Goaded by police at a young age

[David Mary]

This isn't necessarily a story about my best judgment. I was a boy in school, probably 13 at the time. I had never owned a knife before, but ended up at a flea market with a few dollars in my pocket and found it there. A double edged dagger boot knife. It was used, but everything about it was perfect. Symmetrical, beautiful. The right size for my hand. It wasn't super sharp, but I knew I would not want to grind its edge against my skin (I had no conception of sharp at this time). It was possibly a Cold Steel, but I don't remember taking note if there was any writing on it. I had to show it off. So I put it and a few other knick knacks I have since forgotten safely into a locked tackle box, and then walked to school with it all in my backpack. I showed a couple kids, ever so discreetly; open the box and look only, and that's it. Just long enough for me to say "see, see isn't that cool!?" and for them to quickly lose interest and think I'm crazy.

But word got back to a teacher, and I found myself in the principle's office along with the teacher, and shortly thereafter, a police officer who seemed a little zealous for scaring kids. He and the teachers were grilling me with hypothetical scenarios of being attacked, and asking what I would do, and trying to find conflicts with other kids, so I have come to the belief he was trying to lead me to classify it as a weapon. At the time, I told the cop I would use karate if I were attacked. After all, I was an orange belt. And then he told me that if I tried my karate with him it would be on. Even though I can understand wanting to get a read on a kid who other kids say has a knife, making it adversarial and trying to paint a kid into the corner you've prepared for him just seems so rude.

I remember Dad keeping his cool about this, just annoyed that he had been called away from work over it. He showed up, and the cop's tune took on a more professional demeanor. I seem to recall a fine of $60 or so, which had to come out of my paper route profits. Man that's worth a lotta Legos! Shoulda never rolled over and unlocked that box for the teacher.

 

[Mossyhorn]

A dagger is designed for one purpose only. That's why it's illegal to carry in most places. I own them and like them a lot, but you won't find me carrying one.

 

[Vaytsee]

Possibly someone else had told a similar story,10 years before you started school.

A boy had brought a dagger in to school. But in this story the teacher/principle/policeman chose to ignore it and didn’t want to make a fuss. Unfortunately this particular boy had some mental health issues and had been bullied recently. With pent up anger and a sharp blade, something really bad happened a week later. The teacher/principle/policeman never forgave themselves.

We often never know the motivations for peoples’ actions, when all we see is “someone acting like an *******”.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Possibly someone else had told a similar story,10 years before you started school.

A boy had brought a dagger in to school. But in this story the teacher/principle/policeman chose to ignore it and didn’t want to make a fuss. Unfortunately this particular boy had some mental health issues and had been bullied recently. With pent up anger and a sharp blade, something really bad happened a week later. The teacher/principle/policeman never forgave themselves.

We often never know the motivations for peoples’ actions, when all we see is “someone acting like an *******”.

Can't ban Everything.......

Just having a feel-good moment doesn't really Do anything.

*if you are Smart enough, motivated enough, or Angry enough..... Everything becomes a weapon.


*I Do believe a good sit down talk was in order.
Intent is Everything.
Clearly there was no harmful intent, here

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

This isn't necessarily a story about my best judgment. I was a boy in school, probably 13 at the time. I had never owned a knife before, but ended up at a flea market with a few dollars in my pocket and found it there. A double edged dagger boot knife. It was used, but everything about it was perfect. Symmetrical, beautiful. The right size for my hand. It wasn't super sharp, but I knew I would not want to grind its edge against my skin (I had no conception of sharp at this time). It was possibly a Cold Steel, but I don't remember taking note if there was any writing on it. I had to show it off. So I put it and a few other knick knacks I have since forgotten safely into a locked tackle box, and then walked to school with it all in my backpack. I showed a couple kids, ever so discreetly; open the box and look only, and that's it. Just long enough for me to say "see, see isn't that cool!?" and for them to quickly lose interest and think I'm crazy.

But word got back to a teacher, and I found myself in the principle's office along with the teacher, and shortly thereafter, a police officer who seemed a little zealous for scaring kids. He and the teachers were grilling me with hypothetical scenarios of being attacked, and asking what I would do, and trying to find conflicts with other kids, so I have come to the belief he was trying to lead me to classify it as a weapon. At the time, I told the cop I would use karate if I were attacked. After all, I was an orange belt. And then he told me that if I tried my karate with him it would be on. Even though I can understand wanting to get a read on a kid who other kids say has a knife, making it adversarial and trying to paint a kid into the corner you've prepared for him just seems so rude.

I remember Dad keeping his cool about this, just annoyed that he had been called away from work over it. He showed up, and the cop's tune took on a more professional demeanor. I seem to recall a fine of $60 or so, which had to come out of my paper route profits. Man that's worth a lotta Legos! Shoulda never rolled over and unlocked that box for the teacher.

it's all about compliance. That cop seemed to be trying to railroad you like he had a quota or something.

My experience with police officers has been ok. not great but certainly not ever railroaded as in your case.

James Freeman on YouTube films police for the fun of it. You may get a kick out of his channel.

 

[Stelth]

Cops are like anyone else: some are good people who genuinely want to help society and some are dicks who enjoy bullying. I've come across both types.

 

[Vaytsee]

Can't ban Everything.......

Just having a feel-good moment doesn't really Do anything.

*if you are Smart enough, motivated enough, or Angry enough..... Everything becomes a weapon.


*I Do believe a good sit down talk was in order.
Intent is Everything.
Clearly there was no harmful intent, here

I agree with all the 6 points you make.

The point I was making was this: “We often never know the motivations for peoples’ actions”. Maybe you quoted the wrong post and meant to quote someone else’s? Because the 6 (good) points you make don’t seem to connect with the point I was making?

 

[David Mary]

A dagger is designed for one purpose only. That's why it's illegal to carry in most places. I own them and like them a lot, but you won't find me carrying one.

In Canada, no distinction is made about knives with a double edge being specifically weapons, though I take your point about general perception. Nevertheless this one was probably not much more dangerous than a letter opener, and certainly no less legal to possess. And possession is all I had, as it was in a locked tackle box that was many yards away from me when the teacher brought me to the principal's office. Did not fit the definition of carry, except maybe when it was in my locked tackle box, in my backpack, as I walked to school. But even then it would be a clear stretch to allege it as a concealed weapon, because it would have taken me almost a minute to "deploy" it in that condition.

Cops are like anyone else: some are good people who genuinely want to help society and some [...] enjoy bullying

I believe this as well, but since that day, I have allowed myself to conceive that maybe he really did want to help the community, and in that moment, his way of doing that involved pushing this unknown kid to see if he could get a violent reaction. I still would think such a method is rude, crude, and ill-advised, but I at least now acknowledge he might have been doing what he felt was right for the sake of others' safety.

 

[Dergyll]

Many years ago, I made from scratch, a witch king of angmar outfit and a replica bastard sword out of layers of aluminum foil and cardboard (it looked pretty dope in my biased opinion). It was literally as dull as a plastic lightsaber.

Long story short I show up to school and the universally hated security guard (Kenny? Danny? Something) told me it was a weapon...broke it in half with his knee and gave me back the pommel, something which I spent days making. Meanwhile the ninja kid next to me with the plastic throwing stars got a freebie because he liked him?

Never forgave him for it, that sneering prick. Haha.

 

[Danke42]

I was in school in he 70s and the first rule of shop class was no weapons. So that taught us to be very inventive.

 

[Boombats]

In 1993-4 I was known to carry a Gil Hibben Double Shadow to my highschool, obscured by my trench coat. They never got that from me, but they did confiscate my wallet chain because it was 3 feet long and made of 2" steel links, with a spiked 8-ball on one end. I wonder why they took it...

 

[David Mary]

I had a wallet chain for a short time. Nobody ever thought of it as a weapon that I know of, including me. I would have had no clue what to do with it. Probably still wouldn't.

 

[Hickory n steel]

In the 1st grade I got week of on site suspension over a Lego starwars minifigure blaster that apparently looked real, even though it's so tiny nobody could recognize it unless you told them ( I should have never told them )

That same year a kid got caught with a little keychain switchblade and only got sent home for the day , but just the week before I got suspended for pretending my banana at lunch was a gun.

A few months later I brought a backpack full of toy weapons to show off to my friends and the teacher I was ratted out to told me to keep them in my backpack and never bring them again.


It all depends on the police officer that may be involved, and it all depends on the teacher and or principal involved as well.
You just never know what kind of punishment may be received if at all, and levels of punishment may or may not fit the offense.

 

[ephsea]

Sorry to hear about your troubles David. 60 bucks was a lot of money for a kid! 25 years ago I got called down to our School Resident Officer's office in the last semester of my final year for having a pot leaf drawn on my backpack. He searched me, found 1 gram (about a joint) of marijuana, interrogated me for hours about the "drug ring" he was convinced I was running. Then, grinning as wide as I've ever seen anyone, he arrested me and told the principal he suspected I was a pot dealer and I should be expelled. I was expelled, couldn't graduate with my class and lost my scholarship to Duke. Nobody said anything about the pocketknife I had

 

[rhino]

I was in school in he 70s and the first rule of shop class was no weapons. So that taught us to be very inventive.

What part if the country?

In Indiana, making knives and other stuff in metal shop in the late 70s and early 1980s was no big deal if you didn't act like an idiot (the same for carrying knives). Several kids made really big Bowies. I used the sand casting box to cast a set of solid aluminum nunchaku. They were too heavy to really use, but they were cool.

 

[Danke42]

What part if the country?

In Indiana, making knives and other stuff in metal shop in the late 70s and early 1980s was no big deal if you didn't act like an idiot (the same for carrying knives). Several kids made really big Bowies. I used the sand casting box to cast a set of solid aluminum nunchaku. They were too heavy to really use, but they were cool.

Canadian Prairies. Things like casting knucks or making blowguns were noted. I can recall a few projects repurposed into shuriken.

 

[Bastler]

They busted me with a lid and a Buck 110. They were both about the same size and shape and I remember the principal lining them up precisely while we waited for the campus cop. I got a lecture that sounded to me like the adults in the Peanuts cartoons. They never said much about the knife, but I still remember his report said I had a bag of "green, leafy vegetable matter." Forty five years later and writing those words still makes me grin. I left that place for good, got a GED when I was still seventeen and had a good job working on a survey crew, all before my class graduated. I kind of wish I still had that knife, though.

 

[catspa]

Wait, let me get this straight. They lectured you for possession of green leafy vegetable matter, and then sent you out on a survey crew? Where you were surrounded by, um, green leafy vegetable matter?

Hmmmm.

Parker

 

[JPD1998]

What a difference a few decades makes...

In the mid 1960's we were allowed to wear our Boy Scout uniforms to school on Friday's , I had a fixed blade hunting knife on my belt and no one batted an eye.

Fast forward to High School in the mid 1970's and a group of us would proudly compare our pocket knives in the school yard ( while smoking Marlboros). I carried a single edge manual stiletto with a bayonet blade.
Neither security or the resource LEO did anything ( or cared). Of course if you pulled a knife in a fight that was a different story and you would be promptly arrested.
And this was all in NYC....