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Australia Crazy. Police handcuff pull guns on 12 year old boy playing with toy gun.

Haz.

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2010
Messages
1,226
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I come from a land downunder.
This incident clearly just shows how paranoid we have become in the land Down Under since the firearms ban.

Remembering that I owned a single shot 22 cal. rifle and went hunting with my dad at age 12. This young lad made a toy rifle out of a piece of wooden curtain rod and black duct tape and was playing in his yard when arrested, handcuffed and had guns drawn on him. Haz.

"The "weapon" was a broken 1m-long curtain pole with black duct tape,"
.


http://www.news.com.au/national/police-pull-gun-on-boy-12/story-e6frfkxr-1225973058056

National.

Police pull gun on, arrest boy, 12 By Nadja Hainke From: Northern Territory News December 18, 2010 7:10AM Increase
Tom Herbert was arrested by police for playing with a hand-made toy gun.
POLICE pulled their guns on a 12-year-old boy playing in a yard in the Northern Territory because they thought he was hiding behind a fence with a rifle.
The "weapon" was a broken 1m-long curtain pole with black duct tape, the Northern Territory News reports.

Tom had to be treated for shock at hospital as a result of the incident.

His mother Terry Mahoney said she was devastated.

"He was just a normal kid playing with a fake rifle," she said.

She said Tom had been playing with the toy weapon outside a house in Palmerston last week, when he was cornered by police.

At least five officers sped to the scene in two paddy wagons and a blue patrol car.


..They jumped out of their vehicles, two of them drawing their guns, and urged the boy to drop his weapon.

He was told to sit down on the footpath and then a police officer put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him down," Ms Mahoney said.

"I believe he ended up with handcuffs on one wrist."

Police confirmed yesterday they had responded to a call saying a person was "hiding behind a fence" with a weapon.

They said police guns were drawn but dropped instantly when it was clear there was no threat. Reports of the boy having been handcuffed were not confirmed.

The incident happened only days after the small family was made homeless.

"It just means another trauma that Tom has to deal with," Ms Mahoney said.
..

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/police-pull-gun-on-boy-12/story-e6frfkxr-1225973058056#ixzz18PKM2jIJ
 
M

McX

Guest
i realize it's not our 'land mass', but they wonder why kids grow up to dislike cops, when they over react and treat someone like that. it puts a scar on the kid for life. i know i've got my share. me and a buddy were talking the other day, and compared all the open carriers we know. we found about 50 to 60% had their stories to tell, their scars. the cops better figure out quick how to quit making enemies out of the general public, lest we turn and walk the other way when their time of need comes.
 

RogueWarrior

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Oct 23, 2007
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, ,
I'm an Aussie and I do not like to say this but sue the living **** out if the cops if they had any brains they would have just walked up to the biy to see what he was doing. No I once brought a rifle in Sydney on George St and it was wrapped in paper and I walk down the main st and not one thing was done
 

MK

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Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
396
Location
USA
When I was 12 my friend and I had been approached rapidly by police in Maryland with their guns drawn and pointed at us after we were playing with firecrackers in a storm drain.

We weren't cuffed but we were held at gunpoint initially, put up against a fence and searched in which they found our firecrackers. Though they were illegal to have in Maryland, the police took us home and released us to our parents which is probably pretty rare nowadays in that state. Apparently, someone in the neighborhood called in and reported hearing gunshots from our location. I definitely can't blame the officers for taking the precautions they did.

If they actually believed the 12 year old in this situation was armed with a firearm in his hands, they would be crazy to approach him without their own weapons at the ready. They were told the boy was armed with a weapon. Lucky nothing more tragic had happened but I really don't see the fault of the police officers that others appear to be finding in what I am reading in that post.

I am also assuming that it isn't legal for him to be carrying around a rifle in that location or at his age as well.
 
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Citizen

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Fairfax Co., VA
SNIP We weren't cuffed but we were held at gunpoint initially, put up against a fence and searched in which they found our firecrackers. Though they were illegal to have in Maryland, the police took us home and released us to our parents which is probably pretty rare nowadays in that state. Apparently, someone in the neighborhood called in and reported hearing gunshots from our location. I definitely can't blame the officers for taking the precautions they did.

I can. What a bunch of posturing tough guys. Holding two kids at gun point. Complete lack of judgement. Totally out of touch.
 

palerider116

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Nov 14, 2010
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Citizen,

In their defense, it was an ASSAULT STICK. They could have gotten splinters when they disarmed the kid.
 

OldCurlyWolf

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Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
907
Location
Oklahoma
I can. What a bunch of posturing tough guys. Holding two kids at gun point. Complete lack of judgement. Totally out of touch.

Yes it is, on YOUR part.

Until they can determine otherwise, they HAVE to treat this as a dangerous situation.

Once it is determined that the "danger" does not exist, then is when they showed the judgment many today refuse to show even if they have the ability.

It is obvious that you have NO IDEA of what a LEO faces on a nearly daily basis in some of the more populated jurisdictions.

Until you understand, it would behoove you to remain silent on this particular subject.

:cuss::banghead:
 
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Citizen

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Nov 15, 2006
Messages
18,269
Location
Fairfax Co., VA
Yes it is, on YOUR part.

Until they can determine otherwise, they HAVE to treat this as a dangerous situation.

Once it is determined that the "danger" does not exist, then is when they showed the judgment many today refuse to show even if they have the ability.

It is obvious that you have NO IDEA of what a LEO faces on a nearly daily basis in some of the more populated jurisdictions.

Until you understand, it would behoove you to remain silent on this particular subject.

:cuss::banghead:



Thanks, HandyHamlet. Perfect way to show the absurdity of OldCurly's position.

Lets dissassemble the cop-kissing viewpoint.

Starting with the hidden, undisclosed premise. That near total certainty is needed no matter how remote the possibility. Hogwash. Cops and robbers is a dangerous game. If they have to assault 12yr olds in order to "feel safe", they don't have the constitution for the job.

Just because some cops somewhere at some time have experienced grave danger does not mean that this kid is a real threat. Kids hunt. Kids shoot cans. Kids play cops and robbers. All much more likely than a 12 yr old sniper.

Just because police claim it is necessary to point guns at 12yr olds and prone them out does not mean it is. As I mentioned, out of touch. So focused on the stories of dead cops and shot cops, they forget (possibly deliberately, too) that there is the rest of the world outside their insular little thoughts.
 

sudden valley gunner

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Dec 13, 2008
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16,674
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Whatcom County
Could Joe Schmoe run up and hold a gun to the kids head? And treat kids this way? Than the police can't either. Especially when they are supposed to be more restricted as officers on the use of force. Excusing someone's actions just because they wear a badge is very anti-liberty.
 

palerider116

Regular Member
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Nov 14, 2010
Messages
572
Location
Unknown
A picture of the assault stick would be helpful. Holding a black stick as compared to holding a rifle is a bit of a stretch.
 

since9

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
6,964
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
This incident clearly just shows how paranoid we have become in the land Down Under since the firearms ban.

What's that quote? "Unfamiliarity breeds contempt?"

Or was it "ignorance breeds idiocy?" Certainly their response falls into the latter category...

If they had the familiarity with a right to keep and bear arms our law enforcement officers have here in Colorado, they wouldn't be terrorizing and traumatizing poor homeless kids.
 

OldCurlyWolf

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
907
Location
Oklahoma
It would seem that we are dealing with people here who do not like my opinion.

TS. My opinion is based on real world experience. Yours is not. Nuff said.

:cool:
 

OldCurlyWolf

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
907
Location
Oklahoma
That's an arrogant haughty thing to say.

But you are entitled to your opinion based on your narrow minded viewpoint. :lol:


It isn't funny as you intimate. It isn't arrogant or haughty. It is as Joe Friday used to say "Just the facts, Ma'am."

It is most definitely not narrow minded. It seems that I am more well informed than those who object to my opinion. It is they who are not only narrow minded but closed minded. IE, unwilling to learn from those who have more information and experience from which to base their judgments.

But then you are entitled to your weak indefensible opinion.

BTW, It also seems that no one picked up on the fact that I stated arresting the 12 year old for having a toy was not a smart thing to do. It was really the wrong thing to do. Once a 'threat" is determined to not be a threat, you do NOT continue treating the situation as a threat.

:cool:
 
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