Link to video
On 4 May, a small restaurant in Alberta, Canada was using a person with a Star Wars stormtrooper costume as a promotion. The Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina is located at 531 13th St. North, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. The promotion was on the unofficial Star Wars Day, "May the 4th be With You".
The police in Lethbridge decided to do their own interpretation of stormtroopers.
The 19-year-old woman who was employed by the Cantina as a draw, was assaulted by the police at gunpoint for having the temerity to wear her Storm Trooper costume with a plastic blaster. Most of the interaction was caught on video.
In the police completely overreact. They draw guns on the young woman in the Star Wars costume and order her to get down. This is difficult to do in a hard plastic costume, as she attempts to explain. The Canadian police will have none of it, even after the restaurant owner tries to tell them it is a promotion.
There was no reason to require the woman to get down on the ground and be handcuffed after she puts down the toy gun.
When the videographer comes up to video, they one of the police tells him to leave, or he will be arrested. He backs off, but continues to video. Then a police officer in police truck drives between him and the victim, and blocks his recording angle.
The Canadian police appear to be carrying Sig equipment. The long gun used by the officer confronting the Storm Trooper looks like a Sig 551. The sights, flash hider and fore end are distinctive.
Lethbridge police rifle, side view, twitter
Sig 551 from wikipedia
The police firearm has a flash hider, short barrel, pistol grip, folding stock, and standard 30 round capacity magazines. How do the Canadian police find all those things useful, when they are precisely the things Americans who want the public disarmed, find abhorrent?
The Lethbridge police use Sig P226 pistols in .40 caliber, according to wikipedia.
The incident has drawn international attention. One commenter on the Lethbridge police facebook page, Chris Laidlow, posted a clip of a Star Wars movie and made this comment:
You people are so pathetic and stupid. You humiliated our entire country and you dint even have the bells to apologize.Canadian police are considered to be more familiar with firearms than Australians. It made the news when Australian police took down a man walking on the beach with a 1/3 scale plastic, toy rifle. The Australian incident happened a year ago. The Australians had the excuse of a law requiring replica guns to be registered the same as real guns.
You are simply the worst.
Perhaps that is anticipated in Canada. In the United States, those pushing for a disarmed population have been pushing for a ban on toy guns for decades. New York City banned black, blue, and silver toy guns in 1955.
It is reasonable for police to respond to a "man with gun" complaint. Requiring a promotional actor to get on the ground and be handcuffed after they have been disarmed of a plastic toy, and have been told it is a promotion; seems beyong reason.
The incident is being investigated by the Lethbridge police.
©2020 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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1 comment:
If there is no immediate threat there is no reason for the cops to get physical, cops do not have to make an immediate arrest. When they make an immediate arrest it is their responsibility to be absolutely correct in their actions. Too many law enforcement agencies hire the high school bully types and put a gun in their hands. basically deadly cowards.
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