British police apologized on Wednesday for using a stun-gun on a blind man after police officers mistook his white cane for a samurai sword. The policemen were responding to several reports that a man was going around showing off a samurai sword in Chorley. When the police confronted Colin Farmer, 61, who was on his way to a local pub to meet up with some friends, he didn’t respond to their calls.
“I certainly didn’t know they were police – and I certainly didn’t know they were shouting at me. I thought I was going to be attacked by some hooligans,” Farmer told the Lancashire Evening Post newspaper.
One of the officers used his Taser gun on Farmer, serving up 50.000 debilitating volts, enough to cause severe pain and immobilize him.
Later, and despite his protests that he was blind, Farmer was handcuffed. Chief Supt. Stuart Williams said in a statement that “Lancashire Constabulary deeply regrets what has happened. We have clearly put this man through a traumatic experience and we are extremely sorry for that.”
The question asks itself: “Who is more blind? The blind man or the man who can’t distinguish between a white cane and a samurai sword?”
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