He’d be off to cuba for creating WMDs, I bet.

Let’s continue to stiffle every bit of creativity left. We are all just supposed to sit in front of the tv and eat fast food, duh. Govt has it all figured out for us, just give up already.

Also:

From http://members.misty.com/don/kmaxhack.html

“Hacking the Kodak Max Single Use Flash Camera into a Self-Repeating Strobe”

“DANGER - The photoflash in a Kodak Max typically stores 5.4 joules of energy. There is considerable talk in the world that it takes 10 joules to kill someone from a capacitor discharge, but there is also significant scientific opinion the lesser amounts have some chance of being fatal. Critical variables include skin moisture content and distribution and also what point of the heartbeat cycle your heart is in if you get shocked.”

Of course, their bomb also included TANG has one of the components. As in, the astronaut’s drink.

NB: Being part of a war on terra prosecution, this could all be bullshit.

Maybe if you somehow made a sharp point contact with the skin or an arc developed you might get a pinpoint burn, but this would be a fluke.

Given the design shown on the internet. Its a real nasty practical joke. Is it a weapon, not even close. Electrically dangerous, not very, the person is more likely fall down and hurt themselves from being startled. Is it an assault, I’m no lawyer, but I think the cop is blowing smoke out his ass.

Second, when instructions for this modification were posted on the net recently, and the Make Magazine blog linked to it, the comments at the linking site rapidly filled up with, basically, “Holy crap is that a bad idea”. This is a site for people who do hardware hacks and know more about this stuff than, say, a Cato staffer.

In a worst-case scenario, if the charge went in one arm and out the other, it might well be fatal.

I’m not actually sure if this is a case of overcharging.

When did the definition of assault or weapon change? I thought unwanted physical contact was a battery? Was he trying to intimidate or coerce his friend?

Assault:
A crime that occurs when one person tries to physically harm another in a way that makes the person under attack feel immediately threatened. Actual physical contact is not necessary; threatening gestures that would alarm any reasonable person can constitute an assault. Compare battery.

Stacking bogus charges should incur a financial penalty to the police department and or Officer. When you have to defend yourself against a charge that is clearly inappropriate the Police Department should be liable for the expense.

Or wet willies?

Where do we send our letters in support of this kid? Come on, I’m on a roll!

The dumbing down of America, no wonder our country is going to the toilet.

Still, just normal teenage stupidity and criminal charge are overkill. They could have just taken it away and given him detention.

I was zapped by such things as a joke a few times by friends, which might seem to undermine my point, but remember that you can find teenagers playing with Tazers on YouTube.

We all had a pretty good laugh.

Once the kid is arrested and (disproportionately) charged, only two things can happen:

1) he’s convicted and thinks the police are idiots and holds a grudge, or

2) he’s acquitted or charges are dropped and he can prove the police are idiots and holds a grudge.

So when the police are actually working to improve the community, this kid will be useless at encouraging/helping them.

But, hey, it’s worth it to prove that a disposable camera isn’t a toy, right?

Is it really similar to a taser? I’d say it’s more like one of those handshake shock pranks.

“When dealing with electricity, you can cause injury or harm. We want to stress that these aren’t toys,”

It is funny coming from a profession where they routinely act as if being tazered is no big deal.

Ah, the good old days before the drug war and 9/11 . . .