Canadian Police Captured an Imperial Stormtrooper on Star Wars Day. Sleep Easy, Citizens.
Source - A 19-year-old employee at a Star Wars-themed restaurant in Canada was tackled to the ground and handcuffed after she wore a stormtrooper costume outside the business to celebrate May the Fourth, but cops mistook her plastic blaster for a real weapon.
On May 4, also known as Star Wars Day, employees at Coco Vanilla Galatic Cantina in Lethbridge, Canada celebrated the special occasion by having the female staffer dress up in a costume from the film and greet customers outside.
But police were called after a passerby reported a person in a stormtrooper costume carrying a firearm.
Police flocked to the scene with their guns drawn and demanded the employee drop the weapon before forcing her on the ground, leaving her in tears.
Shocking video from the incident show at least three officers pointing their guns and screaming 'Get down on the ground' as she raises her hands in confusion because she couldn't hear them through the helmet.
When she allegedly refused to comply with orders to get on the ground, cops tackled her and forced her onto the sidewalk. ...
Bradley Whalen, the owner of Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina said ... the female employee had been outside promoting the restaurant for about an hour before cops arrived with their guns drawn.
'She had, at that point, been down on her knees, her blaster — the plastic blaster she was using — had been over by the corner of the parking lot, the police had already looked at it. They picked it up and had seen that it was just a plastic prop,' Whalen said.
I do everything I can not to criticize police officers who go head first into all sorts of life-threatening situations as a matter of routine while I sit at a laptop and sip coffee. But then it's not every day three of them take down a 19 year old female ice cream employee in an Imperial Stormtrooper costume carrying a plastic blaster on Star Wars Day.
I mean, do they not know about "Star Wars" in Canada? Have the 11 or so movies (if you want to count "Solo," and I'm sure Disney would prefer you didn't), various animated shows, LEGO films and one popular TV series not made a dent in the culture of Lethbridge yet? Did the cops think there are actual firearms that look exactly like "Star Wars" weapons that can be handled by someone with the voice of a teenage girl wearing that costume to go on a killing spree?
How about the people who called 911 after seeing her casually hanging outside a restaurant with a fucking Sci-Fi theme? Were they worried she was going to carry out Order 66 and wanted to save the Jedi Order because for over a thousand generations they've been the guardians of peace throughout the Republic?
And if you weren't absolutely convinced that the good city of Lethbridge was about to come under attack from a lone clone hellbent on forcing you to turn over those Death Star plans so they could find and destroy the base of you and your pathetic band of Rebel scum, was a "Hey there! Um, can you tell us what you're doing exactly?" completely out of the question? Or is the only solution to come in, guns drawn and force her to assume the position? I mean it when I say I'm really trying to give them the benefit of the doubt because maybe in Canada they have no idea what a rifle looks like as opposed to a hollow laser that George Lucas' prop master designed 43 years ago. But I can't find any way to forgive this. Even giving the cops the most latitude you possibly can, this is ridiculous and embarrassing.
I mean, even if she that was a real gun, they should know Stormtroopers can't hit anything. Nerf Herder! I wanted to go this whole blog without the obvious dad joke punchline. But it stays.
Be better, Canada.