Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/11/chicago-police-ban-mobile-phon.html
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Considering the likelyhood of getting shot while just holding a cell phone during police interactions, you’ve got to be a major kind of stupid to think a case shaped like a gun is a good idea.
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@boingboingshop I think you forgot the affiliate link.
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NRA: You can have my phone case when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Chicago Police: Your proposal is acceptable…
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A paranoid person might say it’s a foreign conspiracy to get the US police to kill more civilians.
A pessimistic person might say it’s a good way to weed out stupid people from the gene pool.
A free market proponent might say we should let the market decide, while trying to corner that market.
Wait. What?
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The only thing that stops a bad guy with a smartphone case shaped like a handgun is a good guy with a smartphone case shaped like a handgun.
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The Chicago Police department and I are in complete agreement on something. Color me surprised.
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Kids don’t think like adults.
I am pretty sure the police would’ve had to put me in protective custody if my mother had found out I was caring around a cell phone case like this.
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A nice accessory to go with my faux-dynamite vest printed t-shirt! 
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I can’t read the original article since it’s blocked in Europe. As easy as I can relate to a handgun-phone case carried being a stupid idea: that’s all they were concerned with after returning a minor to their parent, after they were stopped in a stolen car on state property…? Help me out here please…
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If we organized all our choices according to what won’t scare the police, we would live bland, grey, humorless lives. Of course, many people have attributes which scare the police that they couldn’t hide if they tried, but this is not the only reason we insist on the right to scare the cops.
Even when we chose voluntarily to express ourselves in ways that scare the cops, it’s often not because we’re stupid, but because we value individuality, expression and even idealism over the sad defeated safety of conformity.
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Not only is this kinda stupid, but its HUGE. Who wants the extra bulk?
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What color is “surprised”?
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I think it is entirely possible to live a colorful, humor-filled life while also avoiding doing incredibly stupid things like…carrying a cell phone case that looks just like a gun. Sometimes things are less about forced conformity and more about, you know, not being an idiot.
Let’s put a gun-shaped cell phone case in the same category as pretending you spit in a stranger’s food, giving the bank teller a hilarious note that you want them to hand over all the cash in the drawer (with a tiny j/k on the bottom) and telling a field trip of kindergartners that all their pets died in a fire while they were at school, and agree that some social conformity ain’t a bad idea.
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I’m in a hardcore right wing enclave neighborhood with veterans, pole-leece, state patrol, and firemen neighbors that hate my fully automated luxury gay space communism lifestyle.
I’ve had my American flag yanked off of my house and thrown into my back garden (and now I have a US Pride Flag installed; fuck you very much officer & you are free to go).
But I would not carry any firearm looking anything without it being a firearm (of which I don’t). There is a limit to my obsequiousness, and Trauma II GSW is that limit.
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The person with the smartphone case was not the driver. As a passenger and a minor, they likely didn’t press any charges related to the car theft. The driver would be the one on the hook for that.
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Curious Yellow.
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Good points, however walk into a 7Eleven with the handle of your cell phone case sticking out of your pocket, get in line, then pull it out to check your screen and see how the cashier reacts. If they noticed at all, they might seem a bit scared.
This is a novelty along the lines of carrying a switchblade comb back in the day; “cool” and “edgy” to a certain type of person. A pointless risk in the eyes of others, especially with how trigger happy cops are these days.
If the way a person needs to show their individuality is to have a faux weapon in their possession, then the quality of their individuality is questionable.
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If we put it in the same category as pretending you spit in a cop’s food, then I’m happy with the metaphor 
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