In other news, carrying squirt guns that look like shotguns onto school campuses also likely to get the cops called.
Then some jerk invents these x-ray scanners and we're out even more money on the fiasco without any recognition of how silly we're being. Thanks a lot, x-ray guy.
It looks like a katana, especially if you are at a distance. Passes a sniff test, but surprise its an umbrella.
It ranks alongside "FIRE" in a theater, "Hi, jack!" In an airport, pointing gun-shaped objects at police, or bringing big weapons in dorms at college campuses.
All I can say is kudos to the person who called it in.
Having a Katana like handle sticking out of your backpack is not even in the same ballpark as malicious provocation. Yelling "fire" in a movie theater? Please.
Having the cops check out a guy with a sword is not 'chronic distrust of anything and everything'. It's a prudent move that is standard operating procedure around the world.
On top of that, this appears to have been at a school where there was a violent incident with a freaking samurai sword not so long ago. How can you reasonably maintain a position that in those circumstances it's irrational to go look for the reported sword carrying person?
People's judgments of situations are influenced by their previous experiences. Is a fear of flying of someone who survived a plane crash rational? No. Is it normal? Yes. Is a (heightened) fear of dark alleys normal for someone who was raped in one? No. Is it normal? Yes. So, when someone walks in an area where there was recently an attack with a sword, it's perfectly normal for people to be more jittery than they would have been had there not been a recent attack.
Apart from this, there is a different dynamic at work. After an attack, there is public pressure on the people in charge to make the area more secure. We can bicker about the measures they take and how it's token security blah blah blah - but when you get a signal that there is a guy walking around with a sword, as a security officer you'll run your ass off to get there and check this guy out, before it's another nut job who has come to vent his frustrations on his ex roommates or whatever. Rational? Not sure, may not - but irrelevant. Is it understandable? Yes.
You can argue now that you feel that these reactions are wrong because they are not rational (for a narrow definition of rational, i.e. based on facts and pure, logically sound reason). That's fine. However for you to not acknowledge that the reactions as they were in the present case (for as far as we know the facts from this thread) could not have been foreseen, or that they would come as a surprise, or even that they are not 'normal' reactions for the majority of the population, is plain intellectually dishonest.
I am not a criminology expert, so could not reliably say how much of an increase it would be. But it would probably be enough to justify unusually strict enforcing of an existing rule barring weapons on campus.
If someone called in a regular old umbrella as a weapon, sure, I'd call that paranoia - but this thing is designed to look like a weapon, and you're blaming people for thinking it was real?
"Handlebar fashioned specifically to look like katana assumed to be a katana" - is this really so unreasonable?
Do I think he has a right to have the umbrella in public? Absolutely. Do I think he should exercise a bit more discretion considering the circumstances? Yes. But there was some serious overreacting here, either by the person who reported it, or the police.
edit: My university has recently had several occurrences of 'alleged' gun sightings (that turned out to be cell phones), and each time the police has responded with one or two armed officers to investigate the situation. A measured, but conservative response.
The look on a neighbor's face when you've got a TRG-42 slung over your shoulder in the elevator is priceless...
OP does have a point, but could probably do with qualifying it with some discussion rather than just leaving it as a comic one-liner.
Was it a women's dorm? What would the story look like if it was an actually sword wielding maniac and they only sent 2 rent-a-cops?
I don't know what sort of thought-provoking commentary there is to provide around what's essentially an irresponsible advertisement for a thinkgeek product.
I have owned one of these umbrellas for about a year and regularly carry it onto the DC metro. I have been stopped by metro police once. They calmly asked to see it, were generally curious about where I got it, quickly returned it and went about their day.
I think it's a disgusting over-reaction to deploy more than one officer to investigate a report of someone carrying something that might be a sword. If they're running around clearly attacking people with a confirmed weapon, sure.. send in the necessary resources. If they might just be carrying an umbrella, send at most one person who can handle it even if it does turn out to be a weapon. And that's assuming weapons are banned in that area because it's a school or something. In other areas of the same country I think people have a constitutional right to own weapons in which case this wouldn't even need to be investigated.
I also had one person tell me they thought they saw me carrying a gun. People aren't just afraid of sword shaped items, they're afraid of any long black narrow item. Just like Boston is afraid of anything with batteries, wires and LEDs.