Originally published at: Police forcibly enter art gallery after statue mistaken for dead person | Boing Boing
…
7 Likes
Good thing those cops didn’t see John Waters’ exhibit Troublemaker at the Walker in Minneapolis. It had a pipe bomb-making room, complete with artistically rendered pipe bombs.
11 Likes
I’m now assuming that some classic sculptures lost their arms by somebody trying to force them into handcuffs.
9 Likes
I love it when cops lecture people for doing absolutely nothing wrong.
I had a plastic foot on my truck and the cops showed up in the middle of the night because they thought they caught a serial killer. Idiots.
7 Likes
The gallery might not have done anything wrong, and the story is pretty funny, but I have to say - the cops had a point. If it had been a real person who was in trouble , or worse, the reactions would have been much different. At least they didn’t shoot anybody.
6 Likes
The last time “cops” entered an art gallery it resulted in the greatest known property theft in history.
5 Likes
Did the cops even try the doorbell? Calling the gallery phone? Will the gallery’s insurance cover the cost of replacing the doors?
3 Likes
the officers assumed the figure had “a heart attack or she’s overdosed.”
In fact the figure expired after realizing that the computer they’d been entering data into for the last eight hours was one of those cardboard Ikea mockups.
3 Likes
I was going to say, if this happened in the US, the cops would have shot the figure for refusing to obey numerous, contradictory orders being shouted at them by frightened bullies with badges.
5 Likes
If you had no idea that the art gallery had a sculpture like that it looks like a real person with their head on the desk. If you went away and came back later and the person hasn’t moved, it would be alarming. I agree with you it is a silly story, but if the person were real and having a medical emergency, it would be totally different and the caller would have been deemed as doing something really good.
1 Like
She said they told her that “somebody reported that the woman here has not been moving for the last two hours” and that the officers assumed the figure had “a heart attack or she’s overdosed.”
Two hours? I mean if it really was an OD / heart attach / stroke after two hours there isn’t bringing anyone back. On the other hand, I could pass out asleep like that (head on desk) for a solid 2 hours easy.
1 Like
When I was in college (at CMU!) I lived in a second floor dorm with a window looking out over the parking log. I had a store manikin head named Harold (after Bud Cort’s character in Harold and Maude) that I would leave sitting on the window sill looking out. Every day I’d hear people say “Who is that weirdo up there? He never goes to class and he’s always staring out the window!” But nobody ever thought he was dead …
1 Like
Blakemore said the officers lectured her about having such a realistic figurative sculpture on display.
Hope she lectured them re: busting into a business w/o first trying the bell or contacting someone!
2 Likes
I am actually amazed how no one mentions the obvious solution that something like that wont happen; just stick a note in the window that says:
the sculpture with the yellow shirt on display is not a dead person. its a sculpture.
1 Like
At least they didn’t shoot the statue.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
