Sword attack

[arcticpenguin]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6682023%255E1702,00.html

A US supermarket employee killed two people and wounded three others when he went on the rampage with a Samurai-style sword yesterday, police said today.

Joseph Parker, 30, a grocery bagger at the store where the attack took place in the Los Angeles area, began attacking customers and staff with the sword before being felled in a hail of police bullets.

Sad. Now call me sick, but I found this next paragraph comical:
Parker attacked in silence, almost beheading one of his victims, as some employees, arming with items from store shelves such as barbecue utensils and rubbish can lids, tried to defend themselves, Love said.

[mjv]

Thank goodness someone showed up with a hand gun and stopped his murderous rampage. Darned if those things don't come in handy sometimes...

Maybe we should ban swords...because there can be only one...purpose for them.

[kittynh]

gosh, I'm sorry penguin, but I cracked up too.

I just had an image of throwing bananas in his path, total mayhem in the produce aisle.

[Gem]

Maybe he was one of those guy from the Matrix? And the guy with the handgun was agent Smith?

Didn't anyone ask what he was doing with a Samurai sword?

Gem

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by Gem

Didn't anyone ask what he was doing with a Samurai sword?

Gem
It was probably obscured by the long coat until he drew his blade.

[EdipisReks]

i'm assuming the media meant "katana", as the Samurai used a lot of different types of swords.

[Richard G]

Wheres the outrage? I don't hear anyone screaming for sword registration and confiscation.

Those evil guns the police had are horrible. Why do they carry those impliments of death?

[Frostbite]

All that loser wanted was media attention... thanks to journalists, he got what he wanted.

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by Frostbite
All that loser wanted was media attention... thanks to journalists, he got what he wanted.
If you read any of the articles, it is clear that the "loser" was mentally unbalanced.

[Frostbite]

Originally posted by arcticpenguin

If you read any of the articles, it is clear that the "loser" was mentally unbalanced.

What are you talking about?

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by Frostbite


What are you talking about?
You make it sound like he was some kind of attention wh_re. The man was mentally ill. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He held conversations with himself.

Now what were YOU talking about?

[Frostbite]

Hmm, sorry I hit a nerve. You sound irritated. I've seen other similar cases and they always wanna make a point and have their ugly mugs in the newspapers. Including a girl I knew who got shot in the face at the Montreal Polytechnique 15 years ago by a Rambo wannabe who wanted to make a point. Those guys are insane, yes, but they're also attention wh_res.

[thaiboxerken]

This is another reason to learn martial arts/self-defense. You can't always have a gun with you, but a supermarket is full of weapons that could've been used to neutralize this person.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I thought this was another episode of "Samurai Grocery Store". :D

[peptoabysmal]

I can't help but wonder if the sword was the "real McCoy" or one of the cheap copies. The fact that he nearly beheaded one of his victims makes me think it was the "real thing". The real katana and wakizashi sword are expensive treasures.

[thaiboxerken]

I doubt that a grocery store employee would have the resources to get a geniune katana.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by arcticpenguin

You make it sound like he was some kind of attention wh_re. The man was mentally ill. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He held conversations with himself.

Now what were YOU talking about?
I talk to myself all the time... well not myself but the pixies inside my head... and I'm plenty stable.

[DragonLady]

[sigh] Even most of the cheap copies would be good enough to do this kind of damage.

I have a cheap knife I bought to hang on a wall as a decoration. I wanted to cover a wall with cheap versions of Wiccan ritual tools because I thought be interesting.

I bought it for next-to-nothing from a catalog because it looked cool and I thought it wouldn't really be dangerous.

But when I opened it, I discovered that even though the steel is cheap, it's razor sharp & could seriously hurt someone.

It's still locked in a desk drawer, because I have no use for it.

[Yahweh]

I have lots of weaponry on my walls also... the only combination I stay away from is the "Sickle and Hammer"... even if those things are 10 feet apart from each other people will still call you a communist... ???

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

call me sick but:


"Clean up in aisle 4..."

[Giz]

Originally posted by arcticpenguin
with items from store shelves such as barbecue utensils and rubbish can lids


Soon to inspire a major film starring Jackie Chan...

[kittynh]

Pool Boy often has to travel with a sword for his second job. Even before 9-11 he had a time carrying it on. Since it was his fathers sword he will never check it, plus, what do you put it in? Usually a friendly former flyboy is in the cockpit so it flies with the crew. But now he has the fun of walking through the airport with it. (It does have a case, but you can tell what is in there).

[kittynh]

Just think, if these had been my jelous old boyfriends, this could have made the evening news.

[Jaggy Bunnet]

Originally posted by mjv
Thank goodness someone showed up with a hand gun and stopped his murderous rampage. Darned if those things don't come in handy sometimes...

Maybe we should ban swords...because there can be only one...purpose for them.

Of course if he had gone about it properly and turned up with several handguns, he might have managed a far better score then two! That's hardly going to get him on the high score table, is it?

[Nikk]

Originally posted by Jaggy Bunnet


Of course if he had gone about it properly and turned up with several handguns, he might have managed a far better score then two! That's hardly going to get him on the high score table, is it?

Handguns!!!

To do the thing properly you need an assault rifle. A sword... In the US!... Well really!.... He just wasn't trying and nobody in the US likes a loser.

Personally I think it was a cry for help.

[3-toed-sloth]

I talked about this at work today, I had this mental image of a fruitcake with a kamikaze head band charging around the store swinging a katana.

I was thinking, what if a group of shoppers stating hurling cans of beans at this guy. I think getting hit in the face with a can of beans would be quite painful. If the beans didn't work you could slow him down by throwing molasses at him (or bleach).

I guess if it were a Ginsu katana it would be able to slice through the can of beans and still be sharp enough to dismember a shopper.

It is sad that 2 people died, but it is very funny is a sick sort of way.

[Thumper]

It's time we outlaw swords. There is no constitutional guarantee of a right to bear swords! I say we collect them all for our safety.

Or not. :)

[peptoabysmal]

Originally posted by 3-toed-sloth
I talked about this at work today, I had this mental image of a fruitcake with a kamikaze head band charging around the store swinging a katana.

I was thinking, what if a group of shoppers stating hurling cans of beans at this guy. I think getting hit in the face with a can of beans would be quite painful. If the beans didn't work you could slow him down by throwing molasses at him (or bleach).

I guess if it were a Ginsu katana it would be able to slice through the can of beans and still be sharp enough to dismember a shopper.

It is sad that 2 people died, but it is very funny is a sick sort of way.

It depends what aisle you are standing in when it happens. I can't imagine that the feminine hygiene products aisle would be all that useful for defending oneself from a sword attack. On the other hand, if you were in household cleaners, a bottle full of ammonia would be a stunning defense.

[thaiboxerken]

People get scared, and sometimes so scared that they fail to act rationally. I doubt that any of the injured and killed every trained for such a scenario. When scared, people will not handle situations that they haven't trained for very well.

[thaiboxerken]

Originally posted by Jaggy Bunnet


Of course if he had gone about it properly and turned up with several handguns, he might have managed a far better score then two! That's hardly going to get him on the high score table, is it?

Probably not as satisfying to the kid as killing with a sword was. Someone like this is very scary, as with a gun it's easy to distance one's self from the act. With a sword or any melee weapon, killing is more personal and intimate.

[Byzantine Magpie]

Yeah, just as well he didn't have firearms.

One big difference between a sword and a firearm (for those obsessed with people's right to keep them) is that swords can generally only hurst people within a couple of metres of you. Firearms can hurt people hundreds of metres away. Therefore the potential number of victims is greatly reduced.

Sorry, I'm not in the mood to see the funny side of stories like this.

[Crossbow]

Amen Byzantine Magpie!

I have never been in a real sword fight, although I have fought several times with stout wood swords without wearing any sort of protective gear. Once I had to wrestle a gun away from someone who was about to commit suicide, and I can tell you that these sorts of things are extremely scary.

So I can only imagine the level of fear the poor people who had to face this psycho, therefore I also refuse to make jokes about this event.

[Jude]

I just keep picturing Lancelot's saga in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and laughing my behind off. I'm sorry if this makes me insensitive... I just can't help it.

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by Crossbow

So I can only imagine the level of fear the poor people who had to face this psycho, therefore I also refuse to make jokes about this event.
I'm sure it was traumatic, and it was sad, and people died, and yet I insist on my right to make jokes. It's a means of coping.

Maybe you could climb to the top of the shelves and lob bags of charcoal down on him.

[Crossbow]

Originally posted by arcticpenguin

I'm sure it was traumatic, and it was sad, and people died, and yet I insist on my write to make jokes. It's a means of coping.

Maybe you could climb to the top of the shelves and lob bags of charcoal down on him.

Well AP, maybe we just have different ways of coping.

There is approximately 6 to 8 liters of blood in the average human body and the person who was decapitated probably spilled all of his on the floor of that grocery store.

Imagine for a moment going to your grocery store isle where they sell two-liter bottles of soda products. Anyone ever see the mess that results when one of those bottles falls to the floor and breaks open? I have: it makes a big puddle, the floor gets sticky, the stuff gets on your shoes which in turn make a good bit noise when walking around getting the rest of the groceries, the wheels of the cart make long tracks, and so on.

Now imagine that if three or four of those bottles were filled with blood and all of then fell to the floor and broke open. That was just one of the things that happened on that day.

[Frostbite]

Originally posted by Crossbow

[...]

Now imagine that if three or four of those bottles were filled with blood and all of then fell to the floor and broke open. That was just one of the things that happened on that day.

Dude, I was having such a lovely day until I read that. :(

[Crossbow]

Originally posted by Frostbite


Dude, I was having such a lovely day until I read that. :(

Sorry about that!

I was getting the distinct impression that my earlier posts were not being understood.

[c0rbin]

some employees, arming with items from store shelves such as barbecue utensils and rubbish can lids, tried to defend themselves

Why didn't anyone hurl a can of soup at this clown? A well-shaken can of coke can be a deadly weapon.

BBQ utensils!

These people are asking for death against even a replica katana.

[voidx]

As one who practices Medieval/Renassaince sword arts quite extensively (And its nothing like Role Playing/Monty Python/or any movie ever made portray it to be) I find this incident unfortunate. Its happened several times in the past few years, and because its quite unusual always makes the headlines. It also elicits a knee-jerk ban swords outcry. For every pyscho out there there are 100's of responsible owners and practioners out there that own and use these items responsibly. In cases of people like me doing test cuts on various items to try and get a sense of how our anscestors used these weapons, and how exactly the techniques were employed. Its like Gun registration, its a grey area. I would have no problem registering any of my bladed weapons if I thought in reality it would actually make society a safer place. But as with gun registration, this just isn't always the case in practice.

Heavy cans and other things might have been used for defense (and probably quite effectively so) but as mentioned, most people either freeze, or just run, in the face of situations like this. It wouldn't have to be an authentic blade persay. While it would be very likely to break within a few hits of real targets a crappy replica would still work if he knew how to swing it right. The shape of the blade and speed do most of the work in cutting with swords.

I also agree with the sentiment that if he was more mentally unstable, using a melee weapon would very much more satisfy that kind of urge. Two main reasons why ranged weapons came more and more into the fore is because they could kill more effectively and from a distance, and also you could train more people to kill others from a distance rather than close up. Getting splattered with your foes blood and seeing the up close results of what you're weapon can do to the human body require a much different and more unique mindset than the alternative.

While I can appreciate the humour of some people, I also agree with Crossbow, knowing what the effects of these weapons would have made that scene look like is more than grisly, and I feel very sorry for anyone who lost someone to this incident. On the other hand I also regret it because it ends up being another hurdle that serious practioners and serious students of the arts have to overcome to justify what they do.

[Ziggurat]

I've got a fairly morbid sense of humor, so this story reminded me of this :D

http://www.theonion.com/onion3535/disgruntled_ninja.html

[bangdazap]

Originally posted by Yahweh
I have lots of weaponry on my walls also... the only combination I stay away from is the "Sickle and Hammer".
Ah yes, the Sickle and the Hammer... the ancient symbol for friendship between druids and carpenters.