A Catalogue of Horror: The Things ‘Perps’ Carry
EmailABC News has obtained a chilling catalogue of the concealed weapons collected by America’s police officers as they walked their beats. Among the items the cops had to face down are shotguns disguised as a very popular flash light and "Killer Kitty key chains."
The key chains are non-metallic and are lethally sharp but are cute enough to hang from the zipper of a kid’s backpack.
The entire array of weapons and other criminal paraphernalia is more than 90 pages long. It includes razor headbands, flare guns converted into .38 caliber pistols, cigarette pack guns and guns concealed in the handles of $1600 brief cases.
Compiled with the help of dozens of police agencies, the booklet is in its fifth edition, a fact that is perhaps as frightening as the weapons it displays.
Is it any wonder that one of the police officer’s who compiled it noted on the cover that the book contained, "Things that make you wonder why you ever became a cop."
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
What? No pictures? Can the public buy a copy of this book?
Mrs. S
Posted by: Mrs. Shattuck | May 5, 2006, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
Those cat keychains were sold in a woman’s center for years as protection for women who had to walk after dark.
The laws for mace were quite rigid at the time, I believe.
Posted by: Michele Cloutier | May 5, 2006, 5:44 pm 5:44 pm
The cat keychain I bought back in the 80s for self-defense as M. Cloutier states above isn’t “lethally sharp.” It’s basically the same shape as those pictured, but it’s made of aluminum and about 1/4″ thick all the way around. I’m sure you could hurt someone with it, but it doesn’t cut (which is what the article seems to be implying). I don’t think it would be any more dangerous than car keys held between your fingers. It simply provided a more secure hold, and was marketed to women for self-defense.
I wonder if criminals saw that design and modified it for their own purposes? Really startling to see it included in a booklet like this. I haven’t carried it in over 15 years, and I guess I’d better not now.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 5, 2006, 6:19 pm 6:19 pm
Like Michele said, the ‘origins’ of these weapons are rarely criminal reseach and development labs in some secret underground lair.
Posted by: Garret | May 5, 2006, 11:27 pm 11:27 pm
And the public wonders why a police officer could possibly shoot a ‘suspect’ when it turns out he didn’t have a gun? I am surprised that there are not more criminals shot that are only holding keys, cell phones etc.. Police officers are up against alot more than any of us realize.
Posted by: Kathy Thomas | May 6, 2006, 6:58 am 6:58 am
It’s very dangerous to be a policeman today, but at least they’re armed and trained in self defense. I’m a teacher in an inner city high school. I’ve had no training in self defense nor am I armed. A major percentage of violent crime today is committed by teenagers and young adults. We have cameras in the hallways but the students do not go through any metal detectors and our outside school doors are not locked. I feel like a sitting duck, any police station has bullet proof glass between walk in customers and the person on duty. Is it any wonder that situations such as Columbine could happen? The wonder is that we haven’t had more of those tragedies. There’s no protection given to teachers and yet many many people complain that teachers are overpaid and underworked.
Posted by: a teacher | May 8, 2006, 12:16 pm 12:16 pm
The cat keychains are not “lethally sharp”. I gave several out to women in our office along with a canister of pepper spray for self defense purposes. You could do just a smuch damage with a ball point pen. The media is always making everything sound dangerous. When was the last time you heard of someone using a cat keychain to kill someone?
Posted by: BET | August 7, 2006, 4:53 pm 4:53 pm