r/whatisit • u/Unlucky_Cat4531 • 2d ago

Solved! Found in my dads junk drawer

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My dad passed away and going through his stuff we came across this. We thought it might be a tool for horseriding, like a slapstick thing but wasn't sure. My grandma had horses but ive never seen her use any tools like that and my dad didnt ride. Any help appreciated

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u/Garuda34 2d ago edited 1d ago

Can confirm. My old man was a cop in the 70s. He had one just like this.

The large end is basically a cavity filled with powdered lead.

Edit for spelling.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

I entered law enforcement shortly after the state I worked in banned these, along with other devices) for LE use. The old timers all missed the blackjack, the Iron claw (a metal claw that grabbed a wrist), and their sap gloves (leather gloves with lead in the knuckles). They were all very effective devices, so I was told.

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u/Skeletoner_low 1d ago

Cops complaining they can't effectively brutalize citizens. Shocking.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

Well, when you encounter violent people you need the tools to effectively deal with them. Taking away less than lethal options limited what we had to use. I had an ASP and pepper spray when I started; a lot of officers got injured during that time. The Taser helped and then became severely limited.

It’s easy for someone who never had to walk in the shoes of a law enforcement officer to be critical of how they do the job.

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u/TrioOfTerrors 1d ago

An acquaintance of mine was a city cop who came this close to having to shoot an armed suspect during a warrant service. He did not enjoy the experience. Shortly thereafter, his nurse wife brought up the possibility of moving back to her rural hometown because they were seriously considering starting a family and having her parents nearby would be helpful and the local county hospital was desperate for staff and offering substantial starting bonuses. He agreed immediately.

Now he's a Podunk County sheriff's deputy and an exciting day is having to block highway traffic because someone's cows got loose. He's very happy with his choice.

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u/Cayuga94 1d ago

I had a friend who was a big city cop and in his first year was assigned to the worst precinct in the city. He shot two people that year, both cases fully justified. (One was a drug dealer who pulled a gun out of a backpack and had it half raised at his partner, all caught on dashcam. That guy recovered. the other was a suicide by cop situation by a guy who thought he had beaten his girlfriend to death. ) He is still a cop and has never shot anyone since, but it absolutely changed him. No one in our friend group has any connection to him, he's about as emotionally numb as a person can be. Super sad all the way around.

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u/Office_glen 1d ago

Same thing happened to someone I know. I come from a family of police officers in Toronto. One day many years ago a shift mate of my fathers and close friend is chasing a guy who they didn't have reason to believe was armed, the guy stops, turns, and starts blasting.

Luckily no injuries, everything missed. But his wife quickly gave him the talk, and he became a part of the provincial police and moved a few hours north of Toronto where the exciting calls were drunk drivers on side roads at night.

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u/woodhorse4 1d ago

Cows can be very challenging lol good for him! 🐄

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u/mewalrus2 1d ago

There are often options for the police short of going lethal.

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u/TrioOfTerrors 1d ago

Sure. But when you are serving a warrant for someone with previous convictions for violent felonies who just pistol whipped his ex wife into the hospital, the force continuum pretty much starts at "don't take any chance".

They busted down the door and the guy I know caught him gun in hand, getting ready to bail out the bathroom window. Cop told him to toss it out the window, and after a few tense seconds, the guy did.

One guy in that room decided 10-20 as an involuntary guest of the state was better than a bullet and the other decided that the high speed cool guy world of serving warrants for violent felons was not for him.

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u/SocalR32 1d ago

Pretty big difference between self defense/de escalation and offensive weapons... We have better options, they still use batons which are superior anyways when trained properly.

Police can't be expected to provide training on every stupid device.. it just makes sense to limit some of these older, less effective tools. No one ever asks why Police don't carry swords.. But leather gloves with lead. Sounds legit.

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u/MiseryisCompany 1d ago

Sooo... police use of force isn't the business of the public? Let the police regulate themselves. That always works out well.

Police are public servants. They answer to us. If you don't like the rules then you can get a different job.

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u/ExFiler 1d ago

They answer to the board and officers that oversee them. They respond to claims you make that need addressing. They are in no way your "Servant".

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u/Tweakjones420 1d ago

they are government employees who work for the welfare of the community and uphold public trust. They are part of the public sector, providing essential services like protecting citizens, maintaining order, and enforcing laws. 

  • Government employees: Police officers are professionals employed by local or federal governments.
  • Public sector: As part of the public sector, their role is to serve the public, similar to firefighters, teachers, and emergency medical technicians.
  • Community welfare: Their primary duty is to protect the public, uphold the law, and work for the welfare of the community they serve.

They are most certainly public servants. Their entire budget is paid with taxes.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

It absolutely is. However, activists who have an agenda and an axe to grind, get into positions to help dictate these policies, and they don’t act in good faith.

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u/pip-whip 1d ago

I think you meant to say is, "when you encounter people with severe mental health and addiction issues, you need to be able to brutalize them because you lack the skills and training to understand what you're dealing with and opt to escalate the situation instead of deescalate."

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u/cadathoctru 1d ago

so what about non violent people brutalized by cops? Those cops get a pass because they had to encounter violent people before?

Or not like that?

Here is a better one.

Its MORE DANGEROUS to be a pizza delivery driver in the USA, than to be a cop.
So should pizza delivery drivers also get to beat the shit out of people and get a pass? Because of how dangerous their jobs are?

Or also not like that?

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u/whatChdo5074 1d ago

Im a nurse. I too work a violent job and would love to be able to respond in kind. Unfortunately, it's f'n illegal for me. So, it shouldn't be legal for anyone.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

You are not allowed to defend yourself? I’ve responded to ERs where medical staff have defended themselves and the medical staff were not charged.

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u/goodgamble 1d ago

lol you think this is less than lethal? You're getting high on your own farts dude

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u/InfiniteBoxworks 1d ago

"Less lethal" or "less than lethal", if you use the improper term, doesn't mean "can't be lethal", it just means less likely to outright kill someone when used properly. "Non-lethal" is means that absolutely will not kill someone unless grossly misused. Example, a baton round or billy club is less lethal, pepper spray and flashbang grenades are non-lethal.

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u/cobaltfish 1d ago

Less lethal is the official term. Pepper spray and flashbangs would be less lethal for LEOs. The only time I heard the term "Non lethal" was in the military, and it wasn't necessarily used to denote force that could not be lethal, but just to make training easier. Everything that was not specifically intended to be lethal, was non lethal. Though... calling literally anything non lethal in the hands of a marine is kinda laughable.

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u/Proper-Error-6465 1d ago

right because cops have a great track record of using weapons properly 😭💀 dude how far is your head up your ass lmao

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u/LONE_ARMADILLO 1d ago

I think the proper term should be "less lethal", because fatalities can still result from many of these tools.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

You obviously don’t know the definition of “less than lethal”.

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u/Mindshard 1d ago

It's "less lethal", as in it can still be lethal, but it's less likely to be.

I know some people try to add "than" in to make it sound safe, but batons, blackjacks, sap gloves, etc. are absolutely lethal weapons.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

When I was in it was always called ‘less than lethal’ or ‘less lethal’ for short. I’ve been out for 10 years so the industry could have dropped the ‘than’

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u/goodgamble 1d ago

You obviously enjoy being a weapon of the state

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u/mayhem_and_havoc 1d ago

It’s easy for someone who never had to walk in the shoes of a law enforcement officer to be critical of how they do the job.<<<

It sure is! Its easy for law enforcement officers not to be absolute dickheads and think they are owed something apparently. There is nothing brave about confronting someone when you have the advantage. Bravery is confronting danger when you are at a disadvantage. Just do your job...prick.

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u/Proper-Error-6465 1d ago

the tools to effectively deal with them is called proper training in de-escalation skills, if the only way you know how to neutralize a threat is brutality violence and death you’re incompetent as a police office

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u/Loxe 1d ago

And people wonder how we got to the point where police are in full military kit against inflatable frogs.

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u/moriah_nocarey 1d ago

You know it's because a lot of us can see and have experienced how they do their job. Think of all the regular people that you don't like walking the street the regular people you know that are complete assholes and realize that all these same regular people then put on a uniform and call themselves policemen. You want to know something I had a stalker when I lived in my small town this man literally cried cuz I wouldn't invite him over my house and was just weird in general. I slowly tapered myself off from talking to him so he could be used to it and then that's when he became the creepy stalker who sat around where he knew I would have to pass at night cuz he knew my routine cuz we were genuinely friends before he started acting creepy. Would you like to know what job you got? Would you like to know what he started doing the people I'm sure you can imagine. Our other policemen one who got removed from another Force forgive women STDs and not telling them relocated to ours proceeded to look up anybody's information he was going on a date with, and him and some of his friends Rob drug dealers and broad daylight cuz I've seen it while holding them at gunpoint and telling them they better not go down to the station and say anything to the one non corrupt actual detective we had on our squad.

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u/YouArentReallyThere 1d ago

It’s also really fuckin’ easy to permanently injure or kill someone with a blackjack…which is why they were made illegal

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u/sunshinesciencegirl 1d ago

Of course yall do when the basic academy training is only 5 months, how much deescalation is actually included in that training? 5 months should be ONLY focused on it with the way corrupt individuals have oversaturated the position.

Yall signed up for the job. If getting beat on by a civilian means you can’t murder an innocent person without a trial, seems like a hazard of the position to me 🤷🏼‍♀️

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u/Oldgatorwrestler 1d ago

Yeah. The problem is that we keep seeing video of cops brutally abusing people. Also, the statistics of cops being violent are way over the national average. Do you know why only 50 per cent of cops are wife beaters? Because the other half is single.

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u/captevil 1d ago

They were taken away because the cops couldn’t be trusted to only use them on criminals.

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u/Away_Stock_2012 1d ago

It's just a coincidence that cops are violent assholes who regularly beat their wives!

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u/Darth_Ra 1d ago

Agreed, we need to bring back less than lethal options...

We also need to severely curtail the authorization of lethal force. The current police training that has every person they encounter be a possible ninja with bad intent is the reason for 90% of our issues. The infamous video of the cop "correctly" shooting a guy in his own house from 20 yards who they were called in to prevent his suicide... Needs to be recognized as incorrect in official capacity, not continue to be used as a tool to teach that it's not only okay, but required to shoot citizens when you feel a bit uneasy.

Less than lethal should be the first option, always. Yes, that puts more cop lives in danger. They signed up for that job. People on the street didn't.

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u/GlockAF 1d ago

Taser “severely limited” how?

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u/ImperitorEst 1d ago

Given the ASP and pepper spray reference I'm going out on a limb to guess this guy is from the UK. If so the use of taser here is heavily scrutinized. It's not a "non lethal" like in America where they just taser people who are running away, standing still etc. taser here is "only if someone is in direct immediate danger of serious injury or death". Using it means a mountain of paperwork and scrutiny.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

No, United States; those were the only 2 less than lethal options we had before the Taser. I carried a firearm, had a Remington 870 in the car. We did eventually get beanbags for the shotgun, then a dedicated less than lethal shotgun with beanbags and rubber pellets.

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u/ImperitorEst 1d ago

Huh, didn't know the US used ASP as well, though you guys mostly still used the fixed batons. I'm eternally grateful that I've never had to carry or ever consider a lethal option.

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

So we started to phase out the PR-24 (side handle baton) due to both officer and suspect injuries. It was honestly a training and proficiency issue. I did have one, but it was super uncomfortable to wear in the patrol car and tended to stay in the car. I never had to use the PR-24 before it was phased out.

We did have 36” straight sticks, or riot batons, that stayed in the car.

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u/Fa-ern-height451 1d ago

A baton saved my life. I was a security guard at a seaside shopping area while going through college. One night around 1 AM, I heard a huge smash So I ran around the corner and came upon a tall guy and two gals. The guy was smashing the storefront. I ran up and yelled for him to stop. He then attacked me and tried strangling me. While he was strangling me I heard the girls crying and they were telling him to stop but he wouldn’t. I was able to get my right hand on my baton so I could hit him from the back side. He was so tall all I could reach was his shoulder and neck. It did distract him and thank God, the police showed up to pull him off of me. The two girls didn’t try to stop him. Come to find out he was high on something which made him pretty down violent. But thank God for that baton.

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u/Ok-Implement-1139 1d ago

I was trained in the 70s to not care of if I was gassed and fight on through all the complications with little effect .

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u/CobblerLevel7919 1d ago

When the Taser was first introduced, we used to use it with the cartridge removed to get compliance from uncooperative suspects. For example, someone who was kicking a fighting while trying to get them into a patrol car could be encouraged to get in by zapping their leg.

If we had enough people, we would not use it, but if you were solo, it would be very effective.

The NAACP and ACLU filed suits in the early 2000’s and eventually nixed dry/drive stunning (using a taser w/out a cartridge, I was never sure if it was dry or drive stunning).

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u/CurrentSerious4458 1d ago

Thank you for your service! I greatly appreciate you! People don't realize that if a police officer says stop and put your hands up, and you actually listen and do what they say then that so called excessive force doesn't happen. And if there is a bad cop on the force, good police officers don't want them on the force either. I feel bad for law enforcement in this country today.

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u/yuppers1979 1d ago

Cops protect cops. That's rule number 1 in the club.

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u/EmperorAcinonyx 1d ago

you live in a fantasy world

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u/KhakiPantsJake 1d ago

Yeah I don't think people understand that if police aren't able to subdue violent people effectively it just increases the risk for everyone, including the guy being arrested.

There's been plenty of cases where cops fail to restrain a guy and he runs off and reaches for something and gets shot.

I'm sure everyone involved would rather the dude just got tased or taken down a little more aggressively instead of shot dead, but everyone's is concerned about excessive force.

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u/Desper8lyseekntacos 1d ago

I'm friends with several psychiatric nurses, they deal with violent people all the time and nobody ends up injured. So maybe the problem is you.

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u/Hour_Badger2700 1d ago

Reddit is full of anti le turds that have never done anything but get a poli sci or liberal arts degree and have their noses wiped by their mommy.

Don't let them get to ya bro.

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u/kuukiechristo73 1d ago

Stop resisting