No Playing Around
Savannah, GA
An officer made a traffic stop at Carolan and Bay streets. The vehicle had a “tag applied for†sticker. When the officer asked the man for the registration, he saw a gun in the floorboard of the vehicle.
The officer told the man at gunpoint to put his hands out of the vehicle. The man complied and the officer called for backup units.
When the backup arrived, the man was taken out of his car. The weapon turned out to be a toy his child had left in the car.
The officers explained to the man why a use of force was done. The man was sympathetic and said he understood the action.
Found in Connect Savannah
June 28th, 2007 at 3:25 am
I see they said he was “taken” out of the car. And then what …thrown to the ground? then they put their knee in his back and neck while putting their weight on him also and I bet the cuffs were bad enough
June 28th, 2007 at 4:55 am
I guess our hero has learned a lesson about letting his kids play with toy guns that look too real. People get shot over realistic toy guns quite often…
June 28th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Sounds like an everyday occurrence around my neighborhood, only the guns are real.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:54 am
This is why my kids will never have real looking toy guns. A bright green gun is pretty hard to mistake as real.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
If the gun did look real I certainly can’t blame the cops for over-reacting. It’s better to have to apologize later than be paralyzed or dead.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Savannah has some cowardly cops who like to throw their weight around.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Hmmm…gun on the floorboard? That’s not a threat and it’s not necessarily illegal. I’ve travelled with weapons on the passenger seat any number of times going back and forth to the range. Maybe it’s a Savannah thing, but I’d be pissed.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
ummmmmm, ok Ritch, and if it was a harmless incident, i can understand being pissed off myself. but if it meant the life of a law enforcement officer, or a by-stander, i think that the protocal was worth the effort. im not here to step on anyones toes, but if i would have been the officer in question, i would not have hesitated in the decision one bit.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:54 am
Sad commentary on life in the US these days. It’s impossible for police to ignore ANY visual stimuli that suggests illegal, inappropriate or terroristic behavior. We only have ourselves to blame - we’ve become what is portrayed on TV; criminals, lawyers and angst-driven misfits.
In fact, I heard yesterday that we, as a country, put over 600,000 more people in prison last year; second only to China (and not 2nd by very much!).
June 29th, 2007 at 9:10 am
And we’d probably be first in the world if China didn’t imprison people for the smallest of infractions like jaywalking and looking cross-eyed at a government official.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Have you tried looking cross-eyed at a government official lately? I wouldn’t recommend it……..
June 29th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
I have to admit, some toy guns do look very real. I found my pistol in the laundry basket the other day, and it turned out to be a toy the boys had taken the orange off of.
On the bright side, my hiding place for my guns is still safe
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:33 am
Freeze copper or I’ll shoot you with this water gun!
I hope they gave him a free pass on whatever traffic violation they pulled him over for to begin with.