An Arizona filmmaker trying to prove a point about police response time was arrested this week after making an amateur film in which a character dressed as a “terrorist” paraded through the busy streets of Phoenix wielding a fake rocket propelled grenade launcher.
Full Story – NY Daily News
We already know that police response time is generally shitty, so this retarded little stunt was uncalled for. It’s amazing that someone would do this, and not be worried about getting shot.
haha well YouTube user “Anon Filmmaker” (Michael D. Turley), isn’t anon any longer and on top of that he was charged with “creating a false impression of a terrorist act” and “endangerment contributing to the delinquency of a minor”
Calling this guy a “filmmaker” is doing a disservice to actual filmmakers out there. I bet he thinks this is going to make him famous and get him work.
Thoughts?
Hat tip: Aaron, Chris, Rob
Comments
31 responses to “Testing Police Response Time With A Fake RPG Launcher”
The reason the charges are being leveled now is because the police are embarrassed, not because anybody did anything wrong.
From a report:
Where do these charges require the response of a SWAT team? How do you feel about SWAT teams for disturbing the peace?
Disagree. Faking a crime is doing something wrong. Pointing a fake RPG at my car would result in shots fired. I’ve been shot at by RPGs enough that I’m positive I wouldn’t even think. My dysfunctional veteran brain would go “RPG! SHOOT, STUPID!”. Do you think the film-maker would NOT be suing if some dysfunctional veteran (like me) had dumped a cylinder of 357mag into the “actor”? Should people be placed in the situation where they may feel threatened enough to open fire on an “actor” (He levels the muzzle at a car at about 2:12)? Should police?
No, they didn’t need to send SWAT, but this retard needs to cool off in big-boy prison for a while. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
The response on the day in question was a beat cop with his 9/10MM showing up and asking about their activities. What if the same guy had walked down the street with an AR-15 on his shoulder?
Some concerned citizen called in and didn’t know that OC is legal. Beat cop shows up and asks the basic questions and leaves.
As for the 1+ ton bullet it’s true. But we are probably less than 10% of the American population.
Another issue is spotting someone carrying an RPG when you are going by at 35MPH. Ask yourself what the sign said for a yard sale 10 seconds after you pass it for a yard sale? Guy on a corner with a long tube at 35 is a courier. A combination of situational awareness, threat assessment, timing (i.e. stoplights), looking for trouble, and a small population of those who go to the noise means it may have been skipped by about 90% who saw it.
Of course they sent the SWAT team. PDs deploy SWAT teams for all kinds of stupid stuff now. At least they hit the right house this time. Guy is an idiot but he should have been arrested not this wait and send the SWAT team later crap.
Man that is very ballsy to pull off in a state that is known for being full of citizen who carry.
I’m surprised no citizen stopped had I seen someone pointing an RPG at me real or fake I don’t think id calmly just drive off to Walmart.
Some jerkoffs stand in the street with bed sheets and giggling with a camera and wonders why no one goes “OH GOD TERRORIST”; It’s because you look like a fucking asshole and nobody gave a shit. Should have been shot.
Amen dude. This isn’t “gutsy” or “compelling”. This is some dumb fucking faggot who stole a baby blue sheet off his moms fucking cum stained futon. This giant douche bag danced like a dickface for 5 minutes in an intersection and wondered why no one thought he was threatening. The only thing that was successfully threatened was my patience for assholes.
Even if you were unarmed, you have a two ton battering ram and enough horsepower. I might find myself up on the sidewalk with the threat eliminated if someone pointed what I thought was a real RPG at my vehicle. This is beyond stupid, it was menacing, plain and simple. They’re lucky that getting arrested was the worst that happened.
Okay folks, I’m a recently retired police officer… 31 years between Military Police and on the street. If I had rolled up on this idiot and he pointed what appears to me to be an RPG-7 at ANYONE he would’a got dead real fast. Kids waving squirt guns in dark yards and alleys get shot because people like me don’t live in the world most citizens do. Uniforms live in a world of “possibilities.” the common folk live in a world of “probablilities.” To a cab driver or soccer mom it’s a guy waving a funny pipe in a woman’s dress. To anyone who watches enough propaganda (i.e. the News) it MIGHT be an rocket launcher he saw Arnie use on some bad guys but hey, this is America it probably isn’t. To a Vet outta Vietnam or back from the desert – same deal… they don’t have those things over here. To a cop, soldier, sailor, airman, marine, fireman even an EMT… it’s a deadly weapon being pointed at people by what appears to be some crazy guy.. He dies and the moron who thought this was a good idea goes in as a accomplice. Then I call the dead guys family apoligise profusely and offer to testify at the civil trial suing the moron who came up with the stunt for everthing he’s worth. For the record, like a great many nowadays I’ve been on the receiving end of a few of these and even fired one or two myself.
Not disagreeing with you, but with how much the “Arab Spring” (I hate that term but that’s another story) and the war in Iraq and such have been on TV, I’m sure everyone recognizes the RPG-7 as a rocket launcher.
You’d be testifying at your own civil trial if that happened. The family would sue you and the police or sheriff’s department. Two reasons: 1) no proximate cause on the filmmaker makes it a tougher case. He may have gotten the guy to do something stupid, but he’s not the one who killed him and couldn’t have reasonably foreseen it happening. 2) The filmmaker can’t have a whole lot of assets to be making this. Police department represents the bigger financial target. Not saying that’s right, but its what would happen. Also like Anonymous said, I’m pretty sure everybody knows that what the guy’s holding looks like a rocket launcher.
PJ, between the video game-RPG-MMORPG generation and a lot of men and more and more women living vicariously through Hollyweirds idea of combat, you and Anon are pobably right and more citizens would recognize it as a rocket launcher. Still, I stand by my point about too many people just driving by either through an utter lack of “give a damn” or bethe cause of “it can’t happen here syndrome.” I believe this only because I’ve seen it happen too many times. As far as the proximity of a film crews goes, between independent cameramen, local TV crews, and people on the street sticking cameras out for every fender bender, fire, traffic stop, and arrest I would not be surpised by their presence nearby. I also have to also point out that recently terrorist groups have made it a habit of bringing their own video cameraman during attacks, the al Jazeera effect as it were. So unless that film crew managed to get my attention BEFORE I saw the RPG and convince me it’s a fake, he’s done. I was trained and I have trained many officers to deal with the biggest threat first. The rocket could kill a bus load of school kids driving innocently down the street on a field trip. As a peacekeeper I could NOT take the chance it was not a real deadly weapon. Like I’ve always said and really believe , in this kind of case – better judged by 12 than carried by 6. In the end, calling in a fake serious crime in action would have done the same thing without the danger. In hindsight, Punish3r said it right- I DRIVE a 1 ton bullet and was paid to go to the sound of gun fire…
PJ , I have to disagree with your comment that he “couldn’t have forseen ” the danger or possible results of making this film. He makes the point in his narration that they both “put ourselves in great danger” making the film.
I also have to ask, which civil suit would be greater, the one brought forth by two individuals who willfully engaged in an ill-advised, panic inducing stunt, or the one brought forth by several members of the area who lost family members do to a lack of proper response to an incident caused by an explosive device?
I have some questions to ask : if someone presents a weapon as real, should
it be considered real until it is verified to be fake/inert? Is the reason the person hasn’t fired yet because it’s fake and he can’t, or because he only has the one rocket and wants to wait until the police are on-scene to engage them? Does a real weapon presented by someone in a silly costume make it any less lethal because of the costume?
Okay, so were the cops in Salt Lake right to shoot and kill the guy on the lite rail station today? Had a switch connected to wires runing into his back pack. Afer hours of talk – took a walk towards the cops, shot, DOA at hospital. Shooting officer on desk duty until IA and Grand Jury clear it as a good shoot. This is normal – cops kills someone it’s an automatic manslaughter charge, IA is in your life as deep as they want to go, and a Grand Jury or Article 32 hearing in the military. Bottom line – real bomb or not, police couldn’t take the least chance it was a fake. Heck, you could carry the generator for a Nuclear Medicine system with enough TNT, C-4, RDX, or homemade plastique in a standard sized packback and made a nice little dity bomb. If the couriers for the Salt Lake City hospitals are as nonchalant about locking their trucks while delivering radioactive salts and generators… a minimal of preplanning and it’s as bad as it gets folks… just can not take the chance.
and i’m sure you would enjoy your 42usc1983 suit mr internet tough guy
31 years behind a shield. Federal and State certified FTO, Firearms Instructor, Federal, contractor, and State certified Tactical Officer. For time “Comrade Kavanaugh”, Soviet Weapons and Tactics Instructor. After we wore the Soviet Union down became Middle Eastern Revolutionary Warfare Specialist. Even ran a criminal investigation office in Eastern Turkey for a while. Never a SEAL, Green Beanie, Ranger… worked with Special Ops enough to get a “Honorary Member” plaque… but that went with those guys getting me shot at. Anyone want my complete curriculum vitae is welcome to it. I AM NOT blowing my horn, JUST trying to point out if someone diasgrees with you with a strong opinion isn”t automatically wrong OR an Internet Armchair Ranger. Courts up to and including the SCOTUS has repeatedly found cases like this justified. These fiilm makers MAY have a point, as thinkingh and reasonable citizens this was the worng way to try and prove it.
i can only assume more people werent worried because they also figured they were making a movie….
1) the kid was wearing a bed sheet and a tshirt around his face, running around like a 12 year old making a youtube movie with his buddies….
2) the camera guy was standing right next to him the entire tme.
great costume bahahahaha and great choice of weapon… put a black guy out there with a pistol walking around that neighborhood and see how fast the cops show
Seriously… these guys are lucky they didnt get shot,… if I saw a guy with a rocket launcher I would have probably pulled off somewhere and drawn my weapon on him until he put down the rocket launcher.
RPG (LAW, AT4), that’s a whole greater threat than an idiot with a handgun. Think about this, with one of those, there ain’t much cover available unless you drive up in a M1 tank. Having the camera man in close proximity is probably what kept him from trying to bench press a Crown Vic.
Not really.. He only had one rocket and after it’s fired all he has is a tube. Dude could have done much more damage with a “barrel magazine” and one of those shoulder things that goes up.
“creating a false impression of a terrorist act” thats a law?
Sounds like they just made that shit up.
He could get out of it perhaps. He filmed it, so it could fall under Free Speech.
i would walk past a guy with a rpg and ignore him everyday. The odds of it being real would keep it from bothering me, as it did with all the folks in the video who saw him and thought ‘theres some shmuck with a toy rpg making a movie’
haha right? Attention whores
The people in that theater didn’t think it was real until people started dying in front of them.
Okay, so was the camera guy clearly visible as well the whole time? If so, it taints the whole purpose of the video and the “result” is the subdued response and time delay.
i dont understand why the “terrorist” had to look middle eastern
This was obviously a stunt. A VERY STUPID ONE. He should be charged as an actual terrorist and be put in prison for the rest of his life. Fucking asshole. The average response time for a bank robbery is over 5 minutes. Did they really think a guy dancing around in a bed sheet carrying a fake rocket launcher was going to convince people he was a terrorist?
Stunts like this are not protected by free speech, they are an ABUSE of the first amendment’s intent. If I was armed and found myself face to face with some fuckwad parading with what appears to be an RPG-7, ide shoot first and ask questions later. Lucky for them, these clowns have been spared from being added to the Darwin Award Winners 2012 list.
Having spent 4 tours in the recent conflicts and multiple other police actions and numerous low intensity conflicts, had I seen this idiot, I’d have laughed my ass of then proceeded to whoop his little skinny ass and sent him packing. Honestly, how many opportunities are we going to get in the US to kick an idiots ass…ok don’t answer that…lol. But seriously, that was a free pass to give an ass kicking.
That fucktard looked like a retarded kid on his way to his buddy’s bus stop so they could go to the local airsoft game posing as Opfor or some such shit. That RPG looked pretty damn fake too. But to a normal person, I guess it looks real enough to shoot :)
I think that this guy was just vying for attention he didn’t get from his mama. Jumping around like a wounded monkey. He looked about as middle eastern as a purple unicorn. Dumbass.
I can hear the 911 call now…
…911, what’s your emergency
Uh…I’m going east on blah blah street and I see a guy in a blue bedsheet and sweatpants jumping around with a long pipe on his shoulder. I think it looks like an RPG from the movies.
….really…hmmm…is the subject still there?
…yes
…what’s he doing?
…he’s pacing back and forth doing nothing…wait…he just jumped again…
…sir can you describe the subject?
…sure…a white or Hispanic male dressed in a blue sheet, a black sheet around his head, and some dark sweatpants…oh god…wait…he just jumped again…now he’s walking the opposite direction. He is running from a couple of guys that are following him…
…ok sir…the police are on their way. Please stay away from the subject and stay out of the officers way. They’ll be there soon.
…priceless