This is the first time I have seen a police officer (the one on the left) wearing chain mail (the article, in a local paper last week, said they were to secure a man for psychiatric treatment and they did in fact confiscate a dagger after he came along without putting up a fight. Well I’d have also come along peacefully in his place, but giggling a little, and possibly critiqueing the officer’s nonperiod helmet and sidearm).
Do police departments use chainmail often? I’ve only ever heard of chainmail gloves used in certain workplaces.
From a little Googling it looks like chain is being incorporated into stab-resistant vests. The photo in the OP looks almost like the anti-shark suits you see so I guess it is a full suit anti-stab outfit of some sort.
I was under the impression that Kevlar wasn’t all that good at stopping slow pointy things like knives. I read about some guy who accidentally killed himself by stabbing himself in the chest with a knife while wearing a Kevlar vest. He apparently thought that the vest was knife proof as well as bullet proof.
Chainmail may work well against knives (and sharks), but you really don’t want to use it against bullets. The military tested it way back when and found out that an incoming bullet shatters the chain and sends shrapnel fragments into you, making a significantly worse wound than you would have gotten from just the bullet alone.
Are anti-stab vests commonly issued to British police officers? However, all the ones I’ve seen look more like bullet-proof vests than chain mail. I think the Europe/US divide is particularly wide on this issue. Police officers in the U.S. are much more concerned about being shot, due to the wider availability of firearms here.
The local Police Department is conducting a manhunt in your area. If you know any information that would lead to the arrest of the person who robbed the 7-11 on the corner, you will be rewarded. You may ignore it at your own peril!
When Anne Wichert got it for the first time, she ignored it and a week later the love of her life dumped her for no good reason so BEWARE, and just send the stupid letter!!!
YOU MAY NOT WAIT FOR A CERTAIN TIME TO SEND IT… REMEMBER, IT MUST BE SENT TO 25 PEOPLE WITHIN 1 HOUR, OR YOUR WISH WILL NOT COME TRUE! If THIS CHAIN LETTER IS CONTINUED UNTIL THE YEAR 2021, IT WILL BE PLACED IN THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS!
Combination stab and ballistic vests are now routinely worn by British police officers, special constables and PCSOs on operational duty outside of police buildings. This tendency for a multi threat approach is preferred in the UK and Europe, and less popular in the USA.
This is all speculation but my impression is that if it were standard police gear, it would be made of cloth inlaid with chain mail. I would expect the cloth to say POLICE somewhere and have a few pockets for cuffs, pepper spray, etc, or that a vest would be worn over it.
Notice how the shirt could easily get in the way of drawing his weapon. It surely wasn’t designed for police use and still have that fault.
Just going by looks, it looks like an off duty SWAT guy who likes diving or midevil reenacting decided he had the perfect thing for this unique situation, and I would say he was right.
I was under the impression that chainmail was effective against slashing weapons, but not so much effective against thrusting weapons. A dagger would be very dangerous against old fashioned chainmail. Maybe newfangled chainmail is more effective.
I know that US police departments teach that you should shoot a suspect wielding a knife if they are within about 15 feet. It is just too damn dangerous.
Not as effective, but still effective - the links were riveted or otherwise shut so penetration is limited. Modern chain (butcher’s , diver’s) has rings that are just butted closed, so they open up and aren’t anywhere near as effective as the medieval stuff.
I had the not at all pleasure of taking the sleeve off of a butcher’s jacket made from Whiting & Davis’ No. 9 (or 5) to make an apron for our knife shop (knives + buffing wheels sometimes = knives flying 'round the shop, guy we knew severed his femoral artery that way :smack:).
Little, tiny, welded, and given the difficulty I had cutting it probably hardened, stainless steel rings. Too small to use anything that we had that would have made it easy, and a royal pain in the [del]ass[/del] hand with DYKEs.
That stuff would definitely stop a knife*. Icepicks not so much.
CMC fnord!
*At the very least turn what should have been a very deep stab wound into not very deep stab wound.