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May 4th is universally celebrated as Star Wars Day by geeks everywhere because of a pun that Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party came up with first. Most celebrations typically include other brands using the opportunity to cross-promote, clogging our social media feeds with the most eye-rolling Photoshopped pictures imaginable. Not to be late to the party, the LAPD's Rampart Division decided to get in on the fracas, posting the above picture on their Facebook feed.
Sure, it's kinda cute that the police wanted to celebrate everybody's favorite six-soon-to-be-at-least-seven part sci-fi saga, but the bowdlerization of police force with awkwardly angled lightsabers is just downright weird. We all know that underneath that red lightsaber is your standard-issue 9mm handgun, as one can see in the undoctored photo. Turning potentially lethal force into a cartoon is such a strange stance for a police force to make. At the very least, we're certain that the scenario in the photo is likely from a training manual of some sort—the photograph looks quite posed.
The funniest part of this, though, is that the Photoshopped picture seems to originate from the L.A.-based bike blog Bikeside in a post making fun of the LAPD. In a post following-up on a crash between a Hummer and a group of bicyclists in DTLA that occurred back in April of 2009, Bikeside took note of a pithy remark from one of the LAPD officers at the scene that inspired the lightsaber picture (rendered by Bikeside associate "erock"):
I urged the police officer that this man was guilty of a crime and claimed to have had a gun, but the police officer told me ”Did you see a gun?” I told him that I believed the man and that I didnt need visual verification to be terrified. The officer then told me quote ”I have a lightsaber, do you believe me?” and walked away.
May the Fourth Be With You, too, Officer.
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