Chicago police discourage use of mobile phone cases that look just like handguns

Like being innocent, and not even suspicious looking will stop the Chicago police from shooting you, taking you to one of their black sites, and torturing you to death.

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huh. That’s odd - generally blue is considered the standard colour for inert/inactive training weapons and ordnance.

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=training+weapons&rlz=1C1GCEU_enNZ853&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=gw6KOR0AVdNA5M%3A%2CUanQIn665oYYtM%2C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kTAbI4zPk0bWmPXyrLOF1vp6-67jg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqjtfYseLiAhUNbn0KHcFUDgkQ9QEwDHoECAAQDg#imgrc=_&vet=1

In the USA it’s dayglo orange tips on toy guns. Or otherwise an orange or yellow toy altogether.

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Wouldn’t help in Vancouver; there are several ‘out’ gay officers that will happily write you up. Their peers will quite happily call them up to attend the traffic stop just to make the point that nothing gets you out of that ticket.

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Although, the simplest answer to “What is that gun shaped object?” would be, “it’s a gun.” No?

“It’s a novelty phone case” just doesn’t seem like the simple answer to me. And in the few seconds when they have to decide if they are about to be shot, they will be prone to Occam their way to a “gun” conclusion.

Props to this officer for not coming to that conclusion. Part of me expects he will be written up for it.

Well, the red tip is only visible once the “weapon” is fully revealed, and these apparently do come in white and pink, so that’s something. But the black one is just foolhardy.

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I don’t know what the relative production numbers are (toys/props/sims vs real shooty bang bangs), but I suspect that in most places there are still more toys than real firearms.

If we extend a loose definition to “gun shaped objects” - screwdrivers, fishing rods, cardboard tubes, bits of wood, etc - then Occam starts kicking back real hard.

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Agreed. But you also have to factor in situations. I pass a guy working on his car, and I don’t think his screwdriver is a pistol. I come across a guy in a stolen car, and I don’t think his replica gun phone case is a phone case.

When riding my motorcycle back to my flat in Bicester around 2am (I worked the night shift) while stationed at RAF Upper Heyford in the late 80s dressed in my BDUs with a grey poster tube slung across my back, I was pulled over because the cops thought I had a bazooka.

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There’s more real guns than there are people in the US, so if you see something that looks like a gun, you’re not an idiot for assuming it might be real.

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Also, don’t wear that “Shoot Me, Please!” T-shirt.

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image

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The rifle-bong seems like the perfect accessory for everyone who opposes the injustice of the fact that Mr. Kalashnikov got his gun named after him while Mr. Stoner didn’t(probably a good marketing decision, given how much the DoD definitely loved hippies at the time, trying to sell the the ‘Armalite Stoner 15’ would have been quite the challenge; but still).

The gun-phone-case I just can’t fathom, though. Aside from turning every attempt to take a call into a potential excursion into felony menacing; the ergonomics just look atrocious. Like ‘makes the N-Gage look like a design miracle’ atrocious. The pistol grip and the phone are aligned such that any attempt to pick it up like a phone puts superfluous pistol-bits in the way; while any attempt to pick it up by the pistol grip would require a really awkward arrangement of the arm to bring the phone into position.

Is this for the terrible people who spend all their time inflicting speakerphone on strangers in public?

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Yeah, it would only rile up homophobic and/or insecure cops, which seem to be more prolific in other areas.

Oh, I’m sorry! I thought this was America!!!

Imgur

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Yes, cops do all kinds of awful things, but the shame and dishonor of deliberately contaminating food is not based on whom you’re serving it to. “It’s OK because he deserved it” is not relevant. “I didn’t really do it, it’s just a prank bro” is not relevant. Some shit just isn’t funny.

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Danger aside, how exactly are you supposed to use your phone when half of it is embedded in a plastic gun? Even if the screen is exposed on the side not visible in the picture, it looks way too awkward to actually hold. And if it’s removable, what’s the point of a case that only protects half your phone?

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I’ve often wondered what the outcome would be if a group of fully licensed non-Caucasian gentlemen in an open-carry state walked into a Walmart in the deep south sporting AR-15 strapped to their backs and headed to the ammo counter.

I’m a white male, so I can’t conduct this experiment as I would probably just get a nod from security.

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And some people wonder why the aliens don’t visit.

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Scuse me one sec, I have to take that bullet.

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and while the mobile phone gun cases are illegal in many places

Unlike, y’know… real guns.

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Ah, so easily distinguished from other colored weapons;
image

I especially like this one with a blue tip to indicate it’s a training weapon… oops, I mean to indicate that it fires patriotism in the form of .38 lead ammendments;
image

A cop is never going to give pause to a weapon of color. Or a person of color with a gun, for that matter, no matter how nonthreatening they might be.

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