Man carrying home his gardening tools arrested by armed police in Manchester
Man carrying home his gardening tools arrested by armed police in Manchester
The Guardian's photographer had an absolute whale of a time with this article.
Look at those dreamy vegetable garden scenes.
Why couldn't the cop just:
"Hey, love your music man!"
"Huh? My music?"
"Dude, you totally resemble Robert Smith from The Cure!"
"Ooh hahaha, thanks."
"So, what I actually approached you for, we've had a call that reported a shady looking person carrying a knife in this area. You seem fine, but just double checking because, well, we see weird shit sometimes and don't want to be negligent."
"Aha okay, fair enough. Well these look like knives perhaps but they are actually professional gardening tools. I can show you my masterpiece actually."
[…] after a 20 minute tour in his garden.
"So cool man, should get my ass into nature more too. Sorry for the trouble and thanks for your time and understanding. Have a good one."
"Cheers, see you around."
A lot of police officers would be like this, and it wouldn't make the news. Although the ARV would probably be called before the police could get there.
Because that's the alternative universe where people are competent and think things through for more than 2 seconds before they do things.
Reminds me of the cops that arrested a legally blind man for having his guide stick (I don’t know the proper terminology) folded up in his back pocket. He was able to see in daylight, but needed it at night. They called it a weapon. This was in the USA.
ACAB.
TCIAB
That Cop is a bastard
ACAB. all cops aid and abet a system that encourages abuse of power and is wielded by those in power as a tool of oppression. quit it with the bullshit.
A timely reminder to never accept a caution (unless you are damn sure you would also plead guilty in court - because that's essentially what you're doing).
Apparently police can send you voluntary interview invites. You refusing/ignoring them cannot be used against you. But a no comment interview can.
UK weapon laws freak my American mind out. You can carry a folding, non-locking knife with a blade of less than 3 inches, without any justification or excuse?! Is violent knife crime a thing over there?
This stupid thing blows my mind. All I see are a bunch of harmless pocket knives.
I know, bag on the American who can carry a gun. LOL, I could carry a sword in public were I so inclined, and I often carry a machete in the woods. Believe it or not, straight to jail.
To practical matters, how do y'all transport kitchen knives, axes and other tools? Serious. And think on this, if you intend harm or self-defense, why not just carry a standard 2lb. hammer?
Also, two of my worst self-inflicted wounds were from non-locking knives, won't touch them any longer.
Is violent knife crime a thing over there?
yes we've had spikes of knife attacks over recent years, a lot of it is gang related, with kids stabbing rival gang members in tit-for-tat spirals of violence.
Knife crime in general is nowhere near as bad as it is in America (and of course as you point out you guys have gun violence on top of that), but the UK is historically a peaceful country and our tolerance of friends and family being murdered in the street is a lot lower than yours.
historically peaceful
sideeyes all the colonialism
One note, and not one to say we don't have a gun problem. But when you tear it down, half the gun deaths are suicides, much of the rest is gang related, remainder being family and friends killing each other. The notion that there's random shootings all over the place is false.
Notice what we report on! Brown people killing each other barely rates a blurb in local media, if any. AR-15 involved? ALL the reporting. Guy went bugshit in Maine, killed a bunch of people, no reporting on the weapon. (It was an AR-10, basically an AR-15.) Random violence gets headlines.
Most gun violence sites rate any shooting on school grounds as a "school shooting". I could pop one off at midnight at the local high school. School shooting! Cop shoots a kid. School shooting! While horryfying, it just doesn't happen as much as it's made out. We had plenty of guns when I was a kid, no school shootings until Columbine popularized the sport.
I feel this gets the point across. You might notice the MotherJones numbers, hardly a conservative site.
Maybe I'll contradict my earlier statement; America doesn't have a gun problem, America has a culture problem. I can illustrate using a local anecdote.
Local guy sees someone breaking into the empty trailer which is on his lot. Motherfucker thought it was A-OK to hide inside the treeline and shoot the guy the next night. He felt within his rights to hunt another human being. People on NextDoor.com were defending the shooter. Well, the cops disagreed, that's murder one.
You cannot carry pepper spray to defend yourself. You don't need it because knives are illegal /s
The pocket knife thing is basically for Swiss army knives.
A hammer wouldn't be allowed either.
You can transfer kitchen knives and tools. That's allowed. And what the guy in this article did is legal. But what happened was the police made him admit to something he wasn't doing.
So what I'm hearing is if you want to commit a violent crime just wear a hard hat/hi-vis vest and say you're going to hammer things at work? Or put on a funny chef hat and walk around freely with your knives? Seems like the regulation only exists as fig leaf for minority profiling and harassing young people.
Forgot the pepper spray thing! LOL fuck me that causes no tissue damage!
Yes, the law sounds very specifically written to allow a Victorinox full size. Was thinking on that writing my post. "Guess I could carry my Swiss?"
When he was arrested, Rowe said, the officer pulled the trowel out of its sheath, and said: “That’s not a garden tool.”
[Aussie accent] "That's not a garden tool. This is a garden tool!"
When he was arrested, Rowe said, the officer pulled the trowel out of its sheath, and said: “That’s not a garden tool.”
“I said it is, because it was in the Niwaki-branded pouch that you get at garden centres,” Rowe said.
Rowe said police had questioned him on whether he was “planning on doing something” with the tools, and he said he was also asked to explain what an allotment was.
“I had to explain in very basic terms what an allotment is to this guy,” he said. “So it didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence that I was going to be let off.”
Manchester's brightest at work. Experts enough to know what is and isn't a garden tool but don't know what an allotment is 🙄 ACAB
These cops are bastards. Some cops are nice and genuine. This isn't America. Stop trying to import american trump degeneracy into our fair kingdom
ACAB applies even for the nice and genuine cops.
It's about criticisms of policing as an institution, not individuals
acab was true way before mango mussolini was even born
ACAB is legitimate here. It's not a Trumpism. Day to day community policing, yes, you can have good interactions with them. But they also have no qualms smashing a peaceful protestor over the head with a baton if they're allowed as well. There's been enough stories of corruption and abuse within multiple UK police forces, throughout its history and in modern times, to say ACAB.
Also, is it fuck a fair kingdom.
These cops are bastards. Some cops are nice and genuine.
This is true pretty much everywhere, even America.
I got age checked to buy a blender in Currys yesterday.
I am 56
We are fucked.
I didn't even know they age checked for such.
Street gangs in the UK have started using blenders?
Well what were you going to use it for???
Blend genders.
For those who may not know what a Hori Hori is:
To the cops I'm sure they saw:
some real stupid cops if they think that that is a knife, but then again im not a weird criminal who has funny looking knifes, online are are few pics of very stupid designs.
im not even smart but who makes a supposedly knife handle round, 4 marks for depth, a saw??? clearly not a knife xD
what a stupid stupid newsstory, to bad it happended to the poor guy
i searched that name when i saw it in the article and on ecosia where all images of this tool even with cute pink colour lol.
i was indifferent to pilice and the state but im more and more thinking, dont let them get involved because they dont want to listen
Yeah, he was treated poorly but the concern is understandable IMO
You can’t walk around in public with what looks, to the untrained eye, a lot like a combat knife and then act surprised when the police show up.
he said the blade wasnt shown and he had a fucking basket with vegetables in his hand lol. the police can of course investigate and but then they took him and didnt even listen, that was retarded. they could have searched for a damn pictures online first.
im no english, so idk much about your butterknife license stuff but now i think its very more widespread than in my euroland, we never get bothered by police. (no im not from a shithole)
But you can be surprised when the police don't let you go after realising the thing is mostly blunt. What looks like a knife edge on the right hand side of that picture isn't sharpened like a knife, it's more like how a spade has a keened edge, because it's a fancy type of trowel. The saw edge is sharp though, but again, not as sharp as a wood saw.
Plus, the law allows for the carrying of a knife for a reasonable legitimate purpose. The accused was carrying a basket of vegetables, having just harvested them using the "knife". It's a legitimate purpose, and it wasn't even a knife.
Add on that it was also sheathed, and we have a clear case of moron cops being heavy handed and abusing the law.
It's not illegal if you have good reason (that isn't a weapon). In this case, it was good reason.
Not the kind of trowel I'm used to.
Oh yeah, it's way better! The back side is curved for digging and has measurements on it, so if you're supposed to plant a bulb x inches deep, it's right there on the tool.
Several decades ago my dad was pulled over on the way to work and questioned about my sisters toy knitting needle and what he intended to do with it…
Did he have to explain sounding?
The actual tools Niwaki Hori Hori gardening trowel in a canvas sheath, and an Ice Bear Japanese gardener’s sickle.
The Niwaki Hori Hori gardening trowel
And theNiwaki Ice Bear Japanese gardener’s sickle.
here it goes, easily offended close your eyes:
the guy wasnt even a black or a mohammed, but a normal englisher and they still took him to the police?? wtf is going on in the uk?? im honestly confused.
is there so little racial profiling left and that real english get questions and can explain themselves before they get such stupid ordeal??
sorry, im from a alpine valley xD
He could have waited for a solicitor but didn't