[CxofxJFm]

lucky the guy wasent carring a Iaito. i figure the faculty should know by now since their building houses a Dojo that does both kendo and Iaido. but i guess better safe then sorry just hope they give the guy back his bokken and shinai :P



http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...109?hub=Canada

[tevyrefficy]

Cheese and rice! Well, better safe than sorry, I suppose. Everyone's understandably jumpy in that situation.

[jadabaad]

Wow. Initially, I thought, "Overreact much?" But then I read about the previous school killings in Montreal and I answered myself, "Oh. No. I suppose not, eh?"

Good thing to keep in mind in our culture of ultra-violence: try not to be flashy with the mock weapons. Unfortunately, I have to carry my equipment to several classes on Tuesdays. Unavoidable, but luckily I have a few Japanese exchange students who can back up the fact that I'm not necessarily a danger to others.

[immewaycypef]

As martial artists, we should be aware of what we present ourselves to people outside of our arts.

I read some schools in the US banned trenchcoats for the very same reason.

[97dYA9L3]

montreal tactical squad members look very well padded.

pete

[D6b2v1HA]

I hope the bokken wasn't loaded!

[thegamexpertsdotcom]

I hope the bokken wasn't loaded!

Brilliant.

[CicyHannyCeli]

Wow. Initially, I thought, "Overreact much?" But then I read about the previous school killings in Montreal and I answered myself, "Oh. No. I suppose not, eh?"

Good thing to keep in mind in our culture of ultra-violence: try not to be flashy with the mock weapons. Unfortunately, I have to carry my equipment to several classes on Tuesdays. Unavoidable, but luckily I have a few Japanese exchange students who can back up the fact that I'm not necessarily a danger to others.

yea feel the same since i somtime come into work with my bokken and Iai to do some training after work when i cant go back home and it made me wonder "what if" security in the subway decided to stop me. :P
especialy since i walk around in a trench coat :P i guess its a wake up to all JSA practitioners that have to lug their equipment around. its all in the presentation

[avaissema]

In Japan it is illegal to carry around shinai (not sure about bokken) if they are not in a shinai bag. Makes sense.

[grattperret]

Cheese and rice! Well, better safe than sorry, I suppose. Everyone's understandably jumpy in that situation.

Well Chaz, with all due respect, isn't that just another step in the erosion of civil liberties and the creation of a police state?

"Well golly, he looked suspicious to me (or we opened his mail or listened in on his telephone conversations or went through his trash or monitored his e-mail or did a search of the internet to see who was looking at certain tagged photos or videos) so we broke into his house and dragged him and his family out into the street at gunpoint in the middle of the night and did body cavity searches on them. Better safe than sorry."

Need I remind you of the words of Benjamin Franklin?

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

What is the solution? How about training the police better so they don't have the "Break out the black ninjer suits and set up fields of fire" attitude all of the time.

I know this is Canada but the same applies to the U.S. You want safety? Let's just change the constitution and let a bunch of guys, a large percentage of whom are not qualified to be bag boys in the Piggly Wiggly, decide who is suspicious. Let them set up check points all over the place and stop and search people for no reason at all just to make sure they are not up to no good.
This is necessary because the State is more important than the individual.

Wait a minute. . . didn't they try that in Russia? Nice theory but doesn't work in practice because the people doing the searching never understood the philosophical reasoning, they were just looking for a better job with more money and personal power.

End of my rant. . .

[bettingonosports]

In Japan it is illegal to carry around shinai (not sure about bokken) if they are not in a shinai bag. Makes sense.

hehe the funny thing here is that the guy that called 911 saw the guy walking around with his shinai bag thinking there was a rifle in it. if the student actualy was walking around with just his shinai the guy wouldent have called 911 go figure :P

i guess if the employe at concordia had been more informed about the activities happening in his own school he might have reacted less violently to this event. and for sure that in 6 months it wont be as bad the fact that there was a shooting at dawson college not 3 months ago makes everyone still on edge :P

[Kamendoriks]

hehe the funny thing here is that the guy that called 911 saw the guy walking around with his shinai bag thinking there was a rifle in it. if the student actualy was walking around with just his shinai the guy wouldent have called 911 go figure :P

i guess if the employe at concordia had been more informed about the activities happening in his own school he might have reacted less violently to this event. and for sure that in 6 months it wont be as bad the fact that there was a shooting at dawson college not 3 months ago makes everyone still on edge :P

Maybe someone should design a clear zip-lock shinai bag.

I've seen a guy with a rifle case at Philadelphia airport and nobody got excited.

[irrascaft]

I've seen a guy with a rifle case at Philadelphia airport and nobody got excited.

That's Philly. Unless the dude has a bazooka or something, business as usual...

[Beatris]

I worked at a building where the majority of people were employed in computer software development.
Every night security would check bags leaving the building.
Enormous employee discontent, especially with women having handbags searched by the rent-a-cops.

Security decided to have seminars to educate the masses (us) on the necessity for these searches.

They were asked what their staff knew what they were looking for in the bags. Asked if their staff knew what was or was not valuable software, what software was covered by licences, what a site licence was, and informed that there was nothing in the building which came within a fraction of the value of the software.

The searches stopped that day.

[DraidodaRip]

this is quite sad

*looks at $80 mcgill application he just sent*

[outsitWrord]

Once, when I was still learning shinai ettiquette, I elected to get a bit of excercise on my way to the nearby grocery store, so I took my shinai along to do suburi as I walked... casualy of course, it being a nice summer day.

No one had ever shown anything but bemused curious interest in my suburi as I often practiced around my apartment grounds (too tall for indoor swinging, ya know)... I was clueless.

On my way back from the store...

... a city police cruiser rolled to an abrupt stop, the officer hopped out and demanded I "DROP THE WEAPON ON THE GROUND AND STEP AWAY"... his hand was resting on his firearm, and he looked nervous.

Genuinly surprised, I smiled politely and placed the shinai on the ground and took a few steps away from it.

After I calmed him down, I explained what I was up to and showed him how the shinai was constructed... apparently "Kendo" was a new term for him, so I explained that too.

Often I wonder what would have happened if he had found me with my huge, grungy old wooden Suburito in hand as I would take THAT along and do suburi on my way to the 7-11 late at night.



My walks just haven't been the same without the opportunity for a bit of Kendo excercise... it really sharpend up my game to combine even a little suburi practice with an everyday activity.

No wonder I have virtually stopped taking walks.

[RerRibreLok]

As mingshi said, as martial artists, we need to be aware of how we present ourselves to people unfamiliar with our art. Any person walking down the street doing kicks and punches to practice any empty hand martial art would raise suspicion in a cop, but you were swinging a weapon around. You certainly couldn't be surpised that someone who had never heard of a shinai, let alone kendo, was unaware that it isn't necessarily a dangerous weapon.

As for the suburito, you could easily kill someone with a strike to the head with that. You probably also shouldn't walk around with a baseball bat in the middle of the night.

I do suburi in my co-op common backyard and get to see the neighbors staring through their windows. I certainly would never do suburi downtown on a random street corner.

BTW, my father-in-law was a deputy sheriff in San Jose, and he's seen cops draw their firearms for less than suburi with shinai. San Jose cops are a jumpy lot, with good enough reason, so be careful provoking them.

[pupyississido]

. . .
BTW, my father-in-law was a deputy sheriff in San Jose, and he's seen cops draw their firearms for less than suburi with shinai. San Jose cops are a jumpy lot, with good enough reason, so be careful provoking them.

A couple of decades ago I used to do jujitsu with a cop from San Jose. I asked him how they would go about arresting a Samoan. He said they would call up the chief and ask him to bring the guy in.
Nowadays they would probably send out two hundred heavily armed swat guys with tanks.
Oh my, times they have changed.

I read something today that made me think of this thread, saying "Oh well, better safe than sorry" is kind of like using a condom. You have a temporary feeling of security but you are still getting screwed.

[movlabs]

"Oh well, better safe than sorry" is kind of like using a condom. You have a temporary feeling of security but you are still getting screwed.

LOL

You say that like it's a bad thing. I never mind getting screwed. I might even prefer it to doing the screwing myself.

[juliannamed]

LOL

You say that like it's a bad thing. I never mind getting screwed. I might even prefer it to doing the screwing myself.

You talk as if the person doing the screwing was even remotely attractive to you, or that you had some choice in the matter