The image in the article shows the entire thing being 20cm and the actual 'blade' portion of the toy being around 13cm long. a little longer than the blade on a pretty standard multi tool like a Leatherman.
Is this seriously what the police were actually concerned about, I understand that it's different in the UK vs the US, but this is definitely overkill. This thing would need to be pinched between your thumb and index finger like a cigarette to be wielded and is arguably less dangerous than a fork.
They're only allowed to have 7.62 cm, so from a legal standpoint it's almost twice the legal limit.
If the law doesn't make sense you don't challenge it by breaking it.
The police don't carry guns there so yeah they're concerned.
Running around twirling a clearly illegal item in public is pretty good logical grounds for police intervention. If the law says 3 in when do you actually stop them is it 4, 10, 12? If he was just transporting it from one house to another they might have let it go. But he's walking around fidgeting twirling it in the open. I suspect he was performing twirls and dagger tricks. So the general public is probably also a little concerned. If he's walking around his neighborhood twirling it around all the time it might even been a neighbor that called the police on it.
The fine is reasonable, getting locked up for 4 months is probably a bit much.
The image in the article shows the entire thing being 20cm and the actual 'blade' portion of the toy being around 13cm long. a little longer than the blade on a pretty standard multi tool like a Leatherman.
Is this seriously what the police were actually concerned about, I understand that it's different in the UK vs the US, but this is definitely overkill. This thing would need to be pinched between your thumb and index finger like a cigarette to be wielded and is arguably less dangerous than a fork.
They're only allowed to have 7.62 cm, so from a legal standpoint it's almost twice the legal limit.
If the law doesn't make sense you don't challenge it by breaking it.
The police don't carry guns there so yeah they're concerned.
Running around twirling a clearly illegal item in public is pretty good logical grounds for police intervention. If the law says 3 in when do you actually stop them is it 4, 10, 12? If he was just transporting it from one house to another they might have let it go. But he's walking around fidgeting twirling it in the open. I suspect he was performing twirls and dagger tricks. So the general public is probably also a little concerned. If he's walking around his neighborhood twirling it around all the time it might even been a neighbor that called the police on it.
The fine is reasonable, getting locked up for 4 months is probably a bit much.