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.”Because that’s the alternative universe where people are competent and think things through for more than 2 seconds before they do things.
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
I’m pretty sure they’re quizzing him about allotment, something a gardener should know. Get him to talk so they can catch him on something.
He should have waited for a solicitor.
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
It’s about criticisms of policing as an institution, not individuals
No, ACAB literally means “all cops are bastards”. It removes room for ambiguity. It’s not like someone saying “fuck the police”. And then they can say “I mean the institution”.
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.
Loud minority. Everytime I have been involved with the police they went above and beyond.
Also, is it fuck a fair kingdom.
Privilege
A middle class white lady in the US would probably concur regarding her own police experiences
Unfortunately your anecdotal evidence doesn’t change history. My experience has been very mixed bag. Some have been despicable bastards and some, as you said, have gone above and beyond. But their history, and government inquiries confirming institutional racism etc cements them still in the bastard category.
I do believe they’re improving, the force isn’t just 6ft+ white, straight, cis, British men any more. It’s diverse enough that homophobia, racism, etc are challenged and not tolerated like they once were, but it still happens. They’re still not good enough to throw off the badge of ACAB.
These cops are bastards. Some cops are nice and genuine.
This is true pretty much everywhere, even America.
Then why do Americans constantly say “all cops are bastards?”
It’s a slogan used as a protest statement, particularly within anti-establishment and anti-police movements. The acronym has a long history, particularly within subcultures like punk, skinheads, and football hooligans. It’s also associated with anarchist and anti-authoritarian ideologies.
It also originated in England.
America is not nearly based enough for Americans to “constantly say” that, unfortunately.
I got age checked to buy a blender in Currys yesterday.
I am 56
We are fucked.
Well what were you going to use it for???
Blend genders.
I didn’t even know they age checked for such.
Street gangs in the UK have started using blenders?
For those who may not know what a Hori Hori is:
To the cops I’m sure they saw:
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.
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.
He should have waited for a solicitor in all honesty. He ended up being coerced into accepting the charges by the sound of things. Basically an autistic person being taken advantage of.
I can understand the armed response. I have heard similar stories and a lot of the time people have a good laugh about it after, if they aren’t too traumatised.
the law allows for the carrying of a knife for a reasonable legitimate purpose
My opinion, not from the UK so it’s worth little, is that this is all that should be needed.
“What’s that? What’s it for?” … “Ok, we got a call from a concerned citizen who thought it was a knife. Have a good day!”
Maybe they could throw in a polite, friendly suggestion that they use a bag to transport their tools but its not like it’s required, if I’m understanding correctly.
Yeah, it’s for cutting plants and roots.
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.
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.
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 Guardian’s photographer had an absolute whale of a time with this article.
Look at those dreamy vegetable garden scenes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?”
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
Well. Some of those chaps were carrying knives - without a licence - so we had no choice really.
