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[Professor]

ummmm...yes.


UK: 63-year-old arrested for aiming flashlight (torch)
Sun, Oct 18 2009 Filed in: Arrests
Torben Merriott, 63, was arrested for shining a flashlight (torch) at an RAF Apache helicopter, after being awakened at 1 am by two gunships which were on a military exercise. The arrest for was "suspicion of endangering an aircraft by dazzling the pilot." He was held for nine hours before being bailed out of jail. The charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail.

Merriott said the gunships sounded like an "earthquake" and were "10 feet above my garden" in his farmhouse near Eye, Suffolk. News reports said he used the flashlight to identify the aircraft, during the September 18 2009 incident.

The flashlight was readily available and cost £8.45 (US $13.86). Merriott owns a theatrical lighting firm that has lit flying helicopters at a Buckingham Palace event. He insists he did not put the aircraft at risk: "Don't tell the Taliban that all they need is an eight-quid torch to bring down multi-million-pound high-tech gunships."

Full story, with photo of Merriott and a torch, from the Daily Mail.


UPDATE: Charges were dropped two days after the incident. Merriott said he was considering making an official complaint:
"I cannot help feeling that to keep me locked up for nine hours is pretty vindictive, when I was happy to make a statement. It was heavy handed and I think they were trying to teach me a lesson."

[Professor]

Of course, I don't have access to arrest records, but since you are in the biz:

No problem carrying any of this then?



Of course, I'm sure all of these are Okie dokey?



with glass breaker, ok?



I'm sure VicMackey is looking for your response on the carrying these torches throughout the UK.

[Brian S]

Errrr.. right.  I think?

Anyways, can anyone point to any case anywhere in the UK ever where someone has been prosecuted for carrying any kind of torch?

Not hitting someone with it.... no shining a high powered beam at a pilot or something... But for a simple carry.

Anyone?

Anywhere?

Ever?

 

We can deduce two things.

1 - no one has found such a case.

2 - Professor is not a Professor of reading.

As for "my response?"  Surely you don't think that I am a law maker? 

No problem....... You're telling us that people in the UK cannot carry these things without being arrested....  so let's see the reports of all these arrests.....

(sound of tumbleweed......)

 

[VicMackey]

So Brian S, is it legal to carry a flashlight that has a crenelated strike bezel? I heard it is illegal over there. Gun or not, I always carry a tactical light wherever I go. Some places in the US it is illegal to carry a gun. So there are times that I go about unarmed. and that is where improvised weapons come handy. By the way, I also own a 3 D-Cell Maglite. Since it is too heavy to carry, it is a spare light to have under the bed for those prolonged blackouts since it does not burn out the lightbulbs that much. And, it is great too as a club. This was also the first tactical light I have ever owned and I still have the manual for it that teaches defensive tactics by John Peters. As for carry in public, although it is allowed, it is just too big and heavy.

[Brian S]

P A R A N O N O I D . . . . . .......

What kind of "freedom" is it when you feel the need to carry a weapon everywhere you go?  I'm not too sure how safe the USA is..... but you guys make it sound like a War Zone.

You're clearly getting something very wrong.

[Professor]

Man arrested for shining a $12 flashlight beam to see what is flying above his house...

doesn't meet the qualification of a high-powered ....but, Bri Thai doesn't see that this meets his qualification of arrest for a torch. 

But, he gets arrested...most people's arrest don't hit the news, their record is held at the local precinct.   I'm sure that there are more.

The arrestee said it best: "Don't tell the Taliban that all they need is an eight-quid torch to bring down multi-million-pound high-tech gunships."

I'm just stupid and ignorant.

Bri Thai doesn't want to answer to the illegalities, because he doesn't like the answers.  We are just stupid and ignorant.


Yep,  this meet his standard operating procedures.


Go away troll.

[Brian S]

Sticks and stones.

It is well known for people to shine lights at the pilots of aircraft to try and disrupt them.  I d not know, nor care, whether this man had this intent or not.... but he was suspected of doing so and there was a totaly justified investigation.

Actually, if you do carry something in the UK that is made, adapted or intended for use for causing injury to a person you will be committing an offence.  I just want you to find someone being prosecuted for it in relation to the use of a torch over here.... especially since you like to peddle the idea that people are constantly getting unfairly arrested by our Nanny state.

But you can't it seems so, once again, you change the question.

By the way.... been into town today.  Didn't see anyone being remotley violent, and certainly no crime.  Nor weapons.  And definitely no guns.

I felt safe.  Safe.... 

[VicMackey]

PARANOID? More like alert. If I was paranoid, I would have been a prisoner in my own home and never have went out and did my business. I am always in condition yellow (relaxed but still aware of my surroundings) when I am out of the house. And that is the recommended state of awareness everyone should have when out in public and the mindset of most self-defense minded people. what good is your skills, whether it be unarmed combat or with a gun, if you don't have the proper mindset and killer instinct?  I have been in some parts of the world, seen a lot of things, and my awareness have saved me a few times.  Again, this is not my idea and it was first emphasized by the late Colonel Jeff Cooper, the father of modern American gunfighting or pistolcraft. Like for example, my tour group was in Seville (notorious for its pickpocketing), Spain out in town and got approached by a bunch of palmreaders. I, trusting my intuitions, went to the other sidewalk to avoid them. The rest of them, walked past them and some got their palms read. And, guess what, each one of them got pickpocketed and I was the only one who was not. You see, you can never be too alert. By the way, have you ever traveled outside of the UK? If not, you will never realize how some parts of the world have their own idiosyncracies.

[Brian S]

Travelled outside the UK?  I think it is fair to say that I have seen more of America than most Americans.

That's why I can still talk to guys like you, because I know for a fact there are sane Americans too.

[VicMackey]

Tell me, what part of the US have you been to? If so, you either been watching too much TV or have not seen the rough parts of it yet. Sane Americans? You mean the ones who prefer to be victimized? Well, I think you would fit in real good with those kinds, the sheep. Baaaaaaaa!!!!! (lol).

[Brian S]

Too many to list.

I arrived in New York when I was 21 years old, with nothing but $1,300, some Trailways Bus tickets and a tent.

I went from coast to coast around broadly the northern half of the USA, and then back along the southern half, stopping in Key West to work (illegally... sorry!  But at least I paid taxes) as a labourer to save the money to travel back home.

As an aside I lost count of all the Americans who thought that London was England.  They had no concept that there would be other towns until you mentioned Liverpool.  I was also genuinely asked on more than one occasion "Do you know the Beatles?"  and "Do you know the Queen?"   

All in all a three month trip.  A real eye opener too.  A beautiful country with some fantastic, warm, generous and funny people.

And people like you.

 

[VicMackey]

What part of NY? I have been visited Queens, Manhattan, and Long Island during US Navy fleet week. I had a blast and I first developed my affinity for import cigars.  Although a fun place to visit, I wouldn't wanna live there. Too crowded and too draconian on gun ownership. Especially NY City, handguns are illegal there yet so many criminals and gangs have them illegally in their possession and they just flatly do not care about the gun control laws there. And the ones usually affected are the law abiding.

[Brian S]

I didn't stay long in New York.  1st job was a Bus out to Buffalo....

[redfive]

 I think a American pilot needs to teach the RAF what to do with the American made Apache. If they consider a flash light dazzling a pilot endangering the aircraft. What the F### do they do if they get shot at. That's true UK gun control. The pilot needs to look at his Apache and see whats mounted on the nose. An American pilot would have gone down to the 63 year old and shown him. Any way these threads are wearing thin.

 Who cares. UK is happy, USA is happy. We have guns, you don't. And UK has a hell of allot of our military equipment. Looking around I don't seem to see anything we have from the UK. Hmmmmmm

  Had three Apaches fly over my property over the weekend. Damn cool site to see. Saw a couple of the old Cobras flying around also, didn't know they were still flying.

                                                            Redfive

[VicMackey]

Buffalo? That's it? Is that all you can tell me? Come on. You disappoint me. You need to go to places like Bronx, Queens, or Brookly, even Harlem, and you will see more things going on. I've even been to Miami, FL, New Jersey, even Texas. The US is indeed a place with many different landscapes and cultures. Until you go to other places than Buffalo, you have no idea that the US is not always hunky dory. Try settling in my state of VA and go to major cities such as Richmond (where I live and the capital/lots of crackheads and homeless than anywhere else in VA that I have been), Norfolk, Newport News, Fairfax, Portsmouth, etc. and you will understand why it is a necessity to be armed. You need to do more research than prejudging, mate.
As far as military equipment goes, I got to give your country credit for inventing the Harrier jump jet. We use it for our Marine attack plane. Again, nothing wrong with the Brits using American eqpt., including our M-4 and M-16 rifles. We got our ranking systems from the British military. We have some things in common and some things that are in contrast.