A man cautioned for carrying a bladed trowel in public
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Soldato
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Not at all. I'm not the one who phoned the Police to complain about a gardener.
And according to several other articles he was found by Police outside his own home, trimming his hedges.
I haven't seen any details on how far from his house this allotment is, but given how the caller themselves flagged down the Police and pointed them to the evil gardener's home address, I presume he didn't exactly go mincing through the high street with this 16.7cm blade.
No mention of holding the guy for several hours, before pressuring him to proceed without legal advice.
He had several traditional Japanese tools, as used on and promoted by Gardeners World:
Eight of the best Japanese garden tools in 2023
The best Japanese tools and how to use them.
www.gardenersworld.com
In fact, that Hori Hori tool seems to be all the rage in gardening circles... and most of them wear it on their belt in photos and videos, too.
Soldato
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What outrage?
Am I imagining it.
I'm kinda done saying it is how it is and it's all very avoidable (by covering up) but you got more to say without changing the tune.
You’re clearly outraged about something.
Nope, it’s pretty evident. Why they are so outraged is amusing and confusing in equal measure.
If you look at their posts in other threads, it's very clear that they have massive problem with being told what they can and cannot do, and believe the police should have no powers whatsoever (and then throw a little strop with whoever disagrees with them)
While I agree that the police/state do sometimes overstep their remit, the alternative is anarchy.
Neither is ideal, but if it's a choice between the odd idiot getting in trouble with the law because they thought wearing a belt knife in public was ok VS allowing scumbags to roam the streets with weapons being untouchable by the law because "it's for me allotment bruv innit", I'll take the first option every time.
We have a massive problem with knife crime in this country, and being a soft touch about isn't going to help.
Anyone who uses/carries a knife while out and about should be well versed in the laws and make sure they follow them, otherwise they only have themselves to blame when they fall foul of them.
If you don't agree with the laws, then by all means write to your MP and start campaigning against them, but don't start whining when you decide to ignore them and comes back to bite you.
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Me and a mate got stopped about 30 years ago and asked why he had a big penknife (I don't recall what it was exactly) on his belt.
He was at agricultural college and forget to take it off.
Wasn't a big deal then tbh, coppers said some people feel uneasy about seeing knives so would he mind putting it in his bag.
Put it in his bag and on our way we went.
He was at agricultural college and forget to take it off.
Wasn't a big deal then tbh, coppers said some people feel uneasy about seeing knives so would he mind putting it in his bag.
Put it in his bag and on our way we went.
Soldato
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We have anarchy now, vast numbers of low level crimes are not even attempted to be dealt with. Shoplifting and phone theft in our major cities is an unpoliced crime. Use the wrong pronouns and you're arrested and put on the naughty list. We have a hundred plus stabbings a year in each of our major cities, it's not gardeners doing it.
Having spoken to this man they could have gone "Sir, officially you broke the law, we understand it was unintentional please do not repeat" Or words to that effect. He gets a caution but they won't investigate industrial levels of rape. The police, because of the politicians, do not do their job properly and stories like this reinforce that narrative, law and order has broken down and those paid to do something about it have the wrong priorities.
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I haven't heard someone say 'mincing' in years
which then made me imagine someone flamboyantly 'mincing' up the road with a knife on them 
Man of Honour
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I read somewhere that he wanted to argue the toss about it where he could have had his hand smacked outside his house.
I see this all the time on Police programmes, just accept you were doing wrong.
Soldato
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Looks that way. I merely explained why it was a load of ******** and then made fun of the Karen Cry-bully attitude toward easy-target minor offenders.
Slightly miffed, at best. Nowhere near outraged.
They do not agree with your assertion... nor thy ungendering.
I'm actually in favour of harsher Police action in general, but tempered by common sense and proportion. Sending armed Police to nab some nerdy gardener, and then holding him for so long that he feels pressured into waiving legal advice is not conducive to policing by consent.
Now you're just being silly.
The alternative is the common sense and provision to use judgement in exercising of Police powers.
Why would a scumbag go and buy a £40 gardening implement, when they can get a £5 kitchen knife from just about anywhere?
So we come down hard on innocent and slightly (but understandably) thoughtless gardeners, while allowing murderers and rapists to go unchallenged in case someone wets their pants over the fact that they have an ethnicity...
Anyone who does anything should be aware that people have been taught to cower in fear and be scared of everything, never mind the idea of taking personal responsibility for being a good person.
Is it any wonder knife crime has risen 80% in the last 10 years....
You are aware that I'm not the one who got arrested?
Well there's no doubt now.
Using "they" is ungendering. Sure sure. Everyone knows ttaskmaster specified a pronoun and using "they" to refer to someone in the third person is super new and trendy and not ancient.
It's time for every chip on the shoulder, genders, murderers, rapists, knife crime (the irony), ethnicity.
This case was an ignorant person doubling down on being ignorant by taking a police interview without legal representation. And you think being given a caution is them coming down hard on a muppet.
I was never joking, if you're that upset about the state of the state, your MP is paid to hear all this. You could even turn up wearing a a japanese trowel in a sheath in solidarity to demonstrate how unreasonable the initial matter was.
3" blade on a folding knife that doesn't lock is everyday carry legal.
If you have the landowners permission to be there doing a job you're ok to use a machete (but to tie into the topic, not fine to walk through town with it afterwards).
If you don't have permission, could be better to say nothing but stick to tools that have no legal issues. Or ask and get an answer.
He was trying to hedge his bets but ended up digging himself deeper