Britain - man arrested for owning armed Lara Croft statue

[chopz]

ok, my take on this incident is probably going to be the unpopular one here.

first, the guy calls the cops and complains about strange phone calls. so, they check by his house to see everything's cool. he doesn't come to the door when they knock so they're probably thinking he's either in the bathroom or the wacko who he was complaning about decided to pay him a visit. so, they glance in the window just to make sure before they leave and see the black silhouetted figure aiming a gun downward, as if there was someone laying on the floor. i don't blame them for overreacting. the guy might as well have orchestrated that sequence of events as a prank.

"Computer shop owner David Williams, 42, had taken the dummy home to put it up for sale on the auction site eBay."

if i were caught with a full size statue of lara croft in my home i'd probably come up with some similar excuse.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Due to the lack of weapons in Britian, the British Police are not real familiar to what real guns look liike, nor hot chicks with thigh holsters. As a result it's very easy for them to mistake toy pistols for guns, mistake manaquins for people, mistake Laura Croft for a realistic person. I'm amazed they didn't fill her full of holes. Their guns must be carried empty.

Their petty retaliation will backfire somewhat, but it's par for a bureaucratic state. Since they have no empire to rule over, they turn on themselves and become tyrants.

 

[230RN]

Think maybe he planned it all to enhance the bidding on e-Bay?

 

[jeepmor]

Wankers

 

[qajaq59]

Well, now we know where the Keystone cops went when they left Hollywood.

 

[hankpac]

I just want to know one thing:

Where can I get one of those dolls?
My blow-up has a slow leak.

 

[Cliff47]

I'm surprised that they didn't go trigger-happy in the direction of the mannequin. On the other hand, the police may have ventilated the chap's wall. Don't know how much the Brit's practice.

 

[Lucky]

Cliff when their Elite Team caught that Argentinian 'suicide bomber' a bunch of them pinned him on the ground while another fired over a dozen shots into his prostrate body and against a man held on the ground from a couple inches away managed to miss half the shots yet...

Chopz you're right, the initial action could be justified. But the subsequent arrest and detention are a little harder to explain without using the word 'fascist' or such.

 

[chopz]

well, the guys was held for 13 hours, which doesn't seem overly long.

figure a couple hours to ask "dude, what were you thinking? you set up a full sized gun toting manniken in your window and then called the cops?!?"

then a few more hours to wonder if he was just screwing with them as some hoax maybe his mates put him up to.

then - "well, we shut down a whole city block because of this joker. maybe we'll let him have some time to think about maybe not doing that again."

 

[the naked prophet]

Somebody tell me again, please: why did we sacrifice so many American lives to save the English from Nazism?

Cause we thought they could be better Nazis than the Germans?

 

[Dr. Dickie]

Don't judge the folks just by the government, else we must look in the mirror

 

[Lucky]

Chopz, somehow it seems 'wrong' for the executive of gov't to 'teach poeple a lesson' when they haven't broken any laws or regulations. I don't know, just seems somehow unprofessional, sort of immoral, really scary.

 

[chopz]

well, i don't know if there's a law against making a phony phone call to the police here in the usa. not sure i'd like too try it, myself. and after getting brought in for that possible offense in the middle of the night (by a bunch of chagrined cops) i'm not sure how long it would take verizon to verify who was calling me and whether or not there actually was a phony phone call.

and i'm also curious to see how this guy is going to cash in on this publicity on ebay, when that statue goes up for auction.

 

[cbsbyte]

And in the USA, the Police routinely bust down the wrong door because of sloppy Police work. And in many cases they shoot to kill. It seems to me both countries are becoming police states, just at different paces.

 

[Tob]

Pastries...it was for the pastries...

 

[atomd]

Sadly, the doll may be facing some serious charges here. Laura is not helping this case by refusing to put down the weapon. She has made no demands and has the appearance of a stone cold killer. I hear Police are going to send in a life-size Elvis doll to negotiate. This could get ugly.

 

[SSN Vet]

is the perfect situation for an extreme frivolous lawsuit to retaliate.

not in the UK my friend.....no bill of rights over there....you get only the rights that parliment decides you should have.

 

[Lucky]

They did invent Tort law, with the snail in the ginger beer float and all, but yea like you say lawsuits against the gov't seem pretty exceptional.


Chopz you're right, it is possible he was playing a joke on the police when he reported harassing phone calls. But I find that unlikely, and irrelevant. He shouldn't be arrested summarily until until he can prove himself innocent of whatever 'crime' that is.

 

[armedandsafe]

I hear Police are going to send in a life-size Elvis doll to negotiate. This could get ugly.

I heard Bill Clinton volunteered to do that "in the interest of frindship." Now THAT would be ugly.

Pops

 

[Phaetos]

well, i don't know if there's a law against making a phony phone call to the police here in the usa.

Yes there is. And the guy didn't make a phony call to police. The story states that he had been receiving "nuisance calls" all evening and called the police about that.

 

[Mongo the Mutterer]

Ahem.

Calling Winston Smith...

You have to understand Groupthink to get the story.

 

[Irwin]

Did any Brits catch this in the papper the otherday? cause reasently in the sun and the star they have been going on about bs arrests by the police on the subject of stupid arrest my m8 whos a police officer the other day had to arrest a 14 yearold for stealing 40p from his mum i wish it was the 70's were the copper would just give them a clip round the ear. Also isnt it funny thats all of a sudden this thread has delved into french and brit bashing.
Irwin

 

[bl4ckd0g]

The police are the least of his issues if he has a life-sized mannequin of Lara Croft (poised in a pissy mood) stationed in his living room.

 

[Zen21Tao]

It's a good thing it wasn't a Rambo or Terminator mannequin in the shadows. Those crazy Brits would have called in the entire army to perform a tactical assault on his place for that.

 

[Lucky]

Irwin I think it says a lot, when stating the truth is referred to as 'bashing'. It's like calling a bald guy 'baldy' or a fat guy 'fatso'. Maybe it's not nice, but it's not untrue.

Meet someone with a British accent, and ask them how they feel about the police state coalescing in their homeland. I haven't met any that liked it.