A pleasant change of pace

[dianeduane]

(Like those UK commercials that showed things like giant hedgehogs running over tiny little trucks.)

Normally any time we hear the word "samurai" in a TV news story, Peter and I both wince, expecting to hear about somebody who's run amuck somewhere with a cheap katana. But today, for a change, it's something different.

Police are trying to trace a mysterious samurai sword-wielding vigilante who came to the rescue of two officers when they were being attacked by an armed gang.

The officers had been set upon after they tried to disrupt a burglary at a flat in Laygate, South Shields.

...One of [the burglars] lunged at a policeman with his knife - but just as he did so, a mysterious do-gooder appeared from nowhere and attacked [the burglar] with a samurai sword.

One of the burglars ran off, but was stopped by the stranger, who hit him on the arm with the sword.

He was arrested, along with another man from the flat, but in true superhero fashion the samurai man disappeared before police could speak to him.

Going to be interesting to see how this unfolds...

Comments

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Mysterious? How is it that he wasn't identifiable? Was he wearing a mask?

I haven't seen these hedgehog commercials of which you speak, but I do have a much-loved postcard, sent to me years ago by my mother, showing a hedgehog walking over a toy car. The caption on the back is "Hedgehog's Revenge". I really do like hedgehogs. :-)

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

It's quite probable that none of the police officers recognised him. Unless they had happened to be hanging around taking pictures of what was going on rather than attempting to assist their colleagues in danger, I would expect there to be no pictures either.

Being a burglary scene during winter, it was probably night-time.

So, unidentifiable, because no-one really got a good, considered look at him, and no pictures to look at afterwards. It really doesn't require a mask.

(BBC report)

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

H'mm, that makes sense. I tend to imagine that police officers are specially trained to remember details of faces, something I am extraordinarily bad at doing because I am so busy processing them into a snap impression about someone's character and/or mood. ("Ummm, no, officer... well, he was white, and, er, probably in his early twenties... I think he had light hair, but don't quote me on that, and he looked thoroughly cheesed off.") But in the circumstances I'm sure you're right.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Oe of my colleagues is a (now-former) part-time police officer. I know he's not superhuman! (Not even partly.)

I wonder if there's a name for the fallacy of assuming someone else is 100% competent. It must be pretty common. Well, I assume so, because I frequently suffer fall for it if I don't stop to think, and I'm not so egotistical as to maintain that even my mistakes are unique!

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

:-)

There ought to be a name for it, definitely. I'm tempted to call it Wilfred Syndrome, after a much-loved cuddly penguin in my possession whose expression suggests two things: 1) that he is extremely drunk, and 2) that the person he is looking at is most awfully clever, so that he is a little awestruck. I have a friend who finds him very comforting to have around while he is writing poetry, for that very reason.

[psycho-machia.livejournal.com]

there is a general assumption that police officers, judges etc are infallible in law. The best example of this is the belief that quiz masters are intelligent (when after all they have the answers in front of them, Ok Fry may be an exemption!)

It's called attribution error