortars, the Mail notes, “are portable, short-range weapons used to fire shells or bombs at a steep angle to drop them on to enemy lines.”
The mortar did not, however, escape the notice of those viewing his Facebook page, one of whom apparently reported him to the police for his possession of this “deadly” weapon. On January 28, five officers, two carrying submachine guns, arrived at Driscoll’s home in unmarked cars.
“I was stunned,” Driscoll told the Mail. “It was just mad.”
“They flashed the search warrant in my face and said it was lucky I was in so they didn’t have to break my door down.”
Driscoll said he showed the mortar to the cops, who quickly realized it was no threat. At that point, reports the Mail, “the rather embarrassed team of officers apologized and took their leave.”
“I couldn’t believe someone thought it was real,” Driscoll told the newspaper. “It’s tiny and quite clearly a toy.”
The sharp-eyed informer who spotted the dangerous weapon on Facebook did not, it seems, take note of the fact that the mortar was about the same size as Action Man and was clearly not large enough to be a threat given its size relative to a television remote and other objects in the same picture. Or perhaps Driscoll has a Facebook “friend” who is anything but.
As usual, the police are defending their actions, no matter how ridiculous.
“The information was given to us in good faith and we acted with good intentions,” Gloucestershire police spokesperson Alexa Collicott told the Mail. “We are sure that the community would rather we acted quickly on information given to us of this nature, in case it had turned out to be a weapon. The officers attending were hugely relieved that it wasn’t anything more sinister and we would much rather have a result like this than to put the public in harm’s way by not taking action.”
For his part, Driscoll simply sees the humor in the whole situation. “I can’t stop laughing,” he told the paper. “I think it’s hilarious.”
But if he hadn’t been home when the cops showed up, or if he had put up even the slightest resistance, he might not be laughing. Action Man is no match for Big Brother.
So, concentrate on all the toy gun pictures and ignore the threat that lurks down the alleyways and sewers waiting for an opportunity to kill more coppers.
The Bobbies are unarmed. I assure you, the rest are not.
When all the guns are confiscated from the law abiding the political gun runners will arm the muslims, gangbangers, ex cons, rapists murderers and alike to reek havoc on us all. It’s a chess game to them and another form of control
When they call for backup, the backup is heavily armed. In the news story at the top of the thread, five officers showed up and two were armed with submachine guns.
In their defense, the little mortar model is remarkably realistic. But as the news story said, other items in the Facebook photo, such as a remote control, should have been enough to prevent this little house call from occurring.
In memory of Jose Guerena Jr, murdered by the Pima County sheriff's Dept. in a “No-Knock” raid.
Bobbies enforcing search warrants, LOL. Your source for this is?
Note, that while the UK press covers riduculous stories originating in the USA, this is a U.S. source of a UK incident.
There was a time when the mere picture of a gun or a toy didn't upset anyone. We need to return to that time. Rational debate doesn't work because one side is totally irrational. "In your face" tactics are necessary to stop this censorship.
We Americans need to adopt similar tactics.
Parents of children who are suspended for such harmless acts as “finger shooting” should fight these suspensions with vigor. Conservative groups such as FIRE should back these parents in legal action against such PC tyranny.
Parents should organize a Friday Freedom of Speech Day or Bill of Rights Day, where their kids will wear items contrary to school PC policy, yet are perfectly acceptable in public. Pictures of weapons, references to God & Jesus, etc., come to mind.
The school cannot suspend hundreds of students, every Friday, for very long. Neither can it deal with these hundreds of suspensions, the irate parents, just as many legal proceedings, every Friday. That would put a serious dent in break time!
Folks, we must start taking back this country, as the Brits must begin to take back Britain. We have reached the point where civil disobedience is necessary. An “in your face” attitude is necessary. The tea needs to be thrown into the harbor, again & again & again (no offense, Brits). These tactics have been very successful in the past. They can be successful, again.
Just like global warming, etc....conditioning the sheeple to except the *truth*.
Useful sheeple as far as the gun grabbers are concerned.
Turn in your ARMED neighbors before they turn on YOU!
‘There are parts of London where they WON’T go because of the armed Muslim presence in certain neighborhoods.’
Crap. Internet/rightwing American myth.
He does look like an Action Man.
He needs to leave that nation of eunuchs and move to Texas or Montana.
Unarmed jackboot thugs would break his door down over that pic? What a bunch of pansies.
So, did they even bother to look at the FaceBook picture, which would have clearly shown the "motar" to be a toy? I mean look at it! What would be a heavy metal base is tilted up because it's made of plastic and tiny. No way should someone with "good intentions" see that as real.
So basically you're saying you got a warrant on something someone (in the community) told you, but you did ZERO investigating.
Gloustershire police, Shame on you!
That the picture you posted, actually frightened someone, is pathetic.
When I was a kid, we played a game called, "bombs over Tokyo", I've long since forgotten the specifics of the game but it would be very un-P.C. today.
Yes, I'm that old.
That's not what I said. I said that when the Bobbies call for backup, the backup is always heavily armed; and I pointed out the two gentlemen with submachine guns. How much do you know about police procedures in the US, UK and Canada? Most of the major metro areas have a backup team (sometimes described as an Emergency Response Team) that is heavily armed, and routinely deployed when executing search warrants on locations where suspects are believed to have automatic weapons or explosives.
Of course it turned out to be ridiculous in this case, since the alleged "mortar" was a miniature, and a plastic toy.
That's all we need to know.
We used to have a playground game called “Smear the Queer” - basically the person w/ the ball was ‘It’ and everyone else chased them down & tackled him...violently if at all possible...
Probably skip the suspension and just get plain old shot nowadays.
I remember that wonderful game. And we all lived through it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.