Weapons

In one of the world’s most impressive displays of bristling military might, the UK armed forces are creating a £600 million Olympic ‘ring of steel’ that includes installing surface-to-air missiles on apartment building rooves.

There’ll be an aircraft carrier with 800 Royal Marines, Navy ships, RAF helicopters, private security, and 13,500 service men and women – more than are deployed in Afghanistan, according to the Daily Mail.

The Thames will be filled with laser-equipped sharks. Graeme Garden will be in charge of intelligence. The Ministry of Funny Walks will train a handpicked squad of bobbies. Dad’s Army will be brought out of retirement to shepherd small children across the road.

Continue reading "Keep Calm and Carry On - it’s just the Olympics" »

Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit, a regular column that looks at deceit and disingenuousness, spin and fabrication. Now, let’s talk about Tasers.

The latest news on Roberto Laudisio, who died after police tasered him in the back because the unarmed young man was running away and suspected of stealing a packet of bikkies, is that he’d been “partying” and may have been exhibiting signs of paranoia.

Police and Taser spin merchants want to blame ‘excited delirium’ for Taser-related deaths.

Continue reading "ICB: Poor widdle Tasers are just misunderstood" »

There has been a lot of bad press about police use of Tasers (or electronic control devices) by police. The recent death of Roberto Laudisio has brought it back to the headlines and numerous pieces have been written about it.

As a serving police officer I feel it is necessary to clear up a lot of what has been written as they are factually incorrect. I won’t go into this incident in any depth as it is under investigation, but the purpose of this article is to help clear up a lot of misconceptions about the use of the X-26.

Firstly: The Taser was introduced as a replacement for police using their firearms: This is incorrect.

Continue reading "A cop tells: the not-so-shocking truth about Tasers" »

The latest death from a police Taser in Sydney shows the need for the whole community to start asking some tough questions about the ever-expanding use of these weapons by police forces across Australia.

Tasers have been presented by law enforcement agencies and their Police Ministers as “non-lethal” alternatives to firearms. However the figures on Taser use in NSW and across the world show that they are often lethal, and do not displace firearms use.

Back in 2008 when the NSW government made the decision to trial Tasers, the public was told they would reduce the use of firearms.

Continue reading "Stop! Or I’ll pump 50, 000 volts into your back" »

If there’s one thing complete strangers on the Internet have taught me, it’s that it’s cool to hate on hipsters. At least that’s what some hipster on Twitter told me.

The problem is, they’re becoming increasingly hard to pick out. Your mother, best friend, or favourite pet could be a hipster and you wouldn’t even know it.

Through clever use of poor fashion choices and general laziness, they’ve reached such an advanced level of irony that they are, in fact, indistinguishable from the rest of us. The best course of action, in these dark and uncertain times, is to simply treat everyone with suspicion.

Continue reading "It slices, it dices, it makes coleslaw out of hipsters" »

It’s hard to wipe your bum if you have no hands. It’s hard to win at marbles when you only have one eye. And it’s pretty hard to work as a farmer when you have no legs.

Seems pretty wacky, but this is the reality of living in a country beset with bombs dropped by our coalition partners over thirty years ago.

I’ve just returned from working in Laos with UNICEF and was shocked to learn of the ongoing problems Australia has played a part in creating. I was even more shocked to think that Australia wants to continue to be involved in such a brutal manner of war.

Continue reading "Bomb legislation is a complete cluster f—k" »

It’s advisable to never get in the way of a woman’s love for fashion and accessories. But now it seems, in the US, you could pay the price by getting your head blown off.

With an 83 per cent increase in women buying firearms in the States, a need to add sparkle, glamour and a supposed feminine touch to a deadly weapon has also arisen. Handguns donning a pink mother-of-pearl grip, Swarovski crystals or Hello Kitty designs are providing colourful options for the gun-toting fashionista.

While a Mail article is quick to blame celebrities such as Rihanna for glamorising guns with her neck tattoo, and heck - while we’re at it - let’s blame Paris Hilton for originally jazzing up a perfectly fine mobile phone to resemble a disco ball. But this latest trend actually exemplifies the core at the gun problem in the States – weapons intended to kill have become accessories.

Continue reading "The latest lady’s must have: A handgun?" »