It’s think it’s pretty stupid to be carrying in your local bar, period.
Airman You should report him. Your status as a Veteran might inspire some esprit de corps with the local police chief that us average citizens might not receive.
Banning pen lasers because of idiots is unreasonable. There are legitimate uses for them, pointing at big charts, blackboards and making cats go apeshit. 
Banning pen lasers is the worst kind of treating all people as toddlers who must be protected from sharp corners. Very nanny state.
Basic rule of thumb: if a citizen had done it to an off-duty cop, would the citizen have gotten dragged downtown? If the answer is “yes”, then cops have no business doing it either.
A citizen who did that to an off-duty cop could end up a hell of a lot worse than dragged off to jail.
blah blah blah, the law, the order, blah blah blah. Did you call the cops on the idiot yes or no?
I certainly hope that you report it. And if like guizot, you start getting the run-around or the push-back, then I’d recommend that you take it to a> The Mayor’s Office, b> The County Attorney, and potentially c> the local media.
Both those guys need to be suspended for a couple of days for that stunt.
Cops are people, just like the rest of us. I learned long ago not to put them on pedestals. They, as my former bosses at a certain University are prized examples of, can be just as stupid, ill mannered and corrupt as the next guy.
I think Airman reacted stronger than you or I would have. I don’t think it’s fair to compare the reaction we’d have versus the reaction of someone who’s been trained and been in situations where response one is “react to threat” and not “consider what alternatives threat could possibly be.”
And all that said, regardless of training, no, Airman didn’t overreact. He did EXACTLY the right thing. It wasn’t a laser pointer. It was a weapon aimed directly at him. I think that even if we forget everything else (the cop, the training, etc) and boil it down to real weapon pointed at person, Airman made the absolute correct decision and I think everyone was real lucky it ended as well as it did.
Airman, you definitely should report him. As you said, pointing a weapon at anyone is so far beyond irresponsible I wouldn’t want that person to be the one that got my call when I really needed help from the police. He deserves to lose his job for that.
And to those talking about laser pointers, I’m pretty sure it’s actually illegal to point laser pointers at people in my neck of the woods, at least after the whole DC Sniper thing. I’m not trained by the military, but in the same situation I would have reacted the same way, the fact that it was a real weapon (even a “non-lethal” one) just proves the point. Even as a joke, it still could have misfired and someone could have been seriously injured or killed.
Er… did you know the guy? 'Cause otherwise I don’t think he’d have known about this, etc.
When you are returning from Kilimanjaro and you hear hooves, you think zebras, not horses.
Welcome to the club.
I have a lot of respect for good cops, and i think the job that police are asked to do is a difficult and dangerous one. My stepfather is a retired cop, and i respect him and his sense of duty a lot.
But the profession does attract more than its fair share of permanent juveniles, douchebags, and plain old bullies.
What does that mean?
I was affirming **E-Sabbath’s **racial slur comment, not accusing Airman of being a racist, in fact I made a special point to say I didn’t believe it was a racist remark. I DID state it may be a Canadian thing, so again, what does your comment mean?
It sounds like it. I thought the same thing when he wrote “pulling a trick on another friend of mine”.
I met a guy there and he almost knocked me dead.
I see. But, one of our fellow Dopers got suspended for typing a racial remark about Asians and then (obviously within the 5 minute window) editing it out.
I had to look up what it meant and every definition said it was a racial slur against Asians. I can understand your husband being mad at the time it happened, but this was later. Was the officer Asian, or am I missing something? <—entirely possible.
While I agree the cops were beyond the limits of stupid, and I defend your right to bear arms, I have to question the wisdom of carrying in a bar. I’ve spent many hours in the nightclub my boyfriend and I own, as a manager and bartender, and have seen a mere war of words escalate into punches, knock downs, cops and ambulances. What would most likely be a fairly civil verbal disagreement turns into a freakin circus because alcohol factors into the mix. Even if you are able to keep your cool there’s no assurance that a pissed off drunk won’t relieve you of your weapon. Guns and alcohol are a dangerous mix.
Yes my post citing 3 other definitions common to people in the service and elsewhere.
Well, that definition does only have one vote for, and 27 against; hardly a ringing endorsement. Still think the benefit of the doubt should be extended to b]Airman**, though.
I guess I’m in the minority here. He saw a laser pointer dot and reached for his gun, which he was carrying in a bar. Holy, crap! This could have been a fucking disaster in which someone not wielding the Taser was killed. If your reflexes are that strong maybe you shouldn’t be carrying a gun around, especially in a bar.
I’d feel differently if he’d seen the man pointing the Taser; that might look like a gun. I’d still question the wisdom of bringing a gun into a bar.
I’ve never heard it as anything but a racist term before today. I don’t particularly care one way or the other if he was tossing out slurs, but I think it’s pretty weird that there’s this disconnect on the meaning of the word.