Man faces 20 years in federal prison for pointing laser at sheriff's helicopter

I was involved in the very first prosecution of this nature, was back in '86 or thereabouts. I was facing 20yrs myself with 2 counts of assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer.

The judge determined the laser was NOT a deadly weapon in my case and I was acquitted of all charges. It was never my intention to hurt anyone, if that is the case with this person then he should receive the same treatment, however if he did have malicious intentions then he should go to jail!

another absolutely idiotic thing is giving people under 21 prison sentences of 5-20 years for anything other then rape and murder. Young people are immature and do stupid shit. Way to destroy their fucking lives. Also, charging people under 18 as adults.. people under 18 are even more immature. If you're not going to let them legally drink alcohol, they shouldn't be charged as adults, and certainly shouldn't be spending 20 years in prison at the age of 16. Fucked up prison/justice system we have.

the exception (I know, I'm a racist) would be people who act ghetto. Their culture is such a violent one that I don't think there's any way to save a ghetto person outside of some sort of forced boot camp, which I actually would have nothing against, but ironically would probably end up with lawsuits because of the way the prisoners are treated. Better to rehabilitate with some sort of boot camp then let fester for 20 years and make them into a hardened criminal. I'm talking about military caliber boot camp here, even if it seriously injures the prisoner in the process.. a process of ego breakdown and reorganization... rehabilitation

Yep, Darwins Law.

Preferably into an apartment building full of immigrant babies.

simple solution. don't point lasers at flying aircraft of any sort. Like it or not, the gov't is coming down hard on people who do this sort of thing. Capiche?

lol

let me break it down for the retard breaker down.

Unless it was a military grade laser which it wasn't. Not a chance in hellll you would be able to blind the pilot. He would have to stare at laser direct hit for more than a full second. With lasers available to public he would
have had to have direct stare for several seconds. A moving object... That's not gonna happen.

Go take your defense for the asswhipe
government elsewhere douchebag

I have a green laser I bought so I could point out constellations to loved ones. I hope I never mistakenly point it at a helicopter!

Moran should be sent to prison!!

Too bad he has to be the example but they have to send a message to ALL THE OTHER MORANS.

It's equal to someone standing on your highway at night and pointing a high beam flashlight at your eyes. How long would it take till you drive off the road?

About 5 morans here in central Ohio have been arrested for doing the same thing.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE THESE DAYS??

it is the the same here in Australia. Lots of crap about it in the media.
It started with planes being 'targeted' and then it was pointed out that laser can't bend and hencefore unless you were above the planes it was impossiable to get the pilots in the eyes.
Then the story about helicopters started.
Almost every state here in Australia has had at least one person charged for doing this.
I don't think pointing a laser at a plane/helicopter is a good idea but i do think there is more to this story.

The only thing i have thought of was Dr Steve Geer and others who suggest using lasers to try and make contact with UFO.
I know it may sound odd but not as odd as 20 years for pointing a laser in the sky.

I did notice in the videos that we only seen the laser been pointed at the helicopter in the IR, FlIR.

...but it's so fun to point at helis with strong lasers; what's wrong with simulating a laser weapon? :-)

Stupidity can get you into a lot of trouble. It's stupid to point ANYTHING at the law. I hope they will take into consideration the mental deficiency of this moron with the laser and shorten his sentence.

If the laser work so well, might make SAMs old school

That is bullshit. It is very possible for a person on the ground to shine into a pilot's eyes.
For me this is a very serious issue because you deliberately interfere with the safe operation os an aircraft. A pilot will be distracted, temporarily blinded and he will lose his night vision which won't fully return untill 30 minutes later.

These 2 images demostrate how a laser is seen from the cockpit:
[link to www.pangolin.com]
[link to www.pangolin.com]

Those lasers... They'll blind anyone for attention!

Blinding????? Blinding???? i had a 10W Coherent white light laser and that thing sometimes came in my eye directly while doing shows, and tadaa i was not blind for a second so screw that its a lie........ The police are a bunch of MF IDIOTS

Wow at 52ft it becomes a issue.
Thanks for the image.
Never been only 52 ft from an aircraft while it is flying.

It wasn't a "Laser pointer" those are regulated to a maximum of 5 milli-watts

What he was using was nearly 200 times more powerful and can actually cut a CD case in half.

The laser could have easily blinded the pilot long enough to cause a crash.

Hm, on the other hand it's good to know what a laser pointer can be used for...in case the illuminati/nwo madmen turn on us...they are afraid that we can hit back.

I just wish my green laser pointer had much higher effect making SAMs/RPGs outdated! LOL

at 52 feet it is an eye hazard, resulting in possible eye injuries.
As you can see is already is quite disruptive from a distance of 3700' where is can mask visual aids such as approach lighting. It also causes you to lose your night vision and it can temporarily blind you.

Good on them, every loser, scewball and hoon would be doing this, if there where no harsh penalties.

I agree. Somebody needs to build a machine that gives lashes so you don't have to create a real cold hearted bastard that gets off on it. I think a tatoo on Rapest and Molesters forehead would be a good think too.

Don't ya mean if he had...

Guess he'll need to get rid of his loaded firearm and several law-enforcement-related items.

The world will be so different when he gets out, I can't imagine how free he'll feel in prison with his idealisms floating around in his head.

I've personally witnesses police helos harassing civilians of several occasions. I've read newspaper accounts locally about others being harassed. In South America, assholes like these are being shot down.

The government pretty much stated their position on our republic when they started the war-on-liberty (aka war-on-drugs). To add injury to insult, they started international narcotics trafficking.

This government sux and their fucking Stazi are no better. Keep your cameras close, it's the one thing they hate worse than anything else.

Were you looking thru a night vision system?
Either way they are discouraging this because they have no idea its a laser pointer or an AR15 with a laser sight on it....