“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 30, 2010

Well, this wouldn’t actually be the first time something like this has happened. Some dude’s LARP gear was confiscated by police as evidence of violent intent:

Weapons Seized in G20 Arrests Not What They Seem

Here’s a big hint to those Toronto police officers: Those arrows with the heads replaced by foam and cloth? They’ve got a range and speed of, like, nothing. I know, I’ve used ’em enough. A molotov cocktail would be much more effective, and far easier to make.

But this ain’t the first time. And it won’t be the last.

When I was a teenager, my little group (“unit”) got the cops called on them in the middle of a practice. They were a little too close to an apartment complex at the time. Suddenly, they found the cruiser-mounted spotlights shining on them, guns trained on them, with a loud voice booming “DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” I wasn’t there at the time, but my friends swore that they maintained bladder control when that happened. One friend was still wearing a sheathed knife, however, which he’d forgotten about in his haste to drop his foam-padded gear and raise his hands up in a non-threatening position. The cop gave him a hard time about the knife, but ultimately they came to their senses (unlike the chief in the above article) and let them go.

Years later, we started practices twice a week (later once a week) down in a park in Provo. The practices are still being held there, I’m told. We chose that park because it was, at the time, right across the street from our apartment. Almost every week, the cops were called about possible gang violence occurring in that park. They were required to respond every time. But on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they knew what to expect. Those were the two nights of the week they DIDN’T have to worry about gangs and drug deals. We basically scared the gangs and drug dealers. Too much attention, I guess. But the cops would often hang out and watch us practice for a little while. I think they wanted to play, too…

(Yeah, I know, Provo sounds like Mayberry when talking about gang violence and drug dealers, but it’s there, just as everywhere else).

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Stephen said,

I’m flashing back to having my Battletech dice seized in high school. “You use these to play craps?” “No, a board game.”

The really terrible thing is that I bet the guy’s out a really nice and expensive set of scale mail, unless he can leverage the press in that article to get it back.
Brer said,

An interesting mix. That pile is from multiple seizures, and some of it looks legitimately shady. That said, it’s rather amusing that they mixed in the LARPer gear with the real stuff.
slenkar said,

the pigs were trying to make G20 protestors look dangerous but it backfired, the chainsaw was NOT taken from protestors and they lied about the larping gear, trying to say people were going to set fire to the arrows.
WhineAboutGames said,

ISTR similar fun when the UK police showed “dangerous weapons” they’d confiscated from some protesters near a power plant or something… which included a pile of old rusty chains they’d found lying in the forest apparently abandoned for who knows how long, and several copies of a BOARD GAME. Clearly dangerous terrorist material that.
Kylotan said,

Some acquaintances of mine used to run a monthly Cyberpunk-style LARP game in the city centre here. Before each session, they would get in contact with the local police and warn them that there would be people with body armour and fake assault rifles in the vicinity of the game. Better safe than sorry!
Rampant Coyote said,

Very smart! Yeah, I remember when I was a kid, how another kid playing Assassin with a rubber-band gun was shot and killed by police. Definitely better to be safe than sorry.

But yeah. Big padded thingies that vaguely resemble swords but feel more like pillows? Not a deadly weapon, guys…