Man arrested for wearing Star Wars Stormtrooper costume outside school

[Nada]

Is America paranoid?


Man arrested for wearing Star Wars Stormtrooper costume outside school

" He added of the Stormtrooper: "The way things are today, you can't have that." So police arrested 40-year-old George Cross on charges of disturbing a school and loitering within 1,000 yards of a school.

Cross protested to 7News Boston: "Like I'm some kind of weirdo or something?" Some would surely think this might be the case.

Still, Cross explained: "I bought a costume. I was walking through the neighborhood showing friends."

Donnelly's view to Salem News was that Cross didn't pose a threat. However: "He did cause a disturbance and we can't tolerate that."

Tolerance is in very short supply these days. Fear, however, is abundant. Didn't it used to be the other way around?"

 

[Rival]

It was @Iti oj

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I sense a disturbance of angry nerds in the Force.
WTF is society coming to when you can be arrested for wearing a Storm Trooper outfit?

 

[Iti oj]

It was @Iti oj

name and age has been altered ofcourse. Im actually a super hero using that as my spandex! Super iti

 

[Twilight Hue]

The authorities are just plain jealous because they don't look cool and intimidating like that.

 

[Revoltingest]

Creating a "disturbance" is anything the cops want it to be.

 

[jeager106]

What happened to today's coppers?
When I was on the job I would have talked to the guy, learned he was harmless, ask him
to stay 1000 feet from the school as parents are paranoid for good reason and been on my
merry way!
Geesh!
Hell I would have ask someone to take a pic of me 'n him.
I love Star Wars.

 

[Sultan Of Swing]

Creating a "disturbance" is anything the cops want it to be.

All laws should be very specifically defined and detailed in my opinion. While that risks some things falling through the net (but legislation can be altered to accommodate that), vague laws pose a far greater risk and allow room for interpretation. I don't like it when the government has room for interpretation.

(Take for instance, the Bill of Rights (both the British and American ones), which specifically limited the government from certain things and established one's rights by limiting the government, where as the Declaration of Human Rights comprises of vague statements that are hugely open to interpretation.)

 

[Revoltingest]

What happened to today's coppers?
When I was on the job I would have talked to the guy, learned he was harmless, ask him
to stay 1000 feet from the school as parents are paranoid for good reason and been on my
merry way!
Geesh!
Hell I would have ask someone to take a pic of me 'n him.
I love Star Wars.

You sound like a dinosaur!
We need your type in Revoltistan.

 

[jeager106]

You sound like a dinosaur!
We need your type in Revoltistan.

No kidding. Today's coppers ain't like when I was on the job.
I think most of the white cops is skeert of black people.
They have no idea what discretionary power is. Ya don't have ta arrest everyone.
When we weren't running our tails off we ran radar in hi volume traffic areas and I almost
NEVER wrote a ticket. I made a lot of friends for the department that way.
Helped me out in the mean streets also.

 

[ChristineES]

I wonder when they'll start arresting people for wearing superman suspenders near a school.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

No kidding. Today's coppers ain't like when I was on the job.
I think most of the white cops is skeert of black people.
They have no idea what discretionary power is. Ya don't have ta arrest everyone.
When we weren't running our tails off we ran radar in hi volume traffic areas and I almost
NEVER wrote a ticket. I made a lot of friends for the department that way.
Helped me out in the mean streets also.

That sounds like the county sheriffs here. There are a couple of them who are ********, but for the most part you hear people around speak highly of them.
But they aren't out harassing people, searching people on questionable and dubious grounds, and they actually help people. That is in sharp contrast to the local State troopers who are known for ticketing everything and being difficult to deal with, and the city cops who have a reputation of being corrupt, dirty, and oppressive (they even tried to have a man retried once after he was found to be innocent), or the cops from another city who are just downright squirrel-turd nuts (one incident involved tasing an elderly man who had Alzheimers, and one trooper threatening to shoot people, including the mayor, for not getting a day off that he didn't formally request off - fortunately though that city recently pruned the police department and they fired several officers).

 

[jeager106]

A department must keep itself held to high standards or it will become
worse than those they police.

 

[Wirey]

So you're all okay with some unemployed henchman hanging around outside schools just because his workplace keeps getting blowed up? What's he doing, still trying to find out if that post office box is the droid he's after?

 

[Revoltingest]

So you're all okay with some unemployed henchman hanging around outside schools just because his workplace keeps getting blowed up? What's he doing, still trying to find out if that post office box is the droid he's after?

A smart cop would'a handled it thusly....

 

[Nada]

A smart cop would'a handled it thusly....

Excellent! The force is strong with this one.

 

[Penumbra]

If someone is acting oddly near a school, I think it's a reasonable idea for a police officer to go over and ask them a few questions to make sure they're not dangerously disturbed and have no obvious weapons, and then either move on or keep an eye on them if all seems clear.

Arresting someone in a stormtrooper suit with a toy gun is excessive.